CAIS

The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies

[ Home ]

[ About CAIS ]

[ Articles ]

[ Daily News ]

[ News Archive ]

[ Announcements ]

[ CAIS Seminars ]

[ Image Library ]

[ Copyright ]

[ Disclaimer ]

[ Submission ]

[ Search ]

[ Contact Us ]

[ Links ]

LONDON, (CAIS) -- Excavations by archaeologists at the historic site of Konar Sandal in Jiroft, Kerman province, resulted in the discovery of two inscribed tablets belonging to the first half of the third millennium BCE, raising the number of the discovered historic 5000-year-old inscriptions in this area to four.

Announcing this news, professor Yousef Majidzadeh, head of the team of archaeologists in Konar Sandal, said that the two tablets, one measuring 18 by 10 centimetres and the other 13.5 by 8.5 centimetres, were unearthed 300 meters north of the southern hill of Konar Sandal in the house yard of a local farmers.

Regarding the age of the newly found inscriptions, Majidzadeh explained: “Although they are both dated to the first half of the third millennium BCE, initial studies revealed that one is older than the other which undoubtedly points to continuation of the use of this type of script in southeast Iran.”

According to this leading Iranian archaeologist, one of the tablets bears five lines of script while the other one has six. Moreover, one line of script can be seen carved on the back of each tablet.

Majidzadeh further said that images taken from the two tablets were sent to France to be studied by experts of Elamite language and civilization such as the French epigrapher François Vallat. “We hope the two tablets could help experts and historians decipher more symbolic codes,” added head of Jirof excavation team.

Two inscriptions had earlier been found toward the end of the previous excavation season in Konar Sandal’s ziggurat in the same area the newly discovered tablets were unearthed. This ziggurat, a temple tower in the shape of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories, also belongs to the first half of the third millennium BCE and is one to three centuries older than the oldest ziggurat in Mesopotamia which is commonly believed to have been home to the most ancient civilization of the world.

Elamite kings ruled over Iran between 3400 BCE and 550 BCE BCE. Evidence of the civilization that lived under their rule abounds in historic sites of Jiroft and elsewhere in present-day Iran.  

Based on the two inscriptions found earlier in Konar Sandal’s Ziggurat, archaeologists believe that Jiroft was the origin of Elamite written language where the writing system developed first and was then spread across the country and reached Susa. The recent discovery once again proves existence of a rich civilization in Jiroft during the third millennium BCE.

The city of Jiroft is situated close to Halil Rud historical site on the basin of a river by the same name. Abundant historic evidence has so far been observed in Halil Rud region in the recent years, indicating that it was one of the first places where civilization and urbanization were established.

Discovery of four inscriptions dating back to the third millennium BCE, evidence of urbanization as well as architectural remains of a fortress and a massive religious monument belonging to the civilization that flourished along Halil Rud River in Jiroft historical site are among the most outstanding achievements by archaeologists in the past two excavation seasons, giving them clues to the ancient civilization of Halil Rud region.

Please use your "Back" button (top left) to return to the previous page

Copyright © 1998-2009 The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS)