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LONDON, (CAIS) -- A large prehistoric site has been discovered in the Bam region of southern Iran’s Kerman Province, the Persian service of CHN reported on Sunday.

Covering an area of 300 hectares, it is the largest prehistoric site ever discovered in Iran-proper, said the members of an archaeological team working on the Bam historical citadel.

“The discovery of a prehistoric site in the Bam region is not a strange or unique event. Our country has many such settlements,” team archaeologist Shahram Zare’ said.

“However, the most interesting point is the dimensions and the width of the site,” he noted.

The site is about twice the size of the Burnt City of Sistan va Baluchestan Province, which was previously considered Iran’s largest prehistoric site, Zare’ explained.

“Due to the large number of potshards discovered at the site, it is not difficult to prepare a comparative chronicle for the site, but there are fewer similarities among the motifs painted on the pottery and the examples discovered at the nearby Yahya and Eblis mounds and Bampur site,” he said.

“Some motifs of the shards are reminiscent of the pottery discovered in Fars Province from the Bakun A era (ca. 4000-3500 BCE). A large number of the motifs somewhat resemble the designs on pottery works discovered at the Aliabad site in western Kerman. Thus, it can tentatively be said that the site dates back to the late fourth millennium BCE.”

The site has many low mounds and archaeologists surmise that they are the central part of the settlement.

The most interesting point about the mounds is the fact that in addition to the large number of shards, small pieces of black stone are scattered on the mounds like at the northern part of Sialk Tappeh in Kashan.

“The shards are all prehistoric, well-baked, and buff-coloured. The artifacts are also very hard and all made by hand,” Zare’ said.

The team has discovered pottery works with and without motifs. The earthenware pots and large jars have no ornamental motifs or attachment.

The decorated items feature geometrical, plant, and animal motifs which have been drawn in black on the pottery.

The archaeologists have also discovered a bronze axe blade as well as an earthenware statuette of a cow during their excavations.

Zare’ along with Narges Ahmadi and Mohammad-Taqi Ataii as the team leaders are now working on a project at the Bam Citadel seeking to determine the social atmosphere in which the citadel was established and the key factors behind the development of the citadel.

Covering an area of 180,000 square meters, the Bam Citadel is located 200 kilometres south of the city of Kerman. The Parthian citadel was the world’s largest adobe building before it was almost completely destroyed in an earthquake on December 26, 2003.

It is not clear exactly when the Bam Citadel was built, but it is widely believed that it was originally constructed during the Sassanid dynastic era (224-651 CE). While some surviving structures date to the 12th century and before, most of what remains was built during the Safavid dynasty (1502-1722).

The citadel had been partly renovated several times before the 2003 earthquake.

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