LONDON,
(CAIS) -- A team of archaeologists has identified
five burial styles in the Achaemenid city of Pars and the
Sasanid city of Estakhr, located on the outskirts of the
6,000-year-old Rahmatabad Tepe near Pasargadae in the
Marvdasht region of Far Province, an expert working with
the Parseh and Pasargadae Foundation said on Monday.
“The
cities measure 8x8 kilometers and the excavations, which
began in 2003, have resulted in the identification of five
burial styles and the discovery of numerous Achaemenid,
post-Achaemenid, and Sasanid graves in the cities,”
Mohammad-Javad Jafari added.
“Bodies
have been buried in rock tombs, vertical ossuary graves,
horizontal ossuary graves, catacombs, and syrinx-style
tombs,” he explained.
The
post-Achaemenid era began after the collapse of the
Achaemenid dynasty. Local kings ruled Pars (Persis) during the
post-Achaemenid era in a kind of feudal system that was
dominant in the region at the time.
“Rock
tombs, which have also been seen at the ancient site of
Tang-e Bolaghi, are categorized in three types. In the
first type, the rock was specially cut for the burial
place. In the second type, the corpse was placed in a
natural crevice of a partially-cut rock, and in another
form, the dead were buried in natural crevices of the rock
without cutting,” Jafari said.
“The
types of burial in rock tombs indicate the social system
of that time,” he explained, adding that the rock tombs
were carved out for people of high social status and
natural crevices were used for ordinary people.
Most
of the graves had been looted before 2003, when a number
of guards, along with the archaeologists, were finally
sent to the region, in another case of Iranian officials
closing the barn door after the horses have escaped.
Located
140 kilometers north of
Shiraz
, the provincial capital of
Fars
, Rahmatabad Tepe is one of the most significant ancient
sites in the Marvdasht region. The tepe dates to the
Chalcolithic era, like the Tall-e Bakun site on the plain
of Persepolis.
Many
unique artifacts have already been discovered by Iranian
experts at the site during their geophysics surveys.
Estakhr
was a city where Sasanid kings held their coronation
ceremonies. The ancient site was one of the main
ceremonial cities of the Sasanid monarchs.
A
number of Iranian experts are currently preparing a
topographic map of the city in order to document the
130-hectare site more precisely. The latest maps of the
city were prepared by French archaeologists between the
years 1934 and 1937, but they are not very accurate.
Artifacts
from the Achaemenid era to the early Islamic era have also
been found in Estakhr, which is located near the
Achaemenid site of Naqsh-e Rostam.
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Source: MNA
