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.CAIS NEWS© ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS OF THE IRANIAN WORLD |
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Another Catastrophe Descends on Cultural Heritage in Hamedan Province
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18 April 2007 |
Edited by Shapour Suren-Pahlav
LONDON, (CAIS) -- As the Islamic Republic's Energy Ministry recently began filling the Sivand Dam reservoir in the ancient Bolaghi Valley, the Kalan Dam project is also rubbing salt into the wounds of cultural heritage near Malayer, southwestern Hamedan Province.
A
team of Iranian archaeologists has been carrying out rescue excavations since
March 1 on a 22-meter high mound named Patappeh, the Shatt-e Ghileh site, and a
number of other ancient sites, all of which will be submerged by the dam’s
reservoir.
With
a length of 826 meters and a height of 46 meters, the earth dam is being
constructed 30 kilometres southwest of Malayer.
“Fourteen
ancient sites have been identified during the initial studies, which lasted 20
days,” team director Hassan Rezvani told the Persian service of CHN on
Tuesday.
“This
is the first time that rescue excavations have been carried out on a Tappeh of
such a height in Iran, and according to our plan, the operations will be
completed in the next two years,” he added.
“The
main part of the Tappeh includes ruins and a castle dating back to the Parthian
and Sasanian dynastic eras. However, studies on strata show that the Tappeh had
been inhabited since the fourth millennium BCE,” Rezvani explained.
“Several
10x10 meter trenches have been dug at Patappeh, and traces dating from the
post-Sasanian period have been discovered during the excavations. In addition,
the ruins of a Sasanian castle can be clearly observed in the stairstep
trenches,” he added.
The
excavations are being sponsored by the officials of the dam.
Iran’s
cultural heritage has been greatly threatened by Islamic regime's dam
construction projects over the past few years, in a systematic attempt to wipe
out the traces of Pre-Islamic Iranian heritage.
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"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
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Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
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