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.CAIS NEWS© ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS OF THE IRANIAN WORLD |
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Archaeologists in Search of More Ancient Inscriptions in Jiroft
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06 November 2007 |
LONDON,
(CAIS) -- A
team of archaeologists led by Professor Yusef Majidzadeh are working at
5000-year-old site in the hope of finding further artefacts bearing
inscriptions.
The
team was accompanied for this excavation season by several French and Italian
archaeologists along with a number of Iranian students.
During
the past five phases of excavation Majidzadeh’s previous team had discovered
four brick inscriptions which they unearthed in one of the present-day
villager’s homes. Majidzadeh hopes to find another collection of brick
inscriptions at the site.
Located
next to the Halil-Rud River in the southern Iranian province of Kerman, Jiroft
came into the spotlight nearly six years ago when reports surfaced of extensive
illegal excavations being carried out by local people who went on to plunder
priceless historical items.
Since
2002, Professor Majidzadeh has conducted five excavation seasons leading to the
discovery of a ziggurat made of more than four million mud bricks dating back to
circa 2200 BCE.
Many
ancient ruins and interesting artefacts have been retrieved by archaeologists
from the ancient site of Jiroft, which is known as the “archaeologists lost
heaven”.
After
numerous unique discoveries had been made in the region, Majidzadeh declared
Jiroft to be the cradle of art. Many scholars questioned this theory due to the
fact that no writings had been discovered at the site, but shortly afterwards
his team discovered inscriptions at the Konar-Sandal Ziggurat, which caused
experts to reconsider their views on Jiroft.
The
Konar-Sandal inscriptions are older than the Inshushinak inscription, thus it
seems that the recently discovered inscriptions link the Proto Elamite script
(first appeared circa 2900 BCE in Susa) with the Old Elamite scripts (used
between about 2250 and 2220 BCE).
Many
Iranian and international experts consider the Jiroft findings to be evidence of
the former existence of a civilization as great as that of Sumer or ancient
Mesopotamia. Majidzadeh believes that Jiroft is the ancient city of Aratta,
which was described in a Sumerian clay inscription as an impressive
civilization. In December 2007, he suggested that archaeologists use the term
Proto-Iranian instead of Proto-Elamite for the pre-cuneiform script found at
several sites.
He
argued that the inscriptions recently discovered at Konar-Sandal and at some
other ancient sites in Iran are older than the oldest inscriptions, such as the
Inshushinak, found at Elamite sites.
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Extracted From/Source*: Mehr News
*Please
note
the above-news is NOT a "copy & paste" version from
the mentioned-source. The news/article above has been modified with
the following interventions by CAIS:
Spelling corrections; -Rectification and correction of
the historical facts and data; - Providing additional historical
information within the text; -Removing
any unnecessary, irrelevant & repetitive information.
All these measures have been taken in order to ensure that the published news provided by CAIS is coherent, transparent, accurate and suitable for academics and cultural enthusiasts who visit the CAIS website.
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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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