Achaemenid Inscription Discovered in Southern Iran

Residents of the village of Shifteh stumbled upon the tablet at an Achaemenid dynastic site that was discovered near the village in mid March, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.

Bearing some figures and large cuneiform inscriptions written on its two sides, the tablet weighs eight kilograms.

“The Khuzestan Cultural Heritage Lovers Society (Tariana) was informed about the discovery as soon as the locals found the tablet and afterwards, it was transferred to the Ramhormoz Cultural Heritage Office,” Tariana spokesman Mojtaba Gahestuni told CHN.

“Initial examination determined that the artefact dates to the Achaemenid dynastic era (550-330 BCE) and the cuneiform inscription is similar to those being extracted from a mine in the Rud-e Zard region (near Ramhormoz),” he added.

The inscription has not been deciphered yet.

The Achaemenid dynastic site, which includes ruins of two Achaemenid palaces, is located on a mound that is traversed by a road built upon it four years ago.

Only the ruins of four columns of the palaces remain as most of the structures on the mound were demolished during the construction of the road by the Islamic Republic Road and Transport, and the news of the destruction was kept secret.

According the villagers, traces of 18 columns of the palaces were observable at the site before construction of the road began.

In May 2007, two U-shaped coffins containing skeletons of a girl and a woman, who are surmised to have been members of the royal family, were discovered along with a great number of artefacts during a grading operation by the Khuzestan Water and Waste Water Company in Ramhormoz.

Since the grading operation continued even after this extraordinary discovery, the gravesite has been almost completely obliterated.

Extracted From/Source: Mehr News [*]