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CAIS
NEWS © Latest
Archaeological and Cultural News of Iran and the Iranian World
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Another Tragedy for Pre-Islamic Iranian Heritage sites is Unfolding at Ramhormuz
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19 April 2009 |
LONDON, (CAIS) -- construction of a school by Ramhormuz Education Department is threatening an ancient site in Khuzestan province.
The site named Mohammad Dolatmand Tappeh is an ancient mound dating back to the
Parthian and Sasanian dynastic eras, the Persian service of CHN reported on
Thursday.
The mound is surrounded by a garden, whose owner had previously donated it for
building a school.
Ramhormuz Municipality began to flatten the mound in 2005, but the project was
stopped in the initial stages following a wave of protests raised by cultural
heritage societies.
“However, the ancient strata are once again being destroyed, as the Ramhormuz
Education Department recently resumed grading the mound,“ Khuzestan Cultural
Heritage Lovers Society (Tariana) spokesman, Mojtaba Gahsotuni, said.
“Bricks bearing the prints of seals dating back to the Achaemenid, Parthian,
Sasanian dynastic periods had previously been unearthed in 2005,“ he said,
adding that the lower strata may contain traces from the Achaemenid dynasty.
The ancient sites of Ramhormuz have been threatened by various projects over the
past few years carried out by the Islamic Republic.
In May 2007, two U-shaped coffins containing skeletons of a girl and a woman,
who are surmised to have been members of an Elamite royal family, were
discovered along with a great number of artifacts during a canal construction
operation at the Jubji site.
Since the construction operations continued even after this extraordinary
discovery, the gravesite has been almost completely obliterated.
Another site in Ramhormuz, which includes the ruins of two Achaemenid palaces,
was almost entirely demolished by a road construction project in 2005.
Over the past few months, about 20 ancient sites, mostly dating back to the
Elamite, Achaemenid and Sasanian dynasties, have been destroyed and looted due
to illegal excavations by smugglers.
Extracted From/Source: Iran Daily [*]
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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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