Posted on 11/29/2013 6:41:58 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A team of Iranian and Italian archaeologists has unearthed ruins of an ancient temple in an Elymais site in the Kaleh Chendar region in southwestern Iran, the Iranian director of the team announced on Saturday.
Most parts of the structure have been built with large stones without mortar in form of a broad platform like those built at Persepolis, Jafar Mehrkian told the Persian service of CHN.
The structure also includes platforms made of brick, which were usually built in the ancient temples, he added.
Vito Messina of the University of Turin and a number of his colleagues accompanied the team during the excavation intended to gather information about the Elymais period, about which little is known in Iranian history, he stated.
According to Britannica, Elymais was an ancient Parthian vassal state located east of the lower Tigris River and usually considered part of the larger district of Susiana.
It incorporated much of the area of the biblical region of Elam, approximately equivalent to the modern region of Khuzestan, Iran.
Though the capital city of Susa belonged to Elymais, it seems to have been administered by a Persian satrap. The heart of the kingdom centered near the mountains of Lorestan near modern Behbehan and Izeh, where the local dynasty left rock reliefs and inscriptions in a form of Aramaic.
The dynasty seems to have been founded by Kamnaskires, known from coins dated 81 BC. The kingdom, though seldom mentioned, survived until its extinction by the Sassanid king Ardashir I (reigned 224241 CE)...
This season of excavation was carried out based on a five-year agreement between Iran and Italy under the auspices of the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research and the Archaeological Excavations and Research Center of Turin.
Illegal excavations by artifact smugglers are currently threatening the site.
(Excerpt) Read more at tehrantimes.com ...
Part of the ruins of an ancient temple, which has recently been discovered in an Elymais site in the Kaleh Chendar region in southwestern Iran (CHN/Hassan Zohuri)
Thanks for this post related to biblical region of Elam.
Hopefully the Muslims won’t blow it up like they did the ancient statues in Afghanistan.
Archeologisst should quit working ancient sites in Muslim countries as their discoveries may be destroyed by religious fanatics as were the magnificent Bhudda statues in Bamayan in Afghanistan.
They should wait and see if this cycle of radically conservative Islam is semi=permanent or if the Muslims will eventually embrace the modern world or return to their own dark ages.
Looking forward to future ruins and shrines to nuclear pasts.
Pre-islamic architecture gives the lie to claims of islam’s antiquity.
The Ellie May period was in the 60s, I believe. Her father, Jed, was shootin’ at some food when up from the ground came some bubblin’ crude.
Man, you beat me to it.
Hopefully the Muslims wont blow it up like they did the ancient statues in Afghanistan.
You know they will, if it is not a mosque it is a insult to allah and must be destroyed. That is of course how the muslims show the world their true intelligence and advanced society.
Thanks for the ping.
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