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5,000 Years Ago, Women Held Power In Burnt City, Iran
Iranian WS ^ | 12-23-2004

Posted on 12/24/2004 11:47:31 AM PST by blam

5000 Years Ago, Women Held Power In Burnt City, Iran

Dec 23, 2004, 11:34
CHN

According to the research by an archeological team in the burnt city, women comprised the most powerful group in this 5000-year-old city.

The archeological team has found a great number of seals in the women's graves. In ancient societies, holding a seal was a sign of power, and was of 2 kinds: personal and governmental.

The burnt city ancient site located in Sistan-Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran, dates back to between 2000 and 3000 BC.

"In the ancient world, there were tools used as a means of economic control. Whoever had these tools at his disposal was among the most powerful people in the society", Mansour Sajjadi, the Iranian archeologist responsible for excavations in the burnt city told CHN.

According to Sajjadi, during the excavations in the burnt city cemetery, 90% of the graves in which the seals were found belonged to women. Only 5% of these seals were found in men's graves.

Sajjadi said, "Since we know that seals were buried with their owners 5000 years ago, it is reasonable to think the most important seals for the economic activities in the burnt city belonged to women. As the men worked as farmers and craftsmen away from the city, they reasonably had to give the seals to women who were always in the city, so that they were able to solve the problems of the city immediately."

After 8 season of research in the burnt city, this 5000-year-old site dating back to 3 or 4000 years ago still holds many secrets within. The burnt city was civilized and developed, and cherished very important ancient crafts including jewelry making and pottery. Last month, the oldest backgammon in the world along with its 60 pieces was unearthed beneath the rubble of this legendary city.



TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 5000; ago; ancienthistory; archaeology; burnt; burntcity; city; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; held; history; iran; power; women; years
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1 posted on 12/24/2004 11:47:32 AM PST by blam
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG Ping.


2 posted on 12/24/2004 11:48:14 AM PST by blam
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To: blam

Amazing, hmmm......and now that region is home to a women hating religion....


3 posted on 12/24/2004 11:56:37 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (A Proud member of Free Republic ~~The New Face of the Fourth Estate since 1996.)
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To: blam

Look at those dice. Very cool.


4 posted on 12/24/2004 11:59:56 AM PST by DoughtyOne (US socialist liberalism would be dead without the help of politicians who claim to be conservat)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Heh heh heh...

Right on!


5 posted on 12/24/2004 12:00:19 PM PST by DoughtyOne (US socialist liberalism would be dead without the help of politicians who claim to be conservat)
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To: blam

grain of salt alert


6 posted on 12/24/2004 12:06:10 PM PST by guitarist (commonsense)
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To: blam

Doesn't surprise me. Looks like things have been going downhill for them since the men took charge.


7 posted on 12/24/2004 12:10:38 PM PST by derllak
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To: blam

Are they saying this was a matriarchy? IIRC, no actual matriarchy has ever been documented, has it?


8 posted on 12/24/2004 12:36:49 PM PST by reformedliberal
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To: guitarist

"grain of salt" is right. I had to check to see if this was April first.


9 posted on 12/24/2004 12:38:37 PM PST by penultimonium
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To: blam; Ernest_at_the_Beach; DoughtyOne; reformedliberal

The lesson is clear. If you let women run your city then your are throwing the dice and can expect to get burnt.


10 posted on 12/24/2004 12:52:51 PM PST by BenLurkin (Big government is still a big problem.)
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To: BenLurkin

LOL, why is it that doesn't sound like a universally acceptable message? Heh heh heh...

Pretty funny.


11 posted on 12/24/2004 12:54:50 PM PST by DoughtyOne (US socialist liberalism would be dead without the help of politicians who claim to be conservat)
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To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SunkenCiv; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 4ConservativeJustices; ...
Burnt? Naturally. They never changed the smoke detector batteries.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

12 posted on 12/24/2004 2:34:49 PM PST by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: reformedliberal

I thought the traditional Hopi were a matriarchial society.


13 posted on 12/24/2004 5:04:03 PM PST by marsh2
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To: marsh2
I think they are matrilineal. IIRC, the mother's brother holds familial power. I am only an amateur in anthropology, so I am not positive of this, but I was in university pre-feminism and do not recall one example of a matriarchy ever presented. Still, matrilineal descent/mother's brother responsible isn't matriarchal any more than in Judaism, which is also matrilineal and where, in ancient times, a woman's brother held responsibility for her if her father and husband were both deceased. In both instances, a male is ultimately responsible.

In many societies, women *rule* within the household, which is not the same as holding the power within the society as a whole. It is my understanding that a truly matriarchal society has been posited, but not found. Of course, it is difficult to determine such things definitively, IMO, when examining ancient cultures that do not still exist.Especially when all they seem to be working from is seals found mostly in female graves.

If a culture is divided along gender roles, with women responsible within their areas and men within theirs, there can be some sort of co-equality, which makes sense and may be what these seals represent. I wonder if they can tell what the seals were used to stamp? Clay? Ink on parchment? Wax? Perhaps they were simply the equivalent of a signature for invoices so the women could take care of household supply while the men were absent. The article states that the men farmed and were craftsmen, away from the city. That seems odd to me. If the men were farming, that is full time, hard labor. It would make more sense if the women were the potters, in that case. Why would potteries, glassworks, weaving, etc be away from the city proper?
14 posted on 12/24/2004 6:07:28 PM PST by reformedliberal
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To: blam
The story steps all over itself. "Women comprised the most powerful group" in the city. On the other hand, the seals were the symbol of authority and were given (by MEN) to the women because the males were away from the city working their crafts. What the heck are they saying?

If the crafty males gave their seals to they women while they were away from the city, that's called delegation. They women were then free to go through all the crummy hassles that they still enjoy today. Women yack. The men got the heck out to have some peace and quiet. As today, women still control what 98% of the men want, and if there is any real power, it is there!

15 posted on 12/25/2004 4:28:19 AM PST by -=Wing_0_Walker=-
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To: -=Wing_0_Walker=-

"On the other hand, the seals were the symbol of authority..."

on still another hand, maybe the seals were just status symbols, otherwise meaningless, like those rings used in the recent past to "raise" the heads of women -- whoever had the most rings won. Of course, it did kill them in time...


16 posted on 12/27/2004 2:04:39 PM PST by SunkenCiv (There's nothing new under the Sun. That accounts for the many quotes used as taglines.)
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To: blam
That is so cool!

I can just imagine people playing backgammon with those die.

This picture seems to induce time travel. ;-)

17 posted on 12/28/2004 3:55:52 PM PST by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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To: SunkenCiv
I was taught Spartan women ran everything, but if so, this info. I Googled doesn't sound all that exciting for either gender. :-)

"Marriage for a Spartan woman was an almost non-ceremonial event.

The woman was abducted in the night by her suitor, her head was shaved, and she was made to wear men's clothing and lye on a straw pallet in the dark.
From there on she would meet with her husband for almost entirely procreative reasons.

If she was formerly a girl, she became a woman through marriage. Any Spartan man could abduct a wife, which led to a system of polyandry (many husbands, one wife or vice versa) in Sparta.

When a child was born, the woman had little to do with it's upbringing, rather nurses handled the child's care (in addition, a female Spartan child was subject to the same tests of strength as a male child.)."

Hmmmm....

18 posted on 12/28/2004 4:10:10 PM PST by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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To: fanfan
:') Yeah, "marriage by capture" is the translation of the term they used. Spartan society was referred to as being ruled by women even in its heyday, but it wasn't. Spartan society grew from some kind of commonplace Greek village into a fetishistic and quite sick police state, which not only treated its children (and citizens in general) quite brutally, it held neighboring peoples in bondage. Eventually the last king of Sparta (who took power through fraud and intrigue) led what was left of an already declining fascism into a series of unnecessary wars against Thebes, which proceeded to wipe the land clean of Spartans. Good riddance. The last (ex-)king wound up serving as a mercenary in Egypt, despite his advanced age, in an effort to raise money to support himself, his troops, and ultimately to restore Sparta. He failed.
The Spartans The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece, from Utopia to Crisis and Collapse
The Spartans
directed by David Portlock
The Spartans:
The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece,
from Utopia to Crisis and Collapse

by Paul Cartledge


19 posted on 12/28/2004 4:38:02 PM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: SunkenCiv
. The last (ex-)king wound up serving as a mercenary in Egypt, despite his advanced age, in an effort to raise money to support himself, his troops, and ultimately to restore Sparta. He failed.

Finally, some good news. :-)

20 posted on 12/28/2004 4:49:24 PM PST by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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