Posted on 11/16/2004 4:45:22 PM PST by blam
Ancient Iranian site shows Mesopotamia-like civilisation
[World News]: Tehran, Nov 16 : Shellfish is not seen on most Iranians dining tables but it was part of the daily diet of the inhabitants of ancient Jiroft in southern Iran 5,000 years ago that showed the existence of an ancient civilisation.
Jiroft, located in Kerman province, is one of the richest historical areas in the world, with ruins and artefacts dating back to the third millennium BC and with over 100 historical sites located along the approximately 400 km of the Halil Rood riverbank, according to Mehr news agency.
Many Iranian and foreign experts see the findings in Jiroft as signs of a civilization as great as Sumerian and ancient Mesopotamian. They believe that Jiroft is the ancient city of Aratta that was described as a great civilization in an Iraqi clay inscription.
Jiroft came into the spotlight nearly three years ago when reports of extensive illegal excavation and plundering of priceless historical items of the area by local people surfaced.
Despite being 180 km from the sea, shellfish was a common meal in ancient Jiroft, said Iranian paleozoologist Marjan Shakur, who currently teaches at the Sorbonne in France.
"The remains of over 70 different types of shells were discovered and identified during the recent excavations at the historical site of Jiroft," he said.
"At least seven types of the discovered shells were edible, showing that Jiroft residents were in the habit of eating shellfish 5,000 years ago and they were used for decoration as well."
The discovery, according to him, proved that the residents of Jiroft had commercial exchanges with coastal regions of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman despite the distances.
"The review and analysis of the shells conducted by the Museum of Natural Science in France and their comparison with modern Persian Gulf species show that some of the discovered shells are no longer found in the region, proving that they are extinct." Since 2002, two excavation seasons have been carried out at the Jiroft site leading to the discovery of a ziggurat, or terraced pyramid, made of more than four million mud bricks dating back to about 2300 BC.
--Indo-Asian News Service
GGG Ping.
pong
well, now that you mention it....................lol
I once knew an Iranian woman. She was from the line of high aristocracy and is a limousine liberal in a true sense.
She was always so proud of Persian civilization, which was fine with me. However, she got quite defensive whenever Sumerian civilization was mentioned. In those occasions, she never forgot to insist that all Mesopotamian civilizations were Persian. She was definitely overreaching.
Now I hope that this new findings may make her less defensive.:)
It's true though.
Am I the only one who notices how much this fails to follow?
They found 63 types of shell that aren't edible. That would appear to prove that shells got there for a reason besides eating. Maybe the sea wasn't where they think it was, then. Maybe sea shells were money. Maybe collectors collected collections. None of which have anything to do with eating.
Dr Stephen Oppenheimer, in his book, Eden In The East, makes a compelling case for the refugees from Sundaland being the driving force behind all the Middle East civilisations.
As does Dr Robert Schoch in his book, Voyages Of The Pyramid Builders.
You know, if you are part of the crew digging the site and ask too many inconvenient questions like you did, you could be dropped by the archeologist(s) in charge.
Just hail the boss.:)
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What I'm wondering is how they got from shellfish to the conclusion that this was a civilization comparable to Mesopotamia's? The only indication of civilization I see in the article is the ziggurat mentioned in the last sentence, but that alone doesn't seem to justify the claim of the headline.
Interesting.
Iran has a salvage but noble history. Up to a few years ago, I think the qanats (man-made underground aqueducts) supplied something like 60% of the water supply for Tehran.
And I have read that in ancient times, they would dig huge pits, line them with straw. Caravans of camels would haul ice down from the mountains in the spring, the ice was covered.
The nobles would still have ice for their drinks in August.
It was a tragedy that the city of Bam was almost destroyed. There was alot of architectural marvels there.
Don't worry, my father claims everything was at one time invited by Iranians.
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