You might find these two articles in The Guardian from today interesting as well.
Apologies if they have already been posted:
End of the vine
The Islamic revolution abolished Iran's ancient tradition of wine-making but the residents of Khollar are showing some bottle, writes Robert Tait
Wednesday October 12, 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1590302,00.html
Also this:
Persia in pieces
British Museum director Neil MacGregor introduces five objects that tell the story of the largest political unit the world, in 500BC, had ever seen
See a gallery of the artefacts here
Wednesday October 12, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1589965,00.html
"Scientists have provided a more precise explanation. They analysed six containers discovered more than two decades ago in Hajji Firuz Tepe, a Neolithic village in the Zagros mountains, and concluded that wine was being made in Iran as far back as 7,000 years ago - 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the ancient practice is forbidden by the strictures of Islamic rule."