Posted on 07/27/2006 11:28:05 AM PDT by blam
88 cuneiform inscriptions discovered at Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat
Tehran Times Culture Desk
TEHRAN -- Eighty-eight brick inscriptions were recently discovered at the 3250-year-old Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat in southwestern Irans Khuzestan Province, the Persian service of CHN reported on Wednesday.
A team of experts restoring the middle section of the ziggurat discovered the cuneiform inscriptions on the northeastern and southeastern walls.
Only a few of the inscriptions are intact. The inscriptions were discovered when the workers were removing rubble from the bases of the walls, team director Bijan Heidarizadeh said.
French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman had said nothing about the inscriptions in his studies on the ziggurat, he added.
With 300 papers and 20 books published, Ghirshman (18951979) was one of the most prolific and respected experts on ancient Iran. His studies on Chogha Zanbil have been printed in four volumes, which are still the most reliable sources on the ziggurat.
The team also discovered a drainspout in the ziggurat. The discovery disproves the theory posed in Ghirshmans studies on the distances between the drainspouts of the ziggurat.
Chogha Zanbil was long considered the only surviving ziggurat in Iran, but excavations of Konar Sandal at the Jiroft ancient site in the southern Iranian province of Kerman have revealed that it is another ziggurat.
Chogha Zanbil is a major remnant of the Elamite civilization, which was constructed in the Elamite city of Dur Untash. It is located near Susa, the ancient capital of Elam, and was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978.
Built about 1250 BC under the direction of the Elamite ruler Untash-Gal during the Middle Elamite period (c. 1500c. 1000 BC), the complex was dedicated to Inshushinak (Insusinak), the bull-god of Susa. The square base of the ziggurat, 344 feet (105 meters) on each side, was built principally of brick and cement. It now stands 80 feet (24 meters) high, less than half its estimated original height.
GGG Ping.
In further news, the inscriptions appear to say, "Bush's fault".
They say, "For good time call......."
File that under "wow" with a capital "W"!
Do you have any idea what this means?!?
The inscriptions were discovered when the workers were removing rubble from the bases of the walls,
They say "This side up."
I ... I can't believe it. Ghirshman ... was wrong?
Presumably the differential distances in downspouts caused probelms with their prefabricated gutter guards.
You know at least one of them said "here I sit broken hearted..."
.....and one says, "The king is a fink!".........
They must have used aluminum instead of vinyl..........
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...picture of the temple tower, seen from the west. It must be stressed that this building is in Khuzestan, ancient Elam. From a geological, climatological, and ethnological point of view, we're no longer in Iran, but on the plains of the rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Karkheh, and Dez. In other words, we're in Mesopotamia.
http://www.livius.org/a/iran/chogha_zanbil/cz.html
fascinating...and this is more fascinating.
http://www.elam.com/
Fascinating article. Thank you.
The inscriptions probably said, "Frenchmen Suck!"
That ziggurat actually looks like a trendy piece of modern architecture.
The link to the Tehran Times (at top of article) no longer has the original article available. I would have liked to have seen a photo of the inscriptions.
Good heavens......If Ghirshman was wrong it knocks the underpinnings out from ALL of our assumptions.
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