GGG Ping.
Seriously, is this going to rewrite history? EG, did the Jirsoftians invent writing or do the Sumerians still have that distinction?
Yeah, and what have you done lately?
The artists had such a naturalistic way of rendering images, says Yousef Madjidzadeh, foreground. It was a style that was not seen anywhere else in that era.
What Was Jiroft?
...I took the pick in my hand and started to help dig out what turned out to be a remarkably well-preserved stamp-seal impression, Madjidzadeh recalls, now back at his home in the Mediterranean port city of Nice, France."
Painstakingly extracting the five-centimeter- (2"-) long rectangle from the trench walls packed clay, the archeologist turned it to the sunlight. Amid faintly inscribed lines and images of human and animal figures, he was amazed to discover what appeared to be an unfamiliar form of writing. To Madjidzadeh, the seal impression came as his first evidence that this ancient citys society was literate."
To be able to say that Jiroft was a historic civilization, not a prehistoric one, is a great advance, he says. Finding writing on that seal impression brought tears to my eyes. Never mind that we cant read itthatll come later.
"...Gray-bearded, easy-going and energetic in his mid-60s, Madjidzadeh is feeling the glow of vindication. A few years after Irans 1979 revolution, he was dismissed as chairman of the department of archeology at Tehran University. After years of self-imposed exile in Nice with his French-born wife, he returned during the intellectual thaw that followed the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami."
The discovery of the Jiroft site came by accident. In 2000, flash floods along the Halil River swept the topsoil off thousands of previously unknown tombs. Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti, deputy head of Irans Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), asked Madjidzadeh to begin excavations because of the archeologists long-standing bullishness on Jirofts significance."
"As the author of a three-volume history of Mesopotamia and a leading Iranian authority on the third millennium BC, Madjidzadeh has long hypothesized that Jiroft is the legendary land of Aratta, a lost Bronze Age kingdom of renown. Its a quest that he began as a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, when in 1976 he published an article proposing that Aratta, which reputedly exported its magnificent crafts to Mesopotamia, was located somewhere in southeastern Iran."
"According to texts dating from around 2100 BC, Aratta was a gaily decorated capital with a citadel whose battlements were fashioned of green lapis lazuli and its lofty towers of bright red brick. Arattas artistic production was so highly regarded that about 2500 BC the Sumerian king Enmerkar sent a message to the ruler of Aratta requesting that artisans and architects be dispatched to his capital, Uruk, to build a temple to honor Inanna, the goddess of fertility and war. Enmerkar addressed his letter to Inanna: Oh sister mine, make Aratta, for Uruks sake, skillfully work gold and silver for me! (Make them cut for me) translucent lapis lazuli in blocks, (Make them prepare for me) electrum and translucent lapis! prayed the Sumerian ruler."
bookmark
New Studies Show Jiroft Was An International Trade Center 5,000 Years Ago
Tehran Times | 12-23-2004
Posted on 12/23/2004 12:39:27 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1307370/posts
New Discoveries in Jiroft May Change History of Civilization
Persian Journal | Jan 26, 2006
Posted on 01/26/2006 2:19:36 PM EST by robowombat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1565596/posts
Ancient Metal Relics Discovered In Jiroft
Persian Journal | 7-19-2006
Posted on 07/20/2006 6:04:59 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669440/posts
Shrouded 5000-Year-Old Child Unearthed In Southeastern Iran
Mehr News | 12-19-2006
Posted on 12/19/2006 5:38:42 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1755931/posts
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Why would Jiroft culture be more significant than Sumerian or Indus Valley, both of which were nearby and older? Not to mention Jericho, older than any of them?
Is this one of those "my culture is better than your culture" thingies?