Archaeologists discover 6000-year-old rocky habitation in Jiroft region

From: http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=1/20/2005&Cat=10&Num=1

20/01/05

Tehran Times Culture DeskTEHRAN (MNA) -- Iranian archaeologists recently discovered a 6000-year-old rocky habitation with more than 800 cells in the Barez Mountains, east of the Halil-Rud River in southern Kerman Province, the director of the archaeological team working in the Halil-Rud River area said on Wednesday.

“The rocky village is located at a height of 250 meters with two and four square meter cells. The habitation is Iran’s most ancient rock residence ever discovered,” Davud Abyan added.

The Jiroft region was one of the first places where civilization and urbanization were established.

The Halil-Rud plains are covered with over 100,000 ancient shards, but no written documents identifying the ancient inhabitants of the region have been discovered yet.

“We surmise that the people of ancient Jiroft lived in the rocky habitation,” Abyan said.

Last week, Abyan announced that his team had discovered the ruins of a once prosperous Islamic city near the town of Anbarabad in the Halil-Rud region.

They had also excavated a major industrial center dating back to approximately 3000 B.C. in Anbarabad. During the recent studies, kilns and the ruins of pottery workshops and several other workshops which manufactured brass and marble products were also discovered in the center, which covers an area of 30,000 square meters.

Unfortunately, smugglers have also been making illegal excavations at the Jiroft site over the past few months.

Last summer, several packages containing over 100 artifacts smuggled from the Jiroft site to Britain were discovered at London’s Heathrow Airport. Airport customs officials handed over 30 of the artifacts to the Iranian Embassy in London last November and December.