Tehran, 23 May 2006 (CHN) -- Last week it was announced that the remains of a gigantic palace believed to have belonged to Darius the Great, the Achaemenid king who ordered the construction of Palace of Persepolis in Shiraz, was discovered during the archaeological excavations in Bolaghi Gorge. This very interesting news attracted the public attention and roused a lot of interest among the people both inside and outside the country.
This new discovery disproved some old theories about this ancient site. Prior to this, it was supposed that Bolaghi Gorge was the location of the King Road- the ancient major road built by order of Darius to connect Pasargadae to Persepolis and Susa. However, the recent geophysical studies prove that King Road never passed through Bolaghi Gorge and what was believed to have been the King Road is in fact only the remains of an ancient wall surrounding the Bolaghi Gorge which collapsed over time. Moreover, Mohammad Taghi Atayi, Iranian head of Iranian-Italian joint archaeology team in Bolaghi Gorge said that the fact that this wall was used as a shell keep to enclose Bolaghi Gorge and discovery of the remains of the palace of Darius in Bolaghi Gorge and many other evidence all indicate that Bolaghi Gorge was used as a hunting ground by Darius the Great and other Achaemenid kings some 2500 years ago.
“Last year we conducted a sounding measurment in some parts of what we thought was the King Road to examine the materials used in its construction. During our studies, we found adobe material with a large amount of white grits which for sure could not have been used for strengthening the road,” added Atayi.
According to Atayi, the white grits were not found in other parts of Bolaghi Gorge and most probably they were used for strengthening an important construction.
Archaeological studies on this road show that due to its narrow width and the fact that some parts of it do not have the characteristics of Achaemenid constructions, this part of Bolaghi Gorge which was believed to have been the King Road was used for other purposes.
Rejecting of the theory that Bolaghi Gorge was the location of King Road has brought up two new theories which have been proposed by Atayi and Remy Boucharlat, the French head of Iranian-French joint archaeology team in Bolaghi Gorge. Atayi believes that what was formerly believed to have been the King Road was a long wall which surrounded the valley and discovering the remains of an Achaemenid palace in this historical gorge proves that King Road was in fact a shell-keep for enclosing the area and Bolaghi Gorge was the hunting ground of Achaemenid kings.
On the other hand, Boucharlat believes that King Road was originally an irrigation channel. However, since no remains of sediments have been seen throughout this road yet, this idea has been suspended for now.
“Studies on the path of this road led to new findings about its real identity. What was known as the King Road started from the beginning of the Bolaghi Gorge and after covering the entire valley it ended in its original place. Now the question is, what kind of a road could it be that started and ended in the same place? On the other hand, these excavations resulted in discovery of several walls on the path of the road which in some parts have remained almost intact up to a height of 5 meters. All of these evidences show that ‘King Road’ was only a defensive wall for protecting the area of Bolaghi Gorge,” explained Atayi.
Atayi strongly believes that this discovered palace belonged to Darius the Great and the “King Road” is the remains of the shell-keep of Bolaghi Gorge and this area was used as a hunting ground by Achaemenid kings.
“Discovery of the palace’s pedestal with the Achaemenid-style floorings and its construction on a platform assured us that there must have been a palace belonging to the Achaemenid era in Bolaghi Gorge long before the actual discovery of the palace of Darius the Great. On the other hand, discovering the remains of a large number of clay canteens indicate that this palace was a temporary residential area for the Achaemenid kings who spend a short time there during the hunting season. The remains of clay s in the area also show that some food reservoirs were established in this palace for the soldiers who guarded the palace. Today, we can strongly claim that Bolaghi Gorge was once the hunting ground of Achaemenid kings. Environmental evidence show that this area was much greener than what we see today and some animals used to live here during the ancient times.
Bolaghi Gorge is an endangered historical site in Fars province, near the ancient site of Pasargadea, threatened by the Sivand Dam built in its vicinity. Although the dam is not flooded yet, it is clear that inundation of the dam will drown this historic site almost completely. A large number of archaeological groups from different countries have rushed to the site to save this historic heritage as much as possible. At present, some groups from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and a large number of Iranian archaeologists are busy on the site with the Bolaghi Gorge salvation project.

Tehran, 29 May 2006 (CHN) -- In his latest research paper about the discovered inion in Konar Sandal in Jiroft, Piotr Steinkeller, professor of Assyriology in Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University, explains that there exists no correlation between the inions discovered in Jiroft, Shahdad, and Melian historical sites with the Elamite civilization which itself was under the influence of the civilization of Mesopotamia, and they should be considered as an eastern writing language.
“In his latest paper, Prof. Steinkeller has explained that there should not have been any relation between the discovered inion in Jiroft and Elamite civilization, which itself was under the influence of Mesopotamian civilization. Steinkeller believes that it would be better to throw away this way of thinking and aknowldege the ‘eastern ’ instead of ‘Elamite ,’” said Yousof Majidzadeh, head of excavation team in Jiroft.
The Elamite is known to belong to Khutelutush-In-Shushinak (c. 1120 - 1110 BC), the Elamite king. Experts believe that it is not logical to accept that a nation, who has a writing language itself, abandons its after the conquest of a powerful neighbor and adopt Mesopotamian culture and . They believe that this found its way to Susa from eastern Iran.“
Decoding the discovered inion in Jiroft requires a lot of time. However, archaeologists believe that this must have been more ancient than that of the Elamite civilization. Further archaeological excavations in Jiroft historical site might help researchers to learn more about the identity of this inion. We had two different writing languages in Iran during ancient times: One of them is Proto-Elamite , which was mainly figures and numbers, and the other was writing language which did not use images. Prior to the discovery of Jiroft inion, the most ancient had been found in Susa historical site which has remained from the reign of Khutelutush-In-Shushinak. This inion dates back to 1200 BC, while the Jiroft inion is older than that and is estimated to be between 4400 to 4500 years old,” added Majidzadeh.
Elam is one of the most ancient civilizations on record. It was centered in the far west and southwest of today Iran. The Elamites came in power about 300 years after the fall of the Jiroft Kingdom (5000-3000 BC). The reign of the Elamite kings lasted from 2700 to 539 BC, coming after what is known as the Proto-Elamite period which began around 3200 BC when Susa, the later capital of the Elamites, began to receive influences from the cultures of the Iranian Plateau to the east. “It is believed that Jiroft’s writing language came into existence at the same time Mesopotamia started developing a writing system. According to the carbon 14 tests conducted on the layers in which Jiroft inion was discovered, this inion was dated to 2500 BC. Although such tests have not been carried out on Mesopotamia inion yet, based on the discovered evidence so far, archaeologists strongly believe that Mesopotamia’s goes back to 2600-2700 BC at most,” explained Majidzadeh. The new discoveries during the archaeological excavations in Konar Sandal such as historical inions, the most ancient ziggurat of the world, and many other historical relics have confused archaeologist and confronted them with an unknown civilization in the east. This further led into revisions on some previous archaeological hypotheses.
The city of Jiroft is situated close to Halil Rud historical site in Kerman province. The discovered stone dishes in the area belonging to the first half of the third millennium BC point to the developed art of carving on stones at that time. The second inion that was recently discovered at the Konar Sandal Ziggurat of Jiroft is scheduled to be deciphered by teams of researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Paris. Archaeologists are waiting for the results to come out which may well change the history of civilization as we know today.

Tehran, 24 May 2006 (CHN) -- Following the discovery of the remains of a huge palace which is believed to date back to the Achaemenid era (648-33 BC) and is denoted to Darius the Great, by the Iran-French joint archaeological team at the Bolaghi Gorge in Fars province, archaeological excavations continued in the area which led to unearthing the remains of the palace.
“Prior to this, the remains of a summer residential palace belonging to the Achaemenid era was identified in area no. 85. However, archaeological excavations show that this palace was destructed due to the later constructions during the Sassanid and Safavid periods. Moreover, we were able to find the remains of an estimated 900-square-meter palace which for sure must have belonged to the Achaemenid kings and for some unknown reason was destroyed by bulldozers,” said Mohammad Taghi Atayi, Iranian head of Iran-France archaeological team in Bolaghi Gorge in the one-day Bolaghi Gorge archaeology seminar which was held today in National Museum of Iran with the attendance of heads of Iranian and foreign archaeological teams active at the Bolaghi Gorge.
Discovery of the base of a pillar and the platform of the palace assured archaeologists that this palace must have belonged to the Achaemenid era. According to Atayi, archaeologists have succeeded in saving some parts of the palace; however other parts of the palace such as the base of the pillars have been destroyed by bulldozers.
In this one day summit, Remy Boucharlat, the French head of Iranian-French joint archaeological team in Bolaghi Gorge, issued his report on their accomplishments in Bolaghi Gorge and the discovery of the Achaemenid palace in this historical site.
Among other participants in this one day seminar were heads of archaeological teams in historical sites of Kalat Qafkhaneh in Shahrud, Pardis Tepe in Varamin, Sang Tarashan in Khoram Abad, Chehr Abad salt mine in Zanjan, and Bandian Dargaz in Khorasan. The participants presented their reports on their archaeological findings across Iran. However, the main focus of this seminar was on the discoveries of the Bolaghi Gorge area, especially the newly discovered palace of Darius the Great.
Excavations at the Bolaghi Gorge started almost two years ago with the aim of saving the remains of archaeological evidence before the inundation of the nearby Sivand Dam. Currently, some groups from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and a large number of Iranian archaeologists are busy on the site with the Bolaghi Gorge salvation project.

Tehran, 25 May 2006 (CHN) -- Latest archaeological excavations at the Bolaghi Gorge historical site in Fars province led to discovery of the skeletons of a mother and her child who were buried in a joint grave some 7000 years ago. With this new discovery, the number of the discovered skeletons in Bolaghi Gorge reached to eight.
“The skeleton of the mother was found buried on her side with the baby embraced in her arms. These skeletons belong to the Bacon era, some 7000 years ago, and were discovered in the residential area of Bolaghi Gorge. The gender of the mother was determined during our studies, however we are not yet sure about that of the child,” said Mojgan Seyedein, Iranian head of Iran-German joint archaeology team in Bolaghi Gorge.
Prior to this, the grave of a girl, a mass grave with disordered skeletons of three people, and the complete skeleton of a young man had already been discovered in Bolaghi Gorge. All of these graves date back to the fifth millennium BC.
According to Seyedein, with the discovery of the grave of the mother and her baby, the number of the graves discovered in Bolaghi Gorge reached the number eight. She also said that all the discovered skeletons have been transferred to Parse-Pasargadae Research Center for further studies.
Iranian-German joint archaeological team has continued its excavations in Bolaghi Gorge historical site since winter 2006 under the supervision of Mojgan Seyedein from Iran and Barbara Helwing from Germany. They discovered some areas belonging to the Bacon era which were settlement areas of the inhabitants of Bolaghi Gorge some 7000 years ago.
The 18-kilometer Bolaghi Gorge is located 9 kilometers from the world heritage site of Pasargadae and is considered part of its landscape. Archaeological excavations started in Bolaghi Gorge when it was announced that the inundation of the newly constructed Sivand Dam would pose a real threat to Bolaghi Gorge and all the archaeological evidence which have been unearthed so far in this historical site. The salvation project in Bolaghi Gorge started with the engagement of eight international teams more than a year ago and continues to this day.

Tehran, 25 May 2006 (CHN) -- Archaeological excavations and geophysical studies by the joint Iranian-French team in Fars province led to unearthing of an irrigation channel belonging to the Achaemenid era (648-330 BC) in an area between Persepolis and the city of Estakhr (pool) in Fars province.
“The remains of an irrigation channel belonging to the Achaemenid era have been discovered in the northern part of Persepolis which according to geophysical studies must have continued to the Estakhr city. Archaeological evidence shows that this channel was constructed using natural elements. However, in some parts the channel was blocked by hard cliffs but the people of the time scraped the stone and by using rubbles they constructed the path of the channel to direct the water of Polvar (Sivand) River to Marvdasht Plain where the ancient palace of Persepolis is located,” said Mohammad Feizkhah, Iranian head of Iranian-French archaeology team in Marvdasht, Fars province.
Last year the remains of another irrigation channel had been discovered in Persepolis which was used to collect water in the palace. However, this new discovered channel is longer than the previous one. “This channel is 4 kilometers in length and is considered a long channel considering the time during which it was constructed and the limited facilities that were available at that time. The channel started from Polvar River with a steep slope and the closer it got to Persepolis, the less steep it became which indicates that the purpose of its constructors was to speed up the transferring of water to Persepolis during that time,” added Feizkhah.
Archaeological excavations in Marvdasht Plain in Fars province are currently being carried out by a joint Iranian-French team. Moreover, a geophysical map is being prepared by experts which would help the archaeologists to get more familiar with the area near Persepolis. Last year this team succeeded in discovering some residential settlement areas belonging to the Achaemenid era in this region. Discovery of a big dam belonging to the same period was one of the other prominent accomplishments of this team of archaeologists and experts in this historical area.

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