Bronze and Iron Age shaft graves discovered in central Iran

The Public Relations Office of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT) quoted Mohsen Javari, one of the supervisors of the exploration team, as saying on Monday that the third season of explorations in the Estark area in Joshaqan in Kashan are currently underway.

Credit: RICHT

He added: “This season of archaeological explorations in the Estark area is underway with a summer school and in the presence international professors from the University of Warsaw, including Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, Yvan Schimck and Matthew William, a Geneticist from the Centre for Ancient DNA of the Adelaide University and 10 students from the US, Italy, Iran, and so on.”

Javari further remarked that the current archaeological explorations are underway in two areas, in one of which 10 shaft graves were discovered used as what appear to be family burials that included infants.

Javari also noted that eight graves had been looted in the past, probably to obtain bronze objects, but that the pottery had not been removed from the graves, and which showed that the cemetery had been in use for 600 to 800 years, from the Bronze up to the Iron Age. He added that in the second area, so far two shaft graves have been discovered thus far.

Artefacts recovered from the excavated graves include grey pottery ware, sealstones and beads made of stone and agate, metal objects including spears, bangles, earrings, as well as cloth and head pins made of bronze.

Among the noticeable discoveries of the current exploration season he referred to the discovery of a container with the remains of three legs of sheep or goat which were buried next to the head of the deceased, adding that two years ago a case similar to this was discovered in Khorasan.

He concluded by saying that the summer school was held with the collaboration of the Archaeology Research Center and Kashan University and presence of the faculty members and students of Kashan University helped accomplishment of the third season of explorations in Estark area in Joshaqan.

Source: Research Institute and Cultural Heritage and Tourism [September 27, 2018]

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