Wednesday, March 16, 2005
This Day:

Tang-e Bolaghi (Fars Province, Iran) is situated some 4 kilometers from Pasargadae, the first capital of the Achaemenids (about 550-330 B.C.) and the residence of Cyrus the Great (the first ruler of the Achaemenids). Pasargadae was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List last July; its palaces, gardens, and the mausoleum of Cyrus are outstanding examples of the first phase of royal Achaemenid art and architecture and exceptional testimonies of Persian civilization.

Village Walls, Tang-e Bolaghi (Courtesy: IranMania)
Sadly, some 129 ancient sites in Tang-e Bolaghi will be flooded by the waters of the Sivand Dam by March 2006. A team of Iranian and foreign (Italian, Polish, Japanese, French, German, and Australian) archaeologists were rushed in to save and document the sites. Earlier this month, they found a huge Achaemenid era jug (weighing 50 kilograms!), and also identified some architecture of the homes of the ordinary people during that period.
During the excavations, archaeologists discovered a yard with three rooms around it, which was the style of architecture of ordinary people’s houses in the Achaemenid era. According to the director of the team, Alireza Asgari, the house has a central yard surrounded by several rooms 4 and 5 square meters in area, constructed with cobblestones as well as cut stones. Tang-e Bolaghi is located near the imperial route during this era, and thus might provide a lot of information about the lifestyles during those times.
Tang-e Bolaghi also contains sites from the Neolithic and Paleolithic periods, the middle and late Elamite era (2700-645 B.C.), and the Sassanid era (224-651 C.E.). Archaeologists had also identified 80 sites in the region from the Epipaleolithic period (20,000-10,000 B.C.), including 13 caves and four rock shelters. According to experts, only a small part of the area can be studied before it is devoured by the dam, and at least four years is needed to save the artifacts and gather information at the ancient site. But if the dam is in business by 2006, many sites will be submerged before they are even properly studied :-(:-(.

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8 Comments:

At March 17, 2005 3:58 AM, Blogger Sray said...
True. Similar problems are faced by China and India as well. It is the perennial battle between modernization and preservation of nature/history.
 
At March 17, 2005 8:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...
I just can hope that the international community is spending enough money at least to finance a good documentation of the site! Of course it is a pitty how many cultural heritage each year is washed away under the water of new dam projects world wide!
 
At March 17, 2005 9:33 AM, Blogger Wayne Smallman said...
It's a shame.

I understand the same thing happened in Turkey, as well.

It's always amazing to see what levels of sophistication these people enjoyed.

I recently learned that a Roman-era communal toilet had wash basins and revolving door .. presumably to spare blushes, keep the smell in and the flies out...
 
At March 17, 2005 11:45 AM, Blogger Sray said...
Matthias Ripp: Thanks for visiting! I dont think so... there is not much awareness of the problem at all. Also, this documentation thing is hardly a consolation :-(.

Wayne: It is happening everywhere. I am really saddened by all of it.
 
At March 17, 2005 12:13 PM, Blogger Tupinambah said...
Here we are !
I wonder why these countries and their historical cultures i.e Iran - the first nation to establish Human Rights through King Dario or even more sadly, the Iraq case are being left to oblivion...
Sad, sad news...
 
At March 17, 2005 12:29 PM, Blogger Sray said...
Yeah, I totally forgot about Iraq.. that is a whole another book :-(:-(. For example, U.S. military using artefact-laden earth to fill its sandbags... grrrrrrrrrrrr :-(.
 
At March 17, 2005 1:19 PM, Blogger Sray said...
I think she meant Darius-I, who ruled from 521 to 485 BC. Most of the things known about him come from the inscriptions of Behistun (kind of Rosetta stone for ancient Persia). He was one of finest proponents of Zoroastrianism, and was one of the last great kings of the old Persian Empire. After him, the empire slowly fell apart, and the destruction was complete by the time Alexander rode through.
 
At March 18, 2005 9:51 PM, Blogger Sray said...
I would say it was Hammurabi, with his codes in 1780 BCE. Many of the texts in the Old Testament bear direct resemblance to his codes.
 

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