TEHRAN – Bodies of ancient infants along with thousands of relics unearthed near a UNESCO-registered citadel in southern Iran will go on public display in near future.

“Bodies of infants and relics such as over 200,000 pieces of valuable pottery which were found in Arg-e Bam will go on show in an archaeological museum that is currently under construction in the quake-stricken citadel in Kerman province,” the director of the World Heritage site said on Thursday. 

Moreover, objects dating back from the Neolithic period to the Islamic era will be shown in prehistoric, pre-Islamic, and Islamic galleries of the museum, ILNA quoted Mohsen Qasemi as saying on Thursday. 

Everything that has been discovered in the Bam citadel and its cultural landscape over the years, and everything acquired during the last 18 years following the earthquake will be displayed in this museum, the official added. 

Covering an area of 1,200 square meters, the museum is being established in collaboration with Bam Municipality, the noted. 

The origins of the citadel can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (6th to 4th centuries BC) and even beyond. The heyday of the citadel was from the 7th to 11th centuries, being at the crossroads of important trade routes and known for the production of silk and cotton garments.

The citadel, which contains the governor’s quarters and the fortified residential area, forms the central focus of a vast cultural landscape, which is marked by a series of forts and citadels, now in ruins. The existence of life in the oasis was based on the underground irrigation canals, the qanats, of which Bam has preserved some of the earliest evidence in Iran and which continue to function till the present time.

According to UNESCO, Arg-e Bam is the most representative example of a fortified medieval town built in vernacular technique using mud layers (Chineh), sun-dried mud bricks (khesht), and vaulted and domed structures.

Bam and its Cultural Landscape represents an outstanding example of an ancient fortified settlement that developed around the Iranian central plateau and is an exceptional testimony to the development of a trading settlement in the desert environment of the Central Asian region. This impressive construction undoubtedly represents the climax and is the most important achievement of its type not only in the area of Bam but also in a much wider cultural region of Western Asia.

The cultural landscape of Bam is an important representation of the interaction between man and nature and retains a rich resource of ancient canalizations, settlements, and forts as landmarks and as tangible evidence of the evolution of the area.

The big and sprawling Kerman province has been a cultural melting pot since antiquity, blending Persians with subcontinental tribe dwellers. It is home to myriad historical sites and scenic landscapes such as Bazaar-e Sartasari, Jabalieh Dome, Ganjali Khan Bathhouse, Malek Jameh Mosque, and Shahdad Desert to name a few.

ABU/AFM