TEHRAN – A team of Iranian, Italian, and Serbian archaeologists has discovered new clues about life in mysterious Burnt City in southeast Iran.

The archaeologists have unearthed novel traces of prehistorical settlements during the 19th archaeological season which is still underway at the UNESCO-registered Burnt city, ISNA reported on Saturday.  

Photos of the discoveries have been released by the headquarters of the World Heritage site, the report said without providing further detail.

“Like previous [archaeological] seasons, we have unearthed a significant number of figurines,” according to Iranian archaeologist Hossein Moradi.

Led by the senior Iranian archaeologist Seyyed-Mansour Seyyed-Sajjadi, the current season of archaeology was commenced on November 19 and it is expected to run for a few weeks to come.

They have so far dug trenches at ruined structures to have access to earlier layers of human occupation.

Called “Shahr-e Sukhteh” in Persian, Burnt City is associated with four rounds of civilization, all burnt down by catastrophic sets of fire. The site is situated in Sistan-Baluchestan province, which was once a junction of Bronze-Age trade routes crossing the Iranian plateau.

Founded around 3200 BC, Burnt City was populated during four main periods up to 1800 BC. Previous rounds of excavations showed that its residents had great skills in weaving, creating fine arts such as decorative objects, stone carving, and pottery painting.

AFM