TEHRAN – Iran has invited Italian experts to join the 19th archaeological season of the UNESCO-designated Burnt City to be commenced within a month.

“We have made necessary arrangements for the participation of an Italian team,” Sistan-Balushestan’s tourism chief said on Monday.

“[Iranian team] headed by archaeologist Seyyed-Mansour Seyyed-Sajjadi is getting prepared to start the 19th archaeological season on Shahr-e Sukhteh (Burnt City) within a month,” Alireza Jalalzaei said.

Last year, teams of Iranian, Italian, and Serbian archaeologists discovered ruined settlements and fresh clues about life in Burnt City.

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

According to the UN cultural body, changes in water courses and climate change led to the eventual abandonment of the city in the early second millennium. The structures, burial grounds, and a large number of significant artifacts unearthed there and their well-preserved state due to the dry desert climate make this site a rich source of information regarding the emergence of complex societies and contacts between them in the third millennium BC.

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, and creating fine arts such as decorative objects, stone carving, and pottery painting.

AFM