TEHRAN The second stage of archeological excavations has been launched to specify the limits of the ancient city of Sharh-e Soukhteh (burned city) in the southeastern Province of Sistan-Baluchestan. The city was erected 3200 years BC and was alive for about a millennium. With a span of 151 hectares, the city is among the most expanded areas at the advent of the urban dwelling phenomenon in the near east.

The hilly land where Shahr-e Soukhteh is located is the largest well-known area and was the main social, political and cultural center throughout southeastern Iran in the fourth to second millennium BC. The remains of the city which embodies four linked residential, central, industrial and cemetery hillsides, is situated 55 km southwest of Zabol, enroute to Zahedan, capital city of Sistan-Baluchestan Province. The unearthed clay water and sewage pipelines and houses and alleys in an orderly shape are all indications to a sound urban planning there.

The discovery of evidences proving performance of the first brain surgery for the treatment of hydrocephaly and wooden pieces of an entertainment device such as chess, all attest to social development of Shahr-e Soukhteh. Apparently, most of the inhabitants of the city were engaged in industrial and trade activities as well as in breeding livestocks, fishing and hunting birds. Shahr-e Soukhteh which reached the peak of its development about 4500 years ago was affected by a severe social-political crisis at the same time and later was destroyed as a result of landslide on the bed of Hirmand River. (IRNA)