TEHRAN—Archaeologists have found a site east of Tehran, which is full of fossilized remains.

According to Iranian archaeologist Qasem Rahimi, a dense fossil site has been discovered a few kilometers east of Tehran, ILNA reported on Monday.

“Archaeologists identified this site in a routine survey of ancient sites. Now, we are planning to conduct extensive research to discover more details,” Rahmani said.

Reminded of other similar sites previously discovered near the Iranian capital, he said: “Over the past couple of years, archaeologist colleagues had found similar fossil sites in the neighboring cities of Tehran, such as Damavand, Firuzkuh, and Pardis.”

The site covers some 500 meters with a very good geological layer, where there is an abundance of fossils of marine organisms (shellfish species and ammonites).

Studies have commenced on a number of the recently discovered fossils, he said. “We are now conducting scientific studies on these new findings.”

Furthermore, Rahimi pointed out that a team of archaeologists has been tasked to prepare and collect the documents from the site, which

The distribution of fossils in this area is very high, as it can be said that there are hundreds of fossils in one centimeter.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the archaeologist said: “We are now in the test phase, that is why we say further news will be announced after the tests are done.”

Moreover, the archaeologist said similar sites have been discovered across the county so far. “For instance, a very rich bone site was found accidentally a few years ago during a construction project on the Lorestan- Aleshtar road.”

“Following a field investigation, we realized the discovery of a site full of animal bones, and we even saw signs of the presence of a dagger-toothed tiger. We did and came across the remains of a creature that lived some six million years ago.”

Essentially, archaeologists work on sites whenever they are related to humans or humans are involved. If it is associated with non-human fossils, it will be in charge of the geological organization, Rahimi explained.

According to the available data, the first well-documented evidence of human habitation on the Iranian Plateau was found in several excavated cave and rock shelters, located mainly in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, dating to the Middle Palaeolithic or Mousterian period (c. 100,000 BC).

From the Caspian in the northwest to Baluchestan in the southeast, the Iranian plateau extends for close to 2,000 km. The land encompasses the greater part of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan west of the Indus River, containing some 3,700,000 square kilometers. Despite being called a “plateau”, it is far from flat but contains several mountain ranges, the highest peak being Damavand in the Alborz mountain range at 5610 m, and the Dasht-e Loot east of Kerman in Central Iran, falling below 300 m.

Experts say that by 7,000 BC, sowing and harvesting reached Mesopotamia, and there, in the super fertile soil just north of the Persian Gulf, Sumerian ingenuity systematized it and scaled it up. By 6000 BC, farming was entrenched on the banks of the Nile River. About this time, agriculture was developed independently in the Far East, probably in China, with rice rather than wheat as the primary crop.

Because of agriculture, cities, as well as trade relations between different regions and groups of people, developed, further enabling the advancement of human societies and cultures. Agriculture has been an important aspect of economics throughout the centuries before and after the Industrial Revolution. Sustainable development of world food supplies impacts the long-term survival of the species, so care must be taken to ensure that agricultural methods remain in harmony with the environment.

AM