TEHRAN – Archaeologists have found the ruins of a stoneware workshop, estimated to date from the third millennium BC, during their recent excavations conducted in Jiroft, which is known as a cradle of civilization in southern Iran.

A team of archaeologists from the University of Tehran has discovered a wide variety of stone vessels and stone ornamentations from the site of Hajjiabad-Varamin in Jiroft, IRNA reported on Monday.

Evidence suggests that a kind of recycling operation is practiced in the workshop, according to archaeologist Nasir Eskandari-Damaneh, the report said.

Seemingly, the stone containers and objects that were used or broken by people were not thrown away in Jiroft, but their broken pieces were brought to the production workshop to make smaller containers and objects such as beads and pendants, the archaeologist stated.

Jiroft, a fertile plain situated in Iran’s Kerman province, is a splendid cradle of civilization, which dates from the Early Bronze Age (late 3rd millennium BC). Geological factors have led to it being overlooked for years by tourists and archeologists, who have generally been more interested in Mesopotamia some 1,000 km away.

Jiroft is surrounded by mountains on three sides, rising some 4,000 meters high. Many Iranian and foreign experts see the findings in Jiroft as signs of civilization, as great as Sumer and ancient Mesopotamia.

Nobody ever imagined that a sophisticated lost culture could reappear from the sands of a remote and arid region in southeast Iran before the very early 21st century.

The story began when heavy floods in Jiroft's Bronze Age cemetery swept the topsoil off thousands of previously undiscovered tombs. Jiroft's impressive discoveries compelled a reevaluation of an earlier theory that Mesopotamia was the birthplace of civilization.

Unique items such as jewelry, weapons, finely crafted ceramics, drinking utensils, and game boards with unusual artistry and magnificent inlays of carnelian and lapis lazuli quickly made their way to antique markets for sale.

These extraordinary works featured intricate animal figures, both domestic and wild, fighting among themselves or with human figures, with humanity always coming out on top. There were exquisitely rendered bucolic scenes of animals grazing in vast palm groves and architectural replicas of temples or palaces.

AFM