Elamite Jar Burial Transferred to Museum for Safekeeping

I hope it will be safe in the museum; you never know what the fundamentalist nut-cases who are running Iran may do. They've already flooded out countless ancient Persian ruins with their "dam building" projects and bulldozed others into rubble with their "road building" projects. Still others have been vandalized by bajis - the asshole thugs who think their shit doesn't stink. Ha! I've written about the Iranian government's deliberate destruction of pre-Islamic Persian culture many times in this blog. This was reported by CAIS from a report on Mehr News: Elamite Jar Burial Transferred to Haft-Tappeh Museum Wednesday, 01 July 2009 00:00 LONDON, (CAIS) -- Iran’s most intact jar burial, which dates back to the Elamite era, was transferred to the Haft-Tappeh Museum last week. Containing a skeleton in fetal position, the jar was discovered during the latest excavation carried out several months ago at Haft-Tappeh, a major Elamite site near Susa in Khuzestan Province, the Persian service of CHN reported on Tuesday. “This is the first time such an intact jar burial has been unearthed,” director of the Restoration Department of the Haft-Tappeh and Chogha Zanbil Center Kazem Borhani said. “Urgent actions were taken to preserve the artefact in situ in order to safely transfer it to the centre for restoration,” he stated. A piece of the jar has been removed to enable visitors to see the skeleton inside it, Borhani explained. An anthropologist has begun a series of studies to determine the gender of the skeleton, which is believed to date back to the Middle Elamite period (c. 1500-1100 BCE).

Blast from the Past: Joobji Female Burials

May, 2007 discovery back in the news: From Press TV Iran's Joobji relics, rare artifacts Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:01:08 GMT Iranian archeologists say relics found at the country's Joobji archeological site are among the rarest of their kind in the world. “Several coffins, bronze crockery, braziers and golden buttons were found at the site which are considered exceptional in kind,” Joobji archeology team director, Arman Shishehgar announced at Iran's 10th International Archaeology Conference. The relics were found in an Elamite tomb, which was discovered during construction work in 2007. The tomb was mostly ruined and its stone structure was buried in a mound, 230 meters above sea level. According to Shishehgar, two bronze coffins were found in the tomb, with the skeletal remains of two women that were buried facing north. Archeologists also found rings, bracelets, armlets and brooches in the coffins, which are similar in make to Achaemenid era jewelry. Excavations also yielded a white faience seal, bearing a human image which resembles the seals found in western Iran and Susa. Joobji archeological site is located in the ancient city of Ramhormoz in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province. Iran's 10th International Archaeology Conference is being held in the country's southern city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan Province. TE/HGH

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An earlier story from May, 2008:Ramhormoz graves may be Elamite royal burials: experts Tehran Times Culture Desk TEHRAN -- A team of archaeologists studying two graves discovered in the city of Ramhormoz in southern Iran said that they bear their remains of a girl and a woman who were most likely members of an Elamite royal family. The team led by Arman Shishegar was assigned to carry out a series of rescue excavations in the Jubji region of the city in Khuzestan Province in May 2007 after the Khuzestan Water and Waste Water Company stumbled on two U-shaped coffins containing skeletons of a girl and a woman along with a great number of artifacts during a grading operation. The girl was about 17 years old and the woman was between 30 and 35 years old at the time of death, Shishegar told the Persian service of CHN on Tuesday. The girl was discovered wearing a golden bracelet embellished with pieces of agate on her wrist. The bracelet bears the female name Ani-Numa. During the rescue excavations, the archaeologists found five rings of power among the coffins’ artifacts, which were usually used by royals in Mesopotamia. [Note: The Islamists in control of the Iranian government would NOT have been thrilled by this evidence of pre-Islamic "cultural contamination"]. One of the rings, which bears the name of King Shutruk-Nahhunte of Elam (c. 1185–c. 1155 BC) in a cuneiform inscription was previously surmised to belong to the king, but Farzan Foruzanfar, an anthropologist of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO), rejected the theory during his latest studies, Shishegar said. Due to the large quantity of valuable artifacts found in the coffins, the archaeologists believe that the girl and the woman had most likely been Shutruk-Nahhunte’s relatives or family members, he added. Another of the five rings, which bears a cuneiform inscription, was handed over to two ancient languages experts but their studies led to different results. One of them deciphered the inscription as a female name but the other said it was the name of a local official. According to Shishegar, the divergence of opinions is a result of the deformed shape of the ring. Since the grading operation was continued even after the extraordinary discovery, the graves’ site has been almost completely bulldozed. [Islamists hard at work destroying evidence of prior Iranian culture and civilization]. A golden armlet with floral motifs, two golden bracelets bearing deer-head patterns at each end, some ornamental stones with floral decorations, 155 golden buttons of various sizes, several statuettes of goddesses, a golden necklace, golden plaques with floral motifs, 99 golden necklace beads, 23 golden necklace pendants of various sizes, three marble stone dishes, earthenware and bronze dishes, several bronze bracelets, a fish-shaped goddess ornament, and a number of other artifacts have been discovered at the site. All the relics were transferred to Tehran to be stored at the National Museum of Iran. Shishegar said the items are currently in danger, but the report did not provide any explanation of his statement. [Duh! Of course they're in danger - of being sold on the illegal antiquities market and being substituted with inferior copies.] Photo: One of the five rings of power discovered in the Jubji region of Ramhormoz, Khuzestan Province - WRONG! This is NOT a finger ring, given the obvious size of the depicted object, it is an arm bracelet.

Female Graves Might be Elamite Royalty

From MehrNews.com Ramhormoz graves may be Elamite royal burials: experts TEHRAN, May 20 (MNA) -- A team of archaeologists studying two graves discovered in the city of Ramhormoz in southern Iran said that they bear their remains of a girl and a woman who were most likely members of an Elamite royal family. The team led by Arman Shishegar was assigned to carry out a series of rescue excavations in the Jubji region of the city in Khuzestan Province in May 2007 after the Khuzestan Water and Waste Water Company stumbled on two U-shaped coffins containing skeletons of a girl and a woman along with a great number of artifacts during a grading operation. The girl was about 17 years old and the woman was between 30 and 35 years old at the time of death, Shishegar told the Persian service of CHN on Tuesday. The girl was discovered wearing a golden bracelet embellished with pieces of agate on her wrist. The bracelet bears the female name Ani-Numa. During the rescue excavations, the archaeologists found five rings of power among the coffins’ artifacts, which were usually used by royals in Mesopotamia. One of the rings, which bears the name of King Shutruk-Nahhunte of Elam (c. 1185–c. 1155 BC) in a cuneiform inscription was previously surmised to belong to the king, but Farzan Foruzanfar, an anthropologist of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO), rejected the theory during his latest studies, Shishegar said. Due to the large quantity of valuable artifacts found in the coffins, the archaeologists believe that the girl and the woman had most likely been Shutruk-Nahhunte’s relatives or family members, he added. Another of the five rings, which bears a cuneiform inscription, was handed over to two ancient languages experts but their studies led to different results. One of them deciphered the inscription as a female name but the other said it was the name of a local official. According to Shishegar, the divergence of opinions is a result of the deformed shape of the ring. Since the grading operation was continued even after the extraordinary discovery, the graves’ site has been almost completely bulldozed. A golden armlet with floral motifs, two golden bracelets bearing deer-head patterns at each end, some ornamental stones with floral decorations, 155 golden buttons of various sizes, several statuettes of goddesses, a golden necklace, golden plaques with floral motifs, 99 golden necklace beads, 23 golden necklace pendants of various sizes, three marble stone dishes, earthenware and bronze dishes, several bronze bracelets, a fish-shaped goddess ornament, and a number of other artifacts have been discovered at the site. [I wonder how much was stolen that the archaeologists never saw?] All the relics were transferred to Tehran to be stored at the National Museum of Iran. Shishegar said the items are currently in danger, but the report did not provide any explanation of his statement. ************************************************************************************ The current regime in control of Iran are barbarians. Notice this quote from the article: the grading operation was continued even after the extraordinary discovery, the graves’ site has been almost completely bulldozed. Such continued, deliberate destruction could only be sanctioned by the highest levels of government, wiping out evidence of Iran's pre-Islamic past (and perhaps prior evidence of looting) and any chance for future archaeologists to piece together the history of the site in its original context. Arman Shishegar is a very brave man. Will the Revolutionary Guard make him pay for that last statement in the article about the artifacts recovered being in danger? You betcha. But we won't ever hear about it.