Science 7 November 2003:Vol. 302. no. 5647, pp. 973 - 974DOI: 10.1126/science.302.5647.973BRONZE AGE FIND:Jiroft Discovery Stuns ArchaeologistsAndrew Lawler
Researchers had long suspected that a Bronze Age civilization flourished between Mesopotamia and the Indus River. Now a huge haul of stone vessels has pinpointed it to Jiroft
TEHRAN--Destitute villagers in southeastern Iran have uncovered what appears to be a Bronze Age civilization that flourished between ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia and Harappa in the Indus River Valley more than 4000 years ago. Scholars already had hints of a mysterious society in the region, but the new find nails down its heartland along the banks of the Halil River. The discovery of hundreds of stone vessels and massive architecture near the town of Jiroft opens a new chapter in Iranian and Middle Eastern archaeology. "From now on, we must speak of before and after Jiroft," says Harvard University archaeologist Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky.
But there are currently more questions than answers. Much of the evidence of this new civilization--hundreds of intricately carved stone vessels--is locked up in a regional police station after being seized as contraband from illegal digs. Scientific excavations have only just begun, and Iranian officials anticipate years of work involving an international team of researchers from many disciplines. But the revelation of a large and vibrant Bronze Age society is sending ripples of excitement through archaeological circles. "It is like a new Indus Valley, a new Nile Valley," Masoud Azarnoush, director of Iran's Archaeological Research Center in Tehran, said in an interview with Science in his Tehran office. "This new discovery puts Iran in the center of civilization and cultural activities in the 3rd millennium B.C.E."
This rich agricultural area north of the Hormuz Strait is bordered by deserts and is feverishly hot in the summer. But it seems that the ancient Jiroft people lived here in large numbers and specialized in making vessels covered in unfamiliar iconography and semiprecious stones. Made of chlorite, a dark stone that is easy to carve but wears slowly, the objects portray a bewildering variety of plants, buildings, and half-animal, half-human figures including strange scorpion men and kneeling women between horned animals. They also depict the outlines of monumental buildings resembling ziggurats, and archaeologists may be close to finding examples of such buildings. The legal excavation conducted earlier this year at Jiroft exposed part of a huge building or fortress, 30 meters by 62 meters, protected by a massive wall, says Yousef Majidzadeh, the Iranian-born archaeologist in charge of the dig.
CREDIT: YOUSEF MAJIDZADEH AND ALI BANI ASADI
The vessels from around Jiroft are reminiscent of those previously found scattered throughout the region. "There was obviously tremendous cultural activity in this area, since small numbers of manufactured pieces similar to the ones from Jiroft are found over a vast area, from the Persian Gulf to Central Asia," says Azarnoush. These artifacts--although usually devoid of carving--have turned up in the Royal Tombs of Ur, the Sumerian city of Mari in today's Syria, and the Arabian Peninsula. A few pieces have been found as far north as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Scholars had guessed that this region was the source, and Lamberg-Karlovsky found one manufacturing center at nearby Tepe Yahya during the 1970s. But the sheer number of vessels from Jiroft as well as the massive number of large mounds make it the likely central homeland, Lamberg-Karlovsky says. Because the Jiroft material was looted, the date and authenticity of the vessels are open to dispute; the artifacts themselves are impounded by the courts in Kerman. But many Iranian and foreign archaeologists and art historians who have examined the objects or photographs date them to mid-3rd millennium B.C.E. based on similar vessels found elsewhere.
Well traveled. Stone vessels like those found at Jiroft have also turned up everywhere from Uzbekistan to the Arabian Peninsula.
CREDIT: YOUSEF MAJIDZADEH AND ALI BANI ASADI
Azarnoush ordered a survey last year when he heard about massive looting in the area, and excavations began this year. "We hope to be able to find the center of production of these goods," he says. During the intense heat of summer, a survey team examined the sources of the Halil in the northern mountains to ascertain the boundaries of this civilization; this winter, a team led by Majidzadeh will resume digging.
They have quite a task ahead of them: Azarnoush estimates that there are nearly 300 tells, or mounds, in the area yet to be examined. "The first excavation hints at huge cities, 100 square hectares in size," marvels Jean Perrot, who led French digs at Susa before the revolution. Majidzadeh says, "This area covers 400 square kilometers and had some cultural political unity." But much of the material is buried under 3 to 4 meters of sedimentation, say Iranian archaeologists.
The origins and demise of the Jiroft people are obscure, although some scholars suspect they might have influenced the Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex, which developed to the north in later centuries (see p.
979). "This is another Bronze Age civilization comparable to the Indus and Mesopotamia, but smaller in scale and less complex," says Holly Pittman, an art historian at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "It will be extremely important."
The prospect of revealing Jiroft's secrets excites researchers. "This is going to be one of the major excavations in the next 10 years," says retired archaeologist Robert Dyson of the University of Pennsylvania. "This changes fundamentally our understanding of southeast Iran," adds Lamberg-Karlovsky. "And it is something quite new."
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