Morteza Khanipour, the leader of the archeological team, said the Hermangan site located west of Jashnian village in Bavanat county, Fars province, has been discovered in April 2015.
According to him, over 50 per cent of the site has been completely demolished by farmers and only a few parts of it have remained.
“The excavations have so far led to the discovery of two settlement phases,” Khanipour said. “In the older phase, the lack of architecture and the existence of several hearths and scattered ash could be indicative of the nomadic lifestyle of the settlers.”
He went on to add, “on the deposits we discovered stratigraphic architecture including rooms and several other spaces that were painted in white clay, and the walls of two rooms that were painted red by using ocher.”
Due to unauthorized excavation, most of the rooms have been destroyed, thus making it impossible to give an accurate and definite explanation of their functions, he added.
The archeologist noted the discovery of a thermal structure in the trenches that was most probably an open furnace used for clay firing.
“By comparing the potteries obtained from this site to the ones discovered in Mushaki Hill, Jeri Teppe, Bashi, and Kushk-e Hezar, one can say that the site dates back to the Neolithic era of Bashi archeological site and the TMB workshop of Mushaki.”
He went on place Hermangan archeological site somewhere between 8100-7800 BC.
Other unearthed objects during the excavations include stone tools such as microliths which indicate harvesting and agriculture, as well as protoliths that indicate the production of tools inside the settlement.
MS/3721900