Covering an area of 40 hectares, Gohar-Tappeh is located near the town of Behshahr. Ruins and other artifacts unearthed in the region indicate that the site dates back to the Iron Age. Four phases of excavations have already been carried out on the site by Iranian archaeologists.
“The new phase of excavations aims to study transition from the Bronze Age to Iron Age at the site,” team director Ali Mahforuzi told the Persian service of CHN on Tuesday.
“We have dug three new trenches at a location that contains burials from both periods. This location was used as a cemetery during the Bronze Age, turning to a burial ground later in the Iron Age. Thus the transition can clearly be observed in the site,” he added.
An archaeobotanist as well as several archaeologists and an expert in metal works from the University College London are working with the team.
Mahforuzi has also requested Tony Wilkinson, a professor at the Durham University’s Department of Archaeology, to join his team. Wilkinson is currently working with another Iranian team in an ancient site near Gorgan, Golestan Province, in northern Iran.
Iranian team had unearthed a skeleton of a warrior buried in an attacking pose with a dagger in his hands, a skeleton of a child and a bronze pendant with a bull-horn motif, and a number of bull statuettes at Gohar-Tappeh during the previous phases of excavations last September and October.
They had also discovered an unidentified artifact in a grave beside a skeleton, which some prominent musicians of Mazandaran believe looks like a clarinet.
MMS/MA
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MNA
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