According to a recent press release (to IRNA) from Khuzestan Cultural Heritage Lovers Society, researchers have come across what seems to be a 7,000-year-old cemetery in Behbahan County, in Iran’s Khuzestan Province. The exact location of the site lies at Tel Chegah-e Sofla, with the primary discovery being made by Abbas Moghaddam, a senior archaeologist. Interestingly, the experts after some preliminary analysis, have identified two patterns of graves, with some pertaining to collective burials and a few also relating to individual burials. Furthermore, they are hoping that a more detailed assessment can shed some light into the funerary practices and even lifestyle of people who inhabited this region in the prehistoric times.
Unfortunately, we do not have much information about the identities of the people who dwelt in the site around 7,000 years ago. Now in historical (or rather ‘pre-historical’) terms, there are evidences of how early agricultural communities (like Chogha Golan and Chogha Bonut) thrived in Iran, circa 10th-8th millennium BC. To that end, the famed site of Susa in Khuzestan province probably started out as a small Neolithic village by 7000 BC. And by 5th millennium BC (a period which corresponds to this cemetery), the once-tiny village had transformed and evolved into an expansive urban area that paved the way for later civilizations.
Cave painting in Doushe cave, Lorestan, Iran, circa 8th millennium BC.
And after almost two-thousand years, Susa became the cultural center of the proto-Elamites who carved the first known organized kingdom in Iran before the arrival of Eurasian nomads. This coincided with writing systems and pottery designs that had some influences from Uruk, the largest Mesopotamian city-state of the time. However Susa (or Susiana) still maintained its independence from the political sphere of proximate Mesopotamian urban states, until the arrival of Sargon the Great who founded the Akkadian Empire in approximately 2330 BC.
Silver cup from Marvdasht, Iran, circa 16th century BC.
Via: IRNA
8,000 Bc cave painting in Iran. Was of the understanding there has been no evidence anywhere of horse domestication or riding until the 2500 BC on the Pontic steppes. This cave painting shows horse rider with saddle and bridle. See book, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language- Anthony pg193-204 and the evidence for bit wear etc as opposed to just hunting or keeping stock for meat. Suggest someones dating is off.