Archeology - Articles

From: Nima Kasraie [mailto:nima53@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 12:22 AM
To: suggestion@iran-heritage.org; mala@teacher.com
Subject: An article for publication

Teppe Sialk, on the verge of oblivion

Upon visiting the oldest ziggurat in the world, one is only greeted with the solitary sound of dusty wind gusts. Here, tucked away in the suburbs of Kashan, sits the 7500 year old ziggurat of Sialk, a testament to ancient civilizations that flourished in Iran long before the Egyptian or Greek cultures blossomed. Like many other ruins in Iran, unfortunately, what is left of this super ancient edifice is only a big pile of crumbling bricks.

This author is well familiar with the efforts of dozens of ( http://www.knoxheritage.org/links.htm )

historic preservation institutions, historic neighborhood organizations, historical societies, and local, state, and federal organizations based in Knoxville, Tennessee, that preserve and protect the heritage of eastern Tennessee. These institutions will do what it takes to make sure that a humble house built in the 1920s will receive historic overlay zoning, and come under the protection of the law.

In Sialk, on the other hand, we see is a sign saying: "Lotfan be ashyaa' dast nazaneed" (please do not touch excavated items), and next to it another sign saying: "items excavated here belong to stone age". When the chair sitting guard isn't looking, one can easily lift the rope where the sign hangs from, and sneak a few pieces of millennia old ceramics, spear heads, or other items into their pockets. The guard wont care if you climb on top of the crumbling ziggurat itself, and while walking behind the ziggurat you can enjoy how it feels to kick 7 thousand year old mud bricks to rubble. You can even ask the guard to let you see the "off limit" 5500 year old skeletons unearthed at the foot of the ziggurat.

Built by the Elamite civilization, Teppe Sialk was first excavated by a team of European archeologists in the 1930s. Like the thousands of other Iranian historical ruins, the treasures excavated here eventually found their way to museums such as The Louvre,
The British Museum ( http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/hixclient.exe?_IXDB_=compass&_IXSR_
=bs2&_IXSS_=_IXFPFX_%3d%252e%252e%252fcompass%252fgraphical%252ffull%252f%26_IXsearchterm
%3dsialk%26%257bUPPER%257d%253av2_free_text_tindex%3dsialk%26_IXDB_%3dcompass
%26_IXNOMATCHES_%3d%252e%252e%252fcompass%252fgraphical%252fno_matches
%252ehtml%26%2524%2b%2528with%2bv2_searchable_index%2529%2bsort%3d%252e&_IXFIRST_=2
&_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXSPFX_=graphical/full/&_IXsearchter m=sialk&submit-button=summary )

, The New York Metropolitan Museum ( http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=3&viewMode=0&item=59%2E52 )

, and private collectors. What little is left of the two Sialk ziggurats today is now threatened by the ever encroaching suburb housing developments. It is not uncommon to see kids playing soccer amid the ruins of Sialk. One cannot help but imagine that if Sialk were located in Tennessee, the ziggurat would have been fully preserved by 3 layers of vacuum sealed Mission Impossible type weathering protection systems, if not rebuilt and restored altogether like the cathedrals in Europe. Hollywood would have also probably built several movies out of it, using the monument as a device to further publicize the antiquity and sophistication of western civilization.

The significance of the scientific and cultural achievements of The Elamites and their influence on other civilizations can be better understood when we learn that according to some scholars the first wheeled pitcher (or wheeled roller) is known to have been invented by the Elamites. Furthermore, the first arched roof and its covering, which are very important techniques in architecture were invented by the Elamites, and used in the mausoleum of Tepti-ahar around 1360 B.C. (unearthed in the excavations made at Haft Tappeh) nearly 1,500 years before such arches were used by the Romans.

But the painful reality is that Sialk is just one of thousands of structures of antiquity in Iran plundered by colonialists, thieves, incompetent ignorant authorities, and time itself. Only the more famous ones come to attention when threatened, and a select few come under the protection of UNESCO.

Other ancient structures of Persian heritage are not so lucky. The Sialk ziggurat at least has a guard or two protecting it, and Iran National Heritage Organization (hopefully) pays for the rope that supposedly prevents visitors from stealing the numerous excavated pieces. Others like the massive Sasanian era citadel of Naareen Ghal'eh (see picture) in Naeen have turned into a garbage dump by the locals. And many many others fare even worse than that.

Protecting such heritage is a crucial duty for everyone. Sometimes I feel ashamed when I hear about Italian or Japanese authorities voicing concern over the preservation of buildings in Iran. What are we doing? Turning ancient caravansarais into bus repair garages for TBT and IranPeyma.

If there is one reason why Persian culture has managed to survive thousands of years of change and onslaught, it is because of the vast inheritance that we are now so easily giving away. The destruction of our monuments from Taq-I-Kasra near Baghdad to the tombs of Bukhara and Samarqand are only one facet of this tragedy. The least we can do here in America, is document our culture by publishing articles, making websites, creating databases of information, photographs, and the fine arts, and spread the word around by calling for the help of other fellow Americans of Iranian heritage