N EWS F OCUS region around Persepolis and Pasagardae “If it is done as now planned, it will be an ad- start,” says Barbara Helwing of Berlin’s Ger- near Shiraz. The Pasagardae Research vantage to cultural heritage,” says Gholshan. man Archaeological Institute, who has sev- Foundation was set up in August 2001 and “But if ICHO is somehow subordinate to eral seasons at Arisman under her belt. “Just is funded to the tune of $300,000 annually tourism, then it would be a disadvantage.” having scholars here to explain new ideas is by a host of government groups. “We want already very important.” to become a model for other major sites,” Still, she adds, “you says its director, M. H. Taliebian, who adds can’t predict anything that he is negotiating joint efforts with the here.” And for those Louvre, the British Museum, and other for- who want to start dig- eign organizations. Japan and UNESCO ging here, “you have to helped conserve the Chogha Zanbil ziggurat convince them; they starting in 1998 and set up the conservation aren’t just throwing lab at the site in southwestern Iran. open the doors.” But competing fiefdoms inside and out- And there are good side ICHO make for a fractured archaeology reasons to want to try. community here. Officials at the Bastan Dig permits in Syria and Museum complain bitterly that the new con- Turkey are increasingly servation lab being built across the street by difficult to obtain, and another ICHO division excludes them. Uni- neighboring Iraq, Pak- versity officials chafe under ICHO control istan, and Afghanistan re- over all excavations. And the ministry’s top- Head to head. Chicago’s Gilbert Stein (left) and Harvard’s Karl main virtually off-limits level control of the August conference alien- Lamberg-Karlovsky are jumping at the chance to return to Iran. to researchers. So even ated many archaeologists, several of whom the hint of a welcome boycotted the proceedings. Much will depend as well on the director. mat in the region is drawing the avid attention Now a government plan to merge ICHO Both foreign and Iranian researchers are of scholars. “It will all get going again,” pre- with a tourism organization that reports di- hoping Beheshti will get the job. dicts Robert Dyson, a retired Penn archaeolo- rectly to the president is raising alarms. The Despite the internal wrangling, foreign gist who spent his formative years in Iran. new Organization of Cultural Heritage and researchers with experience in Iran aren’t Adds Azarnoush: “There’s plenty to do all Tourism is expected to be announced shortly. discouraged. “The conference is a good over this country.” –ANDREW LAWLER on March 12, 2012 BRONZE AGE FIND dark stone that is easy to carve but Jiroft Discovery Stuns wears slowly, the objects portray a Archaeologists bewildering va- www.sciencemag.org riety of plants, Researchers had long suspected that a Bronze Age civilization flourished buildings, and between Mesopotamia and the Indus River. Now a huge haul of stone vessels half-animal, has pinpointed it to Jiroft half-human figures includ- TEHRAN—Destitute villagers in southeastern cavations have only just begun, ing strange and Iranian officials anticipate scorpion men and Iran have uncovered what appears to be a Downloaded from Bronze Age civilization that flourished be- years of work involving an interna- kneeling women be- tween ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia and tional team of researchers from many tween horned animals. Harappa in the Indus River Valley more than disciplines. But the revelation of a They also depict the 4000 years ago. Scholars already had hints large and vibrant Bronze Age society outlines of monumental of a mysterious society in the region, but the is sending ripples of excitement buildings resembling new find nails down its heartland along the through archaeological circles. “It is ziggurats, and archae- banks of the Halil River. The discovery of like a new Indus Valley, a new Nile Valley,” ologists may be close to hundreds of stone vessels and massive archi- Masoud Azarnoush, director of Iran’s Ar- finding examples of such buildings. The tecture near the town of Jiroft opens a new chaeological Research Center in Tehran, said legal excavation conducted earlier this year chapter in Iranian and Middle Eastern ar- in an interview with Science in his Tehran at Jiroft exposed part of a huge building chaeology. “From now on, we must speak of office. “This new discovery puts Iran in the or fortress, 30 meters by 62 meters, before and after Jiroft,” says Harvard Uni- center of civilization and cultural activities protected by a massive wall, says Yousef versity archaeologist Karl Lamberg- in the 3rd millennium B.C.E.” Majidzadeh, the Iranian-born archaeologist Karlovsky. This rich agricultural area north of the in charge of the dig. But there are currently more questions Hormuz Strait is bordered by deserts and is The vessels from around Jiroft are remi- than answers. Much of the evidence of this feverishly hot in the summer. But it seems niscent of those previously found scattered new civilization—hundreds of intricately that the ancient Jiroft people lived here in throughout the region. “There was obviously carved stone vessels—is locked up in a re- large numbers and specialized in making tremendous cultural activity in this area, gional police station after being seized as vessels covered in unfamiliar iconography since small numbers of manufactured pieces CREDITS: A. (TOP) LAWLER; YOUSEF MAJIDZADEH AND ALI BANI (BOTTOM) ASADI contraband from illegal digs. Scientific ex- and semiprecious stones. Made of chlorite, a similar to the ones from Jiroft are found over www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 302 7 NOVEMBER 2003 973 N EWS F OCUS the date and authenticity of the huge cities, 100 square hectares in size,” Well traveled. Stone vessels like vessels are open to dispute; the marvels Jean Perrot, who led French digs at those found at Jiroft have also turned artifacts themselves are impounded Susa before the revolution. Majidzadeh says, up everywhere from Uzbekistan to by the courts in Kerman. But many “This area covers 400 square kilometers and the Arabian Peninsula. Iranian and foreign archaeologists had some cultural political unity.” But much and art historians who have exam- of the material is buried under 3 to 4 meters a vast area, from the Persian Gulf ined the objects or photographs date of sedimentation, say Iranian archaeologists. to Central Asia,” says Azarnoush. them to mid–3rd millennium The origins and demise of the Jiroft peo- These artifacts—although usual- B.C.E. based on similar vessels ple are obscure, although some scholars sus- ly devoid of carving—have found elsewhere. pect they might have influenced the Bactrian- turned up in the Royal Tombs Azarnoush ordered a survey last Margiana Archaeological Complex, which of Ur, the Sumerian city of year when he heard about massive developed to the north in later centuries (see Mari in today’s Syria, and the looting in the area, and excava- p. 979). “This is another Bronze Age civiliza- Arabian Peninsula. A few tions began this year. “We hope to tion comparable to the Indus and Meso- pieces have been found as far be able to find the center of pro- potamia, but smaller in scale and less com- north as Uzbekistan and duction of these goods,” he says. plex,” says Holly Pittman, an art historian at Turkmenistan. During the intense heat of sum- the University of Pennsylvania in Philadel- Scholars had guessed mer, a survey team examined phia. “It will be extremely important.” that this region was the the sources of the Halil in the The prospect of revealing Jiroft’s secrets source, and Lamberg- northern mountains to ascertain excites researchers. “This is going to be one Karlovsky found one manu- the boundaries of this civiliza- of the major excavations in the next 10 facturing center at nearby Tepe tion; this winter, a team led by years,” says retired archaeologist Robert Ya hya during the 1970s. But the sheer num- Majidzadeh will resume digging. Dyson of the University of Pennsylvania. ber of vessels from Jiroft as well as the mas- They have quite a task ahead of them: “This changes fundamentally our under- sive number of large mounds make it the Azarnoush estimates that there are nearly standing of southeast Iran,” adds Lamberg- likely central homeland, Lamberg-Karlovsky 300 tells, or mounds, in the area yet to be Karlovsky. “And it is something quite new.” says. Because the Jiroft material was looted, examined. “The first excavation hints at –ANDREW LAWLER CREDITS: YOUSEF MAJIDZADEH AND ALI (TOP) BANI ASADI on March 12, 2012 Looting Savages came recently from the Jiroft New Site area and was purchased by the TEHRAN—The looters brought Louvre Museum picnics, and whole families dug in Paris. together. Villagers in southeast- Majidzadeh ern Iran, suffering from an ex- says that not www.sciencemag.org tended drought during 2000, much was done were desperate. So when a rare to stop the loot- flood along the Halil River ex- ing at first. “Offi- posed a grave with decorated cials did not pay stone vessels, people rushed to attention, since the site to dig up strange dark the peasants were jars and beakers, which they poor because of Downloaded from then sold. “There was unbeliev- the drought, and able destruction,” says Yousef they thought that Free-for-all. At first, officials did little to stop the looting at Jiroft. Majidzadeh, an Iranian-born ar- it was one way chaeologist who is in charge of for them to get some money.” archaeologist at New York said an ICHO official who legal excavations there.