Zoroastrian News - اخبار زرتشتیان

Tehran, 3 January 2007 (CHN Foreign Desk) — A budget amounting to 50,000 US dollars was provided by Regional Water Organization of Hamedan province to archeological studies behind Kalan Dam, giving archeologists a chance to carry out their excavations at Pa Tepe historical site which will be submerged by inundation of the Dam.

Dowsing operations in the area had previously revealed the origin of this historic site to have been sometime in the early Islamic period (mid 7th century onward). Archeologists are now determined to continue their excavations to identify and salvage the existing historical remains at Pa Tepe.

“Some dowsing operations were conducted in 2001 at the historic site of Pa Tepe belonging to the Islamic period. This historic site is located in the vicinity of Kalan Dam, currently under construction, and will be submerged with the flooding of the Dam,” said Mohammad Ranjbaran, deputy director of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Hamedan province to CHN.

Hamedan province hosts large numbers of historical sites, many of which have not been excavated yet.

Archeological excavations at Pa Tepe will be conducted by a team of archeologists from the Archeology Research Center of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization. The same project was recently undertaken at Yalfan Tepe, another historic site in Hamedan province which will be submerged with the inauguration of Yalfan Dam.

The team was able to unearth numerous historic evidences at Yalfan Tepe which revealed that it was a temporary settlement area for nomadic tribes some 3000 years ago. Moreover, discovery of some graves with Islamic burial method in this historic hill shows that it was used as a cemetery during the Islamic period.

Soudabeh Sadigh
foreigndesk@chn.ir