Zoroastrian News - اخبار زرتشتیان

The unique wine production workshops belonging to Sassanid dynastic era (224-651 AD) will be submerged without being transferred to another place. The wine production workshop, which is the most complete in its own kind ever found in Iran, was discovered during the second season of archeological excavations conducted by Iranian-Polish joint team in Bolaghi Gorge.

According to Ali Asadi, head of Iranian-Polish archeology team in Bolaghi Gorge, this earthenware construction is consisted of a sloped surface with two small pools. After passing through both pools and settling of sediments, the pure grape juice was poured into a big jar.

Pointing out to the importance of this unique historical evidence and the importance for saving it without bearing a high expense, Asadi said: “The most economic and simple way for rescuing this construction would be preparing moulages is exact sizes from the pools. Afterwards, by destroying the smaller pool, the jar can be unearthed and then the moulages and the jar can be transferred to Parse Pasargadae Research Center to be preserved as a sample of this unique historical construction.”

Located in Iranian Fars province, Bolaghi Gorge contains a large number of historical sites, some 133 of which have been identified and unearthed during salvation project of Bolaghi Gorge conducted by attendance of archeological teams from Iran and 8 other countries. Bolaghi Gorge and the majority of historical sites identified in the area will be submerged by inundation of Sivand Dam which has already been started.

Area number 131 which was residential settlement of prehistoric human beings and the discovered Achaemenid village have been submerged so far. Currently by closing the floodgates of the dam and increasing the level of the reservoir, the unique Sassanid wine production workshop is on verge of being drowned forever. Warning Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization about the risky situation of this unique construction, archeologists and cultural heritage experts have asked the Organization to make an emergency decision in this regard.