Iranian and American archaeologists currently working at the Elamite city of Anshan recently discovered ancient architectural ruins and artifacts. The archaeologists found the ruins and artifacts, which are estimated to date back to 3000 to 1000 BCE, during the third stage of excavations at the site.
     On the new discovery, Ahmad Abdi, the head of the archaeological team at Anshan, said that archaeologists had found ruins dating back to the very early (3000-2800 BCE) and mid (1500-1100 BCE) Elamite era.
     According to Abdi, who is an Iranian professor at Dartmouth College in the United States, archaeologists had already discovered various ruins at the site, but the recent discoveries are of great importance since they belong to different periods of the Elamite era. "In one part of the historical site, the ruins of a mud-brick wall were also unearthed, which seems to belong to a house built beside an alley,” he said, adding that six fragments of inscriptions as well as an ancient seal were also discovered during the third excavation. Ruins from the 2nd millennium BCE were discovered during previous excavations at the site.
     The low mounds of Tepe Malyan known as Anshan cover nearly 200 hectares in Fars Province in southwestern Iran. The city's ruins -- covering 350 acres -- have yielded major archaeological finds including examples of early Elamite writing.

Source: Tehran Times (23 November 2004)