During the first season of archeological studies in the Rostam Abad area of Gilan (Iran), experts discovered the remains of a 3000-year-old fortress within the limits of land once taken over by the Kadousi government, who lived in the area today called Gilan in the first and second century BCE. Despite several cemeteries that were discovered in the archeological sites of Gilan, dating to the Iron Age (550- 1450 BCE), no architectural traces of the time were unearthed so far. Therefore, archeologists had concluded that the residential buildings of the area were made of decaying material such as wood.
     But the newly discovered large city in the Kaluraz Hill site can help uncover secrets of the architectural methods of the area, besides providing evidence of the Kadousi government and residence of the Iron Age people there, head of the archeology team, Mohammadreza Khal’atbari, said.
     Before the Iranian team started their work in the area this season, Japanese archeologists had found some architectural remains in another part of the Hill, but the focus of their work was on studying the ancient cemetery on the hillside where human remains of the Iron Age to Parthian times were discovered. Five strata have been found in the area, which indicate that the site has seen to itself five settlement periods. Moreover, the discovery of some walls connected in 90-degree angles is proof that architectural structures once existed there.
     According to Khal’atbari, the preliminary studies on the potsherds found there show that the hill most probably became residential in the 7th and 8th centuries BCE and was used as such until the Parthian times.
     Other discoveries in the area include a cooking oven, vents of large brick and clay ovens which reinforce the idea of a large city once existing there.

Source: CHN (6 February 2005)