A team of Iranian and Japanese archaeologists is to study two Neolithic caves located at the ancient site of Tang-e Bolaghi in Iran’s southern province of Fars. "According to an agreement signed between the Archaeological Research Center and the University of Tsukuba, several Iranian archaeologists and eight experts from the Japanese university will begin work at the site next month," Karim Alizadeh, an expert of Iran’s Archaeological Research Center, said. "Due to the dearth of studies on Iranian Neolithic caves, the upcoming studies on the two caves will be very important," he noted.
     The caves are located in the area that is to become the reservoir of the Sivand Dam, which is scheduled to come on stream in March 2006, flooding some very significant ancient sites. Tang-e Bolaghi also contains sites from the Paleolithic period, the early, middle, and late Elamite era (2700-645 BCE), and the Sassanid era (224-651 CE). Alongside the Iranian experts, teams of Italian, French, Polish, German, Australian, and Japanese archaeologists have been assigned to save 129 ancient sites at Tang-e Bolaghi.
 
Source: Mehr News.com (18 June 2005)