Continuing archeological excavations in a 3000-year-old temple in the historic Qoli Darvish Hill in Qom (Iran) has led to the discovery of a fourth brazier. The brazier has a hole inside it and contains ashes from ancient use. Siamak Sarlak, head of the excavation team in Qoli Darvish Temple said the newly discovered brazier is smaller that those found earlier at the center of the temple. However, like the other braziers discovered earlier in the temple, this brazier was discovered in a chamber in the temple with an elevated platform where religious offerings were made. It seems the small braziers were used to keep fire alive for the larger ones.
    According to Sarlak, the Qoli Darvish Temple is one of the most ancient temples ever discovered in the Iranian Central Plateau dating 3300 years back. The temple was built with adobe mortar with the walls of the chamber, where the brazier was found, covered in stucco. Another room on the northeastern side of the temple has also been discovered, its two stairs still intact. It may also have contained a brazier which may have been destroyed by bulldozers of masons operating in the area.
     Archeological evidence and structures such as the temple indicate that Qoli Darvish was a big city in the plateau during the Iron Age.
Evidence also shows that this area in Qom was populated in the fourth millennium BCE. Unfortunately, 90 percent of the site has been badly destroyed by construction activities on the Qom-Jamkaran highway which has left 40 hectares of the hill's 50-hectare-area a mere ruin.

Source: IRNA (15 March 2007)