A team of archeologists has unearthed a clay tablet inside Shahr-e Sukhteh - known as Burnt City - in what is now eastern Iran, very near the border of Aghanistan. The discovery of clay tablets is not unusual in western regions, but this discovery is so far unique in the easternmost point of the Lut Plain and southeastern Iran.
     Once a junction of Bronze-Age trade routes crossing the semi-arid plateau, the UNESCO-registered site was first excavated 50 years ago, and is associated with four rounds of civilisation between 3200 BCE and 1800 BCE, all of which were destroyed by catastrophic fires. Just four to five percent of the city has been excavated.
     Measuring 11 by 7 centimetres, the tablet was found in a residential area some four metres below the present ground level. Only partly understood, some of the signs depict the types and quantity of traded goods.
     Other recent finds include arrays of figurines, including cows, and human statues in the form of sitting women and standing men. Features include a kiln which may have been used for pottery or as a metal smelting furnace. Archaeologists also uncovered the remains of a prehistoric pet monkey, buried within a beautiful container. An example of extensive trade in luxury prestige goods, the monkey had come from northern India or central Asia.
     One of the most impressive civilizations of the ancient world, Elam was never a cohesive ethnic kingdom, but rather a federation of tribes governed at various times by different cities, until it was briefly united as an empire during the Middle Elamite Period, circa 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE.
     The name Elam was given to the region by the Akkadians and Sumerians of Mesopotamia, and is thought to be their version of 'Haltami' or 'Haltamti', meaning "those of the high country" - settlements on the Iranian Plateau, from the southern plains to the Zagros Mountains. The earliest writings are in a figurative or pictographic script from the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE.

Edited from Tehran Times (24 December 2021)