www.tehrantimes.com Sixty-four bricks bearing bas-reliefs from the Median era were recently discovered at Qoli Darvish and Shamshirgah in Qom Province.
“A total of 61 of the bricks have been discovered at Shamshirgah and three bricks were found at Qoli Darvish. Due to the bas-reliefs on the bricks, archaeologists surmise that the bricks were used in a political memorial,” Mehrdad Malekzadeh one of the archaeologists working on the site said.
“Only fourteen of the 61 bricks bear motifs which depict living creatures. The others have images symbolizing political power. Such motifs and efforts were only used in religious and political memorials. The bricks are very similar to the Median era bricks discovered by French archaeologist Roman Girshman in the 1930s,” he said.
Archaeologists working on the project hope to discover more ancient bricks, which would increase the possibility that some ruins at the sites could be definitely identified as political memorials, he added.
A team of archaeologists led by Siamak Sarlak excavated the sites at the beginning of the year. Another group led by Hamid Fahimi is set to begin the new stage of excavations soon.
Located near the central Iranian city of Qom, Shamshirgah is the second most important Iron Age human habitation in the region. Qoli Darvish Tepe and Serm Tepe are the other Iron Age sites in the area.
Due to inadequate security, looters were able to carry out illegal excavations at the cemetery of Sarm Tepe in mid March during a hiatus in the archaeological work. |