TEHRAN -- The first perimeter of the 7500-year-old Sialk site has been breached by the Kashan Electricity Office.

The electricity office recently installed six electricity lines 100 to 200 meters west of the southern mound of the Sialk site, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.
The Kashan Cultural Heritage Center (KCHC) has raised objections to the project in a letter that asked the office to remove the power lines, KCHC Director Zahra Sarukhani said.
The electricity office has not responded to the letter, although the wires of the power lines have already been stolen.
The power lines are being installed to supply electricity to homes illegally constructed over the past few years on the perimeter of the Sialk Tepe. However, the buildings were supposed to be removed from the site some time ago.
The perimeter of the site was previously invaded by gas pipelines built by the National Iranian Gas Company.
In addition, a water supply project begun at the site by the Kashan Water and Waste Water Company was cancelled due to the objections of the Kashan Cultural Heritage Center.
Located in the suburbs of the city of Kashan, Sialk Tepe was excavated for the first time by French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman and his team in 1933 and then again in 1934 and 1937.
What is believed to be the world’s oldest ziggurat and many artifacts have been discovered at Sialk Tepe.
Sialk Tepe consists of two mounds known as northern and southern Sialk, located about 600 meters apart. The artifacts unearthed in the northern mound are more ancient than those of the southern one.
As early as 3200 BC, the inhabitants of Sialk used a type of script known as proto-Elamite, whose signs combined pictograms and numerals. Sialk was eventually abandoned at the end of the Iron Age, before the advent of the Medes.
Recent studies by Iranian archaeologists indicate that the first houses were built at the Sialk site about 7500 years ago.
A joint Iranian and British archaeological team currently working at the site recently discovered a 70-centimeter wall consisting of 13 rows of bricks. The wall, which is believed to be over 7000 years old, is one of the most ancient examples of Iranian architecture.