TEHRAN – Other illegally-built structures -- previously constructed within the legal boundaries of Sialk hills, were brought down to earth on Monday.

“Two villas were destroyed on the judicial order by [Kashan’s] municipality…. They were illegally constructed in an area of 1500 square meters in 1396 (2017) inside the properties of the ancient site of Sialk,” CHTN quoted a local official as saying on Monday.

Sialk and the importance of the Proto-Elamite period in Iran; the Iron Age in Sialk; and anthropological collections of Sialk preserved at the Paris-based Homme Museum were among topics discussed at the conference.

Situated halfway between Kashan and Fin in Isfahan province, Tapeh Sialk has yielded interesting pottery pieces, metal tools, and domestic implements made from stone, clay, and bone that date from as early as the 4th millennium BC.

Sialk is a treasure trove of information about diverse subjects such as paleobotany, palaeozoology, palaeoanatomy, diet, climate change, and ancient metallurgy.

Several excavation projects at the site have so far been conducted, beginning with a 1933 French Louvre delegation led by Roman Ghirshman; capping with a most recent project in 2009, which was led by Hassan Fazeli-Nashli, a faculty member of the Archaeology Department, University of Tehran.

AFM/