TEHRAN – Some 7,000 historical relics have so far been excavated from various archaeological hills and sites scattered across Qom province, the provincial tourism chief said on Monday.

The objects, some of which dating back to 7,000 years ago, are being kept in museums and their treasure troves of the province, Alireza Arjmandi said.

In a recent discovery, which took place last year Tepe Yousef Khan in Qom, relics, and remains relating to the Kura–Araxes culture, known as one of the most developed Bronze Age cultures of the time, were brought to life.  

The Kura–Araxes culture, also called the Early Transcaucasian culture, was a civilization that existed from about 4000 BC until about 2000 BC, which has traditionally been regarded as the date of its end; in some locations, it may have disappeared as early as 2600 or 2700 BC. The earliest evidence for this culture is said to be found on the Ararat plain; it spread northward in the Caucasus by 3000 BC.

Sources say that the economy of the Kura–Araxes communities was based on farming and livestock-raising (especially of cattle and sheep). They grew grain and orchard crops, and are known to have used implements to make flour. They raised cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and in later phases, horses.

Before the Kura-Araxes period, horse bones were not found in Transcaucasia. Later, beginning about 3300 BC, they became widespread, with signs of domestication. There is evidence of trade with Mesopotamia as well as Asia Minor. It is, however, considered above all to be indigenous to the Caucasus, and its major variants characterized (according to Caucasus historian Amjad Jaimoukha) later major cultures in the region.

The first well-documented evidence of human habitation in the Iranian plateau is in deposits from several excavated cave and rock-shelter sites, located mainly in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran and dated to Middle Paleolithic or Mousterian times (c. 100,000 BC).

AFM