TEHRAN – Iranian police forces have discovered nine prehistorical clay vessels on patrol near an archaeological site in Zanjan province.

“The objects, which date from the first millennium BC, include two jugs with handles, two glasses with handles, a plate and four other pottery vessels in black and beige color,” a police commander in charge of protecting cultural heritage said on Sunday.

 The relics were found in the historical highlands of Tarom county, the official said without giving further detail.

Iron Age objects were first excavated in western Iran at Sialk, and later in northwestern Iran around the west, east, and south shores of Lake Urmia, close to the Zagros mountains bordering Mesopotamia and Anatolia. These sites remain to date the best-documented full-range Iron Age sites in western Iran.

Written sources are rare at Iranian Iron Age sites, and locally written texts are non-existent. Indirect historical reference to the region begins in the 9th century BC when Assyrian royal texts first refer to various polities in northwestern and western Iran; these references continued into the 7th century.

Zanjan makes a base for wider explorations with the architectural wonder of Soltaniyeh, the subterranean delights of the Katale-Khor caves, colorful mountains, and the UNESCO-registered Takht-e Soleiman ruins are nearby.

AFM