Document Type : Scientific-Research

Authors

• Nasir Eskandari ¹
• Massimo Vidale ²
• Ali akbar Mesgar ³
• Mojgan Shafiee ⁴
• Meysam Shahsavari ⁵
• Francois Desset ⁴
• Akbar Abedi ⁶
• Salman Anjomroz ⁷
• Ali Shahdadi ⁸

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Archaeology,& Center for International Scientific Studies and Collaboration (CISSC), Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, IR. Iran

² Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padova, and ISMEO, Rome

³ Graduated from the Department of History, University of Tehran

⁴ CNRS team Archéorient (Lyon, France; UMR 5133)

⁵ Assistant Professor, Department of Archeology, Jiroft University

⁶ Assistant Professor, Department of Archeology, Tabriz University of Islamic Arts

⁷ PhD student in Archeology, Tarbiat Modares University

⁸ Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Jiroft University

Abstract

Recent archaeological discoveries in the Halilrud valley (Kerman province, Iran), especially at the Site of Varamin and Konar Sandal of Jiroft,  brought to light a hitherto unknown culture, the so-called “Jiroft civilization,” which generally dates back to the third millennium BC. Jiroft became famous between 2002/2003 when thousands of confiscated burial goods, especially elaborated carved chlorite vessels, from a dozen looted necropolises of Halil Rud impacted the media. Consequently, many scholars paid attention to Jiroft; some stated that Jiroft could be the “the lost civilization” between Mesopotamia and Indus valley. Some referred to it as the core of the production and probability distribution of the already known chlorite artifacts, the so-called “intercultural style.” Moreover, some pinpointed the toponym of MarhaŠi to Jiroft. In this paper, we will attempt to examine the Jiroft or Marhashi Civilization from a historical perspective based on the Mesopotamian cuneiform texts and the archaeological evidence. Importantly, our research indicated that Jiroft and Southern Mesopotamia were closely linked before the first appearance of Marhashi in the cuneiform texts (during the time of the Akkadian Sargon).

Keywords

• Marhashi
• Jiroft Civilization
• Site of Varamin
• Konar Sandal
• Mesopotamia

Main Subjects

• Ancient literature and religions
• History of developments in ancient Iran