Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎275r] (550/879)

BNCB. 131
si
IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES IN
WESTERN PERSIA. (35,
In a report furnished by M. Jacques de
Morgan, who has been for two years engaged
on a scientific mission in Persia, to the
French Minister of Public Instruction of the
French Government, we have the first account
of the remarkable series of explorations which
the mission have carried out upon the site of
the ancient city of Sues, the Sushan of the
Scriptures, the capital of the Elamite King
dom.
Recent explorations by the French and
American expeditions working in Chaldea, the
former at Jello, on the Shat el Hie, and the
latter at Nippur, had carried back the hietori-
cal records of the great Mesopotamian king
doms to an antiquity far exceeding former
estimates. One remarkable feature of these
explorations was the undoubted proof of the
want of a stone age, or of any civilisation that
could be assigned to the Neolithic age. The
lowest strata explored, which were only a few
feet above the virgin soil, afforded evidence
of the use of the metals, copper, and even
silver, and of the knowledge of the art of
writing. Evidence was also afforded by the
pictorial cuneiform characters that the ele
ments of this system of writing were not in
vented in Chaldea. The fact of simple pic
ture groups for mountain, fir tree, forest,
cave, and for bear, wolf and even, as some
scholars think, for sDow, all indicate that the
pictorial signs which represented the habitat
of the inventors was not the lowland plain of
Chaldea. All the ancient traditions of Baby
lonia point a colonisation from the north-east
—that is, from the regions of North-West
Persia and the regions of Mount Rowandiz,
the sacred mountain.
The discoveries of M. de Morgan show
that there is now ample evidence that there
existed in the plain of Susiania, in the basin
of the Karun and Dzul Rivers, a civilisation
far exceeding that of Chaldea in antiquity,
and, indeed, from which it in all probability
originated. By his excavations in the great
Citadel Mound at Susa, which rises to a
height of about 105 feet above the plain, M.
da Morgan has unearthed the remains of no
fewer than fine sucessive cities or settlements
one above the other, extending far back
beyond the historic age into the Neolithic
period. The latest historical city is found
at the depth of about twenty-one feet below
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the surface. Here were found brick buildings,
but no trace of metals or writing, while thirty
feet below this we find the earliest settlement,
with rude pottery and flint implements. It is,
therefore, clear that we have here evidence
of a vast antiquity. In the second of the pre-
historic settlements M. de Morgan found an
enormous number of the flint teeth of sickles
—indicating an agricultural and corn-grow-
ing population. These sickles, like those of
El
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ent
for
was in
of this
Egypt, were modelled on the
the lower jaw of the ox, which
probability the earliest
form
earliest
Us , implement. The
of Clodea refer to the great
corn-producing chah»,t er of this region of
Western Persia, and, ldeed. De Candolle,
the eminent botanist, regards this region as
the indigenous home of the wheat. There is
ample evidence of a Neolithic population in
this region, for at Tepeh Gulam, Poneh-e-
Koub, and - " ~
at Tepeh Patak, on he
of the Kerkha, pre-historic
cemeteries and settlements were discovered.
Among the objects discovered were a large
number of stone mace heads, consisting of
round stones pierced in the centre to take
the wooden staff, similar to those found by
M. de Morgan at Nagadah and Professor
Fetrie at Ha and Hieraconopolis. Similar
maces were found by De Sarzoo in Chaldea.
right bank
..." lower Strete of the mound large quan-
titles of pottery were discovered, but an De-
low the historical strata was hand-made, the
use of the wheel, as in pre-dynastic Egypt,
being unknown. The importance of these dis
coveries cannot be too highly estimated, as
they undoubtedly shift the birthplace of civi-
lieation from the alluvial plains of the Tigro.
Euphrates Valley further eastward. M. de
Morgan is continuing his work, and it is
understood that the expedition will extend
18 researcbes to Mal Amir, and other ancient
sites of this region. Still more important
results may be expected. 4
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Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎275r] (550/879)

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Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎275r] (550/879)

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