A view of the twin primeval caves discovered near Behshahr in 1949

Gilan provincial Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department’s team in cooperation with Ancient Iran Museum experts have managed to identify and document the oldest human settlement in the northern province.
Announcing this, head of the department’s Office for Assessment, Identification and Documentation, Vali Jahani, told ISNA that the discovery of two ancient caves and Paleolithic objects such as stone tools and the skull of a bear prompted archeologists to launch new studies on human settlements in the province.
He added that the slopes and valleys of Alborz mountain range are among historically-important regions for Paleolithic Age studies.
Jahani went on to say that the primeval caves located in Darband, to the south of Sidasht village on Amarlou heights of Roudbar, were registered on the National Heritage List.
“Following the discovery of footprints of primitive humans in the caves, the expert team with the help of Paleolithic Department of Ancient Iran Museum managed to unravel some mysteries about Paleolithic humans who inhabited Gilan.“
The official recalled that so far, most studies relating to Paleolithic Period had been conducted on archeological sites of Kamarband and Hutu near Behshahr in Mazandaran province.
These caves situated in the village of Tarujen, five km southwest of Behshahr were discovered in 1949. Three human skeletons found in Kamarband Cave date back to approximately 7,000 BC. Besides the skeletons, there were blades made of flint and bones of walrus and deer.
In related news, head of the team conducting archeological studies at Behshahr’s Yaqout Tappeh (Hill) stated that signs of human settlements in this historic mound stretch back to the Neolithic Period.
According to Ali Mahforouzi, stratigraphic studies in the ancient hill revealed that primitive humans dwelled in about one hectare of Yaqout Tappeh during Neolithic Age.
He added that human settlements were expanded on the hill during the Chalcolithic Age.
The official noted that objects, artifacts and potsherds belonging to the Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron ages had been retrieved from the hill.

Allameh Seyyed Jalaleddin Ashtiani was one of the few contemporary Islamic scholars with a complete mastery of religious sciences, philosophy and mysticism. Although he is known as “The Second Molla Sadra“ in academic circles because of his vast knowledge of Islamic philosophy, the public are not adequately familiar with his valuable works.
Ashtiani was born in 1925 in Ashtian, Markazi province, where he completed his primary education at Khaqani School. While in studying in the traditional school known as Maktabkhaneh, Ashtiani took lessons on Sadi’s Golestan, Al-Mojam history, Al-Muqaddamat and chapters of Dorreh Naderi.
Ayatollah Abolqassem Danesh Ashtiani encouraged him to pursue his Islamic studies in Qom Theology School. He left Ashtian for Qom in 1944. After completing primary courses, he attended the classes of the great Islamic philosopher Allameh Mohammad Hossein Tabatabaei. He learned Avicenna’s masterpiece in logic and philosophy Ketab-e Shafa (The Book of Healing), Asfar, a part of the exegesis of Qur’an and the essentials of Fiqh under Allameh Tabatabaei. Ashtiani was one of his outstanding students.
He went to Qazvin to continue his studies in philosophy in classes of Ayatollah Abolhassan Rafiei Qazvini.
He also took lessons on religion and philosophy from different Islamic scholars in Najaf Theology School. Among his instructors in Najaf, one can name Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Bojnourdi, Seyyed Mohsen Hakim, Hassan Helli and Mirza Abdolhadi Shirazi. Two years later, he returned to Iran and attended classes of prominent philosopher Mirza Ahmad Ashtiani to solve his problems in philosophy and mysticism. Prominent theologians like Seyyed Mohammad Taqi Khansari, Seyyed Mohammad Hojjat Kouh Kamarei and Mirza Reza Tabrizi instructed him in Qom.
Allameh Ashtiani started teaching at the Logic and Philosophy Department of Mashhad Ferdowsi University in Sept. 1959.
The towering scholar and university professor authored 50 academic works in philosophy and Islamic mysticism. Allameh Ashtiani died of a prolonged disease on March 23, 2005.

A ceremony for commemorating Aryan civilization is scheduled for Sept. 6 in Tajikistan, ISNA reported.
Member of the Tajik Center for Strategic Studies Safar Soleimani said the festival is an international symposium to commemorate several important events.
Soleimani described the most important programs of the festival as holding a Congress on Aryan Civilization, commemorating the 2,700-year-old history of Koulab city in Tajikistan and the 15th anniversary of Tajik Independence Day.
Researchers, historians and orientalists from Iran, Afghanistan, USA, Germany, UK and Russia will attend the ceremony.
According to him, the festival will help promote the great Iranian civilization in the Persian-speaking countries of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
Aryan Civilization Festival is for all Persian-speaking nations and Iran plays a dynamic role in this regard, Soleimani concluded.

Burnt City is said to have more than 1,000 historic hills.

Director of Burnt City’s (Shahr-e Soukhteh) international base in Zabol, Sistan-Baluchestan province noted that the city’s comprehensive scheme is underway, IRNA wrote.
Alireza Khosravi noted, “Numerous programs such as identifying hills, classifying potteries and launching Burnt City’s largest document databank would be implemented within the framework of the scheme.“
He continued over 146 ancient hills had already been identified in the site, predicting that the region boasts more than 1,000 historic hills.
“Close to 400 hills would be studied by March 2007,“ he pointed out.
Burnt City with an area of 150 hectares is located 55 kilometers off Zabol on the road to Zahedan.
Dating back to 3200 BC, the historic city comprises residential and industrial quarters as well as monuments and cemetery.

Iranian Folklore Songs is the name of a book published in Tajik Cyrillic script in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
The Cultural Department of Iranian Embassy in Tashkent has published the book in 108 pages and 1,000 copies with the assistance of Abu Reyhan Birouni Oriental Studies Institute in Tashkent, ISNA said.
In its preface, Shah Niaz Musiev, the Uzbek Iranologist who has authored the book, has referred to the significance of folklore culture and literature across the world, and Iran in particular.
’Iranian Folklore Songs’ includes 538 couplets and quatrains as well as other forms of Persian folklore poetry extracted from various Iranian publications and magazines.

A young man making traditional footwear in Masouleh, Gilan province (Photo by Shohreh Haqiqat)

Local archeologists claim to have unearthed a well-preserved mummy dating back more than 280 years in Shijingshan District of the capital Beijing, www.chinaview.cn reported.
The mummy, identified as a male, is 1.73 meters long and flesh-colored. The man has six toes on the left foot.
Archeologists with the Shijingshan cultural relics department said the tomb was built during the period of Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), judging from the relics unearthed from the tomb.
The man wore court dress with the design of Kylin, an auspicious legendary animal with a horn and scales all over, which indicates that he should be a top-rank military official of the Qing Dynasty. However, the characters carved on the coffin indicate that he was a civilian official of the fourth rank.
Further researches are needed to identify the status of the official.
During the Qing Dynasty, dresses of government military officials were embroidered with the images of beasts including Kylin, lion, leopard, tiger and bear, while the designs for civilian officials’ dresses included crane, golden pheasant, peacock, swan goose and egret to indicate their ranks.
Archeologists sorted out 31 pieces of relic from the tomb including an official’s cap, a long string of beads, worn by senior officials of the Qing Dynasty, a ceremonial gown, a ceremonial robe and a sachet.
Currently, the 31 pieces are kept at the Capital Museum.

Chinese cultural managers have proposed to host an exhibit of Iranian historic objects known as “Persian Glory“ at Palace Museum of the Forbidden City in Beijing, director of Iran National Museum said.
In an interview with CHN, Mohammad Reza Kargar stated that the proposal was made by Chinese officials in the course of negotiations between the two countries to expand bilateral cultural exchanges.
“Ancient objects belonging to Iran’s 7,000-year-old civilization are currently on display in Japan. Chinese officials have demanded the same items be displayed in Beijing.“
Kargar noted that director of the Palace Museum, who is also deputy minister of culture, has orally proposed that the exhibit be held in China, adding a decision on the Chinese proposal will be made after a written request is submitted to Iranian officials.
The official said it was likely that Persian Glory exhibit would be held in China, once it wraps up in Japan and South Korea.
The exhibit was opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo on August 1 and will also be held in four Japanese cities of Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Osaka for a period of one year.
As agreed by Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, the exhibit will then be held in South Korea for five months.
Iran National Museum has dispatched 204 ancient objects to Japan for public display.

Turkish and US archeologists will start excavating an ancient Hittite city in southeastern Turkey next month, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
The excavation of Zincirli Tumulus city, which is located in Islahiye town of Gaziantep province, will begin on Sept. 1 and David Schloen, associate professor of Chicago University, will head the team, said the report.
The excavation will last about 10 years and the archeologists will work for two and a half months every year to bring the artifacts in Zincirli Tumulus to daylight, Anatolia reported.
Mehmet Onal, deputy director of Gaziantep Museum, was quoted by Anatolia as saying that the ancient city of Zincirli Tumulus was an important settlement during the late Hittite period.
“Artifacts, expected to be found in the excavations, will contribute to cultural tourism,“ said Onal.
Zincirli Tumulus is one of the kingdoms established by the Hittites in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria after the Hittite Empire collapsed in 1,200 BC.

Several Tran Dynasty (1225-1400) relics have been uncovered during an excavation of the archeological site at the Ben Lan Pagoda in the northwestern province of Yen Bai, Vietnam News reported.
Archeologists from the Vietnam Institute of Archeology (VNIA) and the Yen Bai Museum discovered vestiges of 12 terracotta towers, increasing the number of towers at the site to 14. The first two were found during another excavation last year.
“Almost all of the towers were broken but their foundations were intact,“ said archeologist Pham Nhu Ho from the VNIA. “We are very happy to have found the biggest tower yet, with a foundation measuring 4x4 meters, while the rest measure 1x1 meters.“
These towers are positioned in two parallel lines, separated by an imaginary axis running to the southeast direction.
The placement of the towers was likely a product of a belief in geomancy, the practice of making predictions for the future based on the patterns of handfuls of dirt thrown on the ground.
Pieces from a main entrance and a stone citadel wall, built with neatly-arranged stones and mud, have also been unearthed at the southern area of the site. The wall’s base was laid with coarse gravel, which, say archeologists, is the typical architecture of the Tran Dynasty.
“The 295-meter-perimeter wall is the biggest one built in the Tran Dynasty that has been unearthed in this country,“ Ho said.
Archeologists also uncovered a few stone steps linking the wall with a higher promontory, which is suspected to contain many important unexcavated relics.