A team of Iranian experts recently discovered an 8000-year-old stone tool-making workshop during the first comprehensive archaeological area study at an ancient site south of the city of Shahrud in the northeastern Iranian province of Semnan, team member Kurosh Rustai announced on Tuesday.

The excavations carried out over the past few years by Iranian and Japanese experts in Deh-Kheyr and Tappeh-Chakhmanq, south of Shahrud, resulted in the discovery of traces from the Neolithic era (circa 9000–8000 BCE), putting the region on the archaeological map.

Shahrud is located 398 kilometers east of Tehran
"We made new discoveries in the region near the Siarigi Tepe, which dates back to 6000 BCE, finding a site with stones of opal, chert, and flint, which led the team toward an ancient workshop where stone tools were made," Rustai said.

The remains of broken stones indicate that a great variety of stone tools, like sickles, arrowheads, and blades, were being mass produced in the workshop, which covers an area of 2000 square meters, he added.

"No evidence has been found indicating human habitation near the workshop. Thus, it appears that the man of 8000 years ago traveled a distance of three kilometers to reach the workshop," Rustai noted.

In conclusion, he said that the team also plans to carry out some excavations on the plain of Bastam, six kilometers from Shahrud, with the hope of finding more ancient workshops.

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