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My pics in the world’s oldest Ziggurat

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Cyrus Shahmiri View Drop Down
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  Quote Cyrus Shahmiri Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: My pics in the world’s oldest Ziggurat
    Posted: 29-Aug-2004 at 06:59

Sialk Ziggurat, the Oldest in the World, Iranian Archeologist

Iranian archeologist Dr. Mohammad Sadeq Malek Shahmirzadi (Shahmirzad is a small town where my father was born) presented the results of his studies on excavations carried out in 2001 in the Sialk hills near Kashan in central Iran in a scientific meeting of the Forum on Ancient Cultural Bonds between Iran and West Asia.
He divided the whole Sialk hills into four areas of south and north of the A and B cemeteries and noted what Grishman achieved some seventy years ago was so considerable that to do it now would take between 10 to 20 years. At that time, he defined six cultural eras in the area. He had discovered a platform in the northern hill in 1937, the Iranian scholar noted.
According to Dr. Shahmirzadi, he was assigned with the task of mopping up the Sialk area now located within the town of Kashan.
However, he had to do some excavations which led to the discovery of extra facilities mounted on a second platform. He called the discovered mud brick structure a ziggurat.
The archeologist put the number of mud bricks used in building the ziggurat at some 1.25 million, adding a huge social, economic and cultural force must have been involved in building the ziggurat since every person could carry only one single piece of mud brick.
Showing a few relics found in the site, Shahmirzadi claimed the Sialk ziggurat built some 4700 years ago was the worlds oldest ziggurat, outdating even the Ur ziggurat thought to have been built some 4100 years ago.

I took these photographs when I was in Kashan last year:

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Gubook Janggoon View Drop Down
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  Quote Gubook Janggoon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Aug-2004 at 13:23
wow, they're beautiful!
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  Quote cattus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Aug-2004 at 13:41
understand that some relics have been found, but are artifacts still being searched there on an active basis.
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  Quote Dawn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Aug-2004 at 15:26
Wow r3eally nice. BTW is that you?
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  Quote hansioux Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Aug-2004 at 00:13

Looks more comfortable than my apartment here in bay area...... v_v

That is so nice when the prefered building material isn't something bio-degratable XD

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  Quote Cornellia Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Aug-2004 at 06:29
Wonderful pictures and great links.   Its amazing at how much farther they push the start of civilization back.
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Cyrus Shahmiri View Drop Down
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  Quote Cyrus Shahmiri Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Aug-2004 at 12:24

Thanks all!  Yes, that is me!



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  Quote demon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Aug-2004 at 16:03
Wow.  Impressive I should say.  Is this made by babylons?
Grrr..
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  Quote ihsan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Aug-2004 at 17:13
Not definitially. Look, what does it say? Central Iran
[IMG]http://img50.exs.cx/img50/6148/ger3.jpg">

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  Quote Sander Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Sep-2010 at 18:26

This thread is an oldie on the forum. Its already here since 2004, 2 years after Cyrus founded All Empires ( Allempires.com registered 2002) Big smile

I have found a reconstruction of the Sialk Ziggurat. Check it with a monument in the western Mediterranean :

Left   : Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia, Italy, c.3200-2700 BC (for dates, see 1)
Right  : Sialk Ziggurat, Iran, c.2700 BC
  

Although smaller it does remind of the Sailk Ziggurat.  Interestingly, they are of roughly the same age. Note the very long ramp.

 
 

Actual remains

 

(1)  P. Pili, E. Realini, D. Sampietro, M. P. Zedda, E. Franzoni, G. Magli (2009) “TOPOGRAPHICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL ANALYSIS ON THE NEOLITHIC “ALTAR” OF MONTE D’ACCODDI IN SARDINIA”. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 6169.

 

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Edited by Sander - 13-Sep-2010 at 18:51
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Cyrus Shahmiri View Drop Down
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  Quote Cyrus Shahmiri Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Sep-2010 at 16:30
That is really interesting, Italian one seems to be a ziggurat too, did you yourself discovered this similarity?
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  Quote Sander Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Sep-2010 at 17:48
Originally posted by Cyrus Shahmiri

That is really interesting, Italian one seems to be a ziggurat too, did you yourself discovered this similarity?
 
Partly inspired , partly discovered myself. Some article mentioned that both were of comparable age and had a long ramp to acces higher platforms. That they also looked somewhat similar was only noticed after I had found the specific reconstructions where they are shown from the same angle.
 
Some call it a pyramidical structure, others speak of a small ziggurat. Monte d'Accoddi means “Mountain of Accoddi” . Some interpretate this as” Mountain of Akkad”. The Akkadians constructed ziggurats as well. But, Monte d’ Accoddi and the Sialk ziggurat predate Akkad.
The structure is unique in Sardinia. In other regions similar structures are more common. A reason to think that it had some sort of connection with these regions.
 
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