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By
Lucian Harris
Archaeologists in the
Bulaghi valley have been given more time to survey the
site before it is submerged. Their colleagues elsewhere
are not so lucky
The contrasting progress of
two major archaeological salvage operations in Iran, where
an ambitious programme of dam building has created a
continuing
threat to heritage sites, has highlighted the problems
faced as this country attempts to reconcile necessary
development and modernisation with the conservation and
research of the rich remains of its historical past.
Last month, international
archaeologists began to arrive in the Bulaghi valley in
Fars Province, which is set to be flooded when a reservoir
is created behind the newly constructed Sivand dam. The
valley, which is rich in archaeological remains, is
located close to the ancient city of Pasargadae, capital
of King Cyrus II, founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, and a
Unesco World Heritage Site since 2004.
Over the next year, seven
or eight small teams from France, Italy, Poland,
Australia, Germany, and Japan, will assist Iranian
archaeologists in excavating the most important of 130
sites identified in an initial survey of the valley,
ranging from the prehistoric to the Achaemenid, and
Sassanian periods.
Dr Mohammad Talebian,
director of the Parse-Pasargardae Project which is
co-ordinating the salvage operation, told The Art
Newspaper that the
Ministry of Energy had agreed to postpone the flooding of
the valley for a year while excavations continued, but
that funding, which had also been promised had yet to
appear. The salvage operation, he hoped, would provide a
model for the future, as Iran continues its programme to
harnass the power of its rivers.
Dr Massood Azarnoush,
director of the Archaeological Research Centre in Tehran,
part of the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organisation (ICHO),
told The Art Newspaper that it was an important matter for
Iran to be able to control its water resources,
particularly in light of the eight year drought in the
south-east. He said that in a country where it is almost
impossible to break the surface of the ground anywhere
without finding some archaeological remains, the challenge
was to raise public and governmental awareness of the need
for proper archaeological research and conservation.
Dr Azarnoush said that the
government had recently issued a declaration that all
development projects should take archaeology into
consideration, and that he had asked local authorities in
all Iran's provinces to give warning before any such
projects are commenced.
If the Bulaghi valley
operation does, as hoped, become a model for the handling
of similar situations in the future, the converse is true
of the archaeological salvage currently underway at the
ancient site of Izeh in the Karun River valley in
Khuzestan, where archaeologists have had neither
sufficient time nor funding. With only one month to go
before the reservoir
behind the Karun-III dam is fully filled, the director of
excavations Dr Jafar Mehrkian told The Art Newspaper that
his small team was working on the last of 21 important
sites they had excavated. He said little warning had been
given over the reactivation of the long dormant dam
project, and that his repeated appeals for international
asssistance during the five month salvage operation had
been to no avail. Expertise was still greatly needed, he
said, particularly in metallurgy and physical
anthropology.
Dr Mehrkian said that
important archaeological sites were also threatened by the
Karun-II and Karun-IV dams, the latter already under
construction and expected to be operational in 2008. With
plans to build more dams on the Karun and its tributaries,
a comprehensive plan for the rescue and conservation of
the rich archaeological and cultural heritage of the area
is extremely important
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