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Persia 7000 years of civilisation David
ABBASI
TRANSLATE BY: Elsa De France
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Index In
the name of the Master of
intelligence....................................4 The
king of the kings melts the university of medicine................5 Mankind,
an unknown creature..................................................5 Chance
or
God!..........................................................................6 The
fight of the good and the
evil!..............................................7 AVESTA and the three great
monks...........................................9
First
Declaration of the human right.........................................9
Plato,pythagore
and AVESTA...................................................13 The Persian new
year...............................................................14
Eastern and sizdahbedar..........................................................15 All
saints’day............................................................................16
The
Definition of the word
Aria................................................16 The
exposition of 7000 years of Iranian art in Paris................22 Roman Greshman grand archaeologist and French
researcher in
Iran!......................................................................................24 The
Iranian plateau, First grounds of our the sphere..............26 The
Iranian plateau, historical Introduction............................27 The
Pre-history.........................................................................27
Persia,
the physical configuration of Iran................................32 The cave man, Persian civilisation and Europe under
the
glacier.......................................................................................38 The first sedentary of the plain
500 years before Jesus-Christ.........40
Iran’s
Prehistoric civilisation at the 4th millennium before J-C.......44 Mitra and
Mitracisme.....................................….……………....51
The
Pre-history of Mithra I Etymologies..................................53 II. Mitra
vedic...........................................................................55
III Mithra
avestic......................................................................57
Invention
of the
bank.................................................................59 Which Arab world? More likely Arabic speaking countries....................................................................................60 A taste of Persian literature! Saadi..........................................63 A selection of "the Garden of the roses” by
Saadi"..................63 Friendship.................................................................................74 Tears.........................................................................................74 The Dervish
(darvish)...............................................................75 The good
test.............................................................................75 The guard of the
veil.................................................................76 Omar Khayyam,
great mathematician......................................76 The qatrains
of Omar Khayyam................................................77 Mowlana Djalâl-od
Dîn Rumi (1207-1273)............................84 The story of a king who fell in love with a slave and
bought her......89 Tourism.....................................................................................90
Kerman......................................................................................90 The province of
Kerman............................................................91 Places and historical monuments at
Kerman...........................93 Pars
(province).........................................................................93 The Province of
Ispahan...........................................................95 Abyaneh.....................................................................................97 The province of
Yazd................................................................99 Guilan.....................................................................................102 Farfahar..................................................................................104 The latest discovery at
Jiroft...................................................107 A “before” and an “after”
Jiroft............................................108 The civilisation was not born where we thought it
was!........109 A new look on the origins of the oriental civilisation............110
Until
now, Mankind remains unknown because nobody has been able to give
complete information about this creature. What is he? Who is he? What
does he do? Why is he here and how did he appear in this world? As many
questions to which no philosopher, no scientist nor prophet has known to
give the answer.
AVESTA
and the three great monks
The
edict of Cyrus: "Me, Kouroch (Cyrus), king of the world,
king of Tintyr (Babylon), king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four
religions , when I peacefully entered Tintyr, I will bring the throne to
the power of the princes with triumph and gaiety. Marduk (God of
Babyloniens) inclined towards me the noble hearts of the brave
Babylonians men, because I was each day attentive to its worship. My
many troops circulated in Babylon in all quietude. I did not authorise
whomever to exert terrorism on the ground of Sumer and Akkad. I did not
lose of sight the needs of the city and all his sanctuaries in order to
provide for their well-being. I liberated the citizens of Babylon of any
degrading yoke. I restored their dilapidated residences; I put an end to
their miseries from the city of Suse,Assur, , Agadé and Echnuma, to
those of Zamban, Meurnu and DER, until the
soil of Guti and at the Holy Cities located beyond the Tiger, I
returned to the gods their places and installed them inside durable
residences. I gathered all the inhabitants and restored their residences
to them. From the will of Marduk, the grand-god, I do not authorise gods
of Sumer and Akkad to live in peace in their delightful stay. In
Christianity: as it is stated in the Bible, they are the envoys of the
Persian king who designate Jesus like the prophet: Jesus having
incipient in Bethlehem in Judaea, at the time of king Hérode, here are
the magi of Orient (messengers of the Persian king) arrived to Jerusalem
and said: Where is the king of the Jews who has just been born? Because
we saw his star in the East , and we came for loving and adoring him.
King Hérode, having learned that, was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with
him. He assembled all the principal priests and the scribes of the
people and he gathered the information that they provided him of the
where about of the incipient of the Christ. They said to him: In
Bethlehem in Judaea; because this is what was written by the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, ground of Juda, you are not certainly not the least
between the principal towns of Juda because of you will appear a leader
who will feed Israel, my people. Then Hérode called in secrecy the magi
(Persians), and found out with precaution how long the star has been
shinning. Then, he sent them to Bethlehem, while saying: Go, and take
exact information on the little child, when you have found him, let me
know it too. Soon after having heard the king, they left. And here it is
the star that they, had seen in the East (Iran) went in front of them
arrived above the place where the little child was settled, it stopped.
When they saw the stars, they were seized of a very great joy. They
(Iranians) entered the house, saw the little child with Marie, her
mother and bowed down to him and adored him: then they opened the little
their treasures and offered to him gold, essence and myrrh. Then,
divinely informed in dream not to go back towards Hérode, they regained
their country by another way .to Joseph and says as: Rise, take the
little child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and remain there
until...(GOSPEL, MATHIEU 2)
AVESTA,
the rational thought of the Man of Orient, existed already more than
7000 years ago. Mitra the first quoted it then, later, Zaratustra 1st.
It was joined together and recorded in 120 books. Of 120 books, there
remains only a small part because of the considerable number of them
that were burned at the time of the attacks and invasion, which Persia
had to face, during the thousands of years of their existence. The many
forces and political powers and ideological which attacked Persia
destroyed during thousands of years undoubtedly used to their benefit
the 120 books of AVESTA by translating them into their own language. It
was the same case for the Greeks when they conquered Persia, after the
invasion of Alexander the great and of the Moslems. Many historians’
thinks that Plato knew AVESTA well and he had borrowed from this thought
most of its ideas. Pythagore also knew AVESTA. In his book on the
voyages, we learn that he had met Zaratustra. Its ideas about fire
showed to the historians that Pythagore knew AVESTA well. IRAN
7000 YEARS OF CIVILIZATION year 7026 (= 2004) ARIENE MITRAIQUE The
Persians had THEIR OWN CALENDAR SINCE MORE THAN 7000 YEARS This
calendar sank in forgetfulness, and isolated of history of its people
after the apogee of Islam in Iran. Since 1993, thanks to our research
and our work, the Persian calendar , old of 7000 year old, has once more
been used in the whole
world. The PERSIAN NEW YEAR Persian
New Year’s day (NOWROOZ) starts, since thousands of years, as from the
first day of spring, that is to say the 20 or 21 of march of each year.
During this day, all the family gathers around the table which is
prepared since the previous year and which includes 7 articles starting
with "HS" (Shin) like Sharab (wine), Shekar (sugar), Sham
(candle), Shabnam (flower), Shahnameh (letter of the kings), Shirini
(pastry makings) and Shamshir (sword) which represents the force and the
power. After invasion of the Moslems in Iran, Sin (S) replaced Shin (HS)
because the wine (Sharab) was prohibited by Islam and, instead of
Sharab, one chose Serké (vinegar). Around this table, figure 7 was
always sacred for the Persians and these articles were the articles of
nature, the beauty, the life, the force and the power. Many traditional
Persian festivals were borrowed by other civilizations and religions.
For example, December 21, which is the day of the birth of MITRA, first
Persian prophet, has always been a national festival for 7000 years.
With a few days of shift, it was carried to December 25 and was called
"the day of the birth of Christ". Eastern and sizdahbedar The
13th day of spring, was and is the day when Persians left their city to
attend the great picnic apart from their City. The Jews borrow this
festival the day of their exit from Egypt, under the name of the
"Festival of PESSAH". The Christians - with always a few days
of shift - celebrate the "Festivals of PAQUE". The name is a
Persian term, which means, "clean". The "fish of
April" has also existed for 7000 years in the history of Persia. It
begins with a joke from MITRA towards its people. The "Santa
Claus" was originally AMOUNOWROUZ, which came the first day from
spring, with its white beard and its red coat and its bonnet for giving
gifts to the children. No doubt each people hold his calendar and his
history. The Egyptian people, the Jewish people (currently in his 578ème
year), the Christian people (currently in his 1999ème year), the
Freemasons (today in year 5999) and the Persian, today in 7021
Except
the festivals of New Year's day, and eastern, there are the festivals of
All Saints' day, festivals of the return of spirit towards the ground
which have more than 7000 years for the Persians. In this day, the
celebration of Farah-Vashi (All Saints' day), people dress all in white,
dance and listen to music while protesting: "Let us accommodate the
spirits with cheerfulness" The Definition of the word Aria ARIA,
it is a word; it is a name on which there is a lot to say about. ARIA,
is the name of a population but unfortunately, some time ago, a criminal
had misused the meaning of this word. In recent contemporary history,
there were debates, arguments around this word but undoubtedly,
everyone, all the scientists who know a little history, knows well the
synonym of this word. That which Hitler wanted to obtain from this word,
had nothing to do with million of people who are of the Aryan origin. He
even did not know what the word ARIA meant. And today, fortunately,
everyone knows it. That is why you see everywhere the word ARIA or ARIAN
being used in Europe, in the United States or in the Persian countries
or even in Israel!! In Israel, when you check the yellow pages of any
city of Israel, you see everywhere the word ARIA or ARIAN, and also in
Europe and everywhere else. The people who are wise, intelligent, the
scientists know that this word, which is misused by some people, would
not be a reason to not use it definitively and eternally!! Like the word
"Islam" or "Christianity" or other words. For
example, at the medieval times, we know well how many massacres were
carried out in the name of Christ, who had already died who was no more
among us since already several hundreds of years. But we killed people
by his name. And his name always remained healthy and sizeable and
nobody has said ‘since we killed in the name of Christ we will draw
aside the name of the Christ from the dictionary’. Or in Islam
history, since always, there were many wars, many massacres in the name
of Islam. The day when the Prophet of Islam died, its 2nd caliph starts
to attack the other countries and until today, whether it is Khomeiny or
Ben Laden or Saddam Hossein. We see how some can use the word
"Islam"!! Then when Ben Laden kills in the name of Islam, then
we should say that it is the word Islam that is not good? Then it is
necessary to be afraid of the word Islam and we must draw aside the word
Islam?? NO!!! It is for that reason, that the word ARIAN also, or ARIA
was misused once in contemporary history by Hitler. But afterwards,
everyone found out about the meaning of the word ARIA. To start with,
ARIA comes from the word "AYR", which means" free
people". "ARIEN" mean country, free people. And there is
the word ARMAN, ARMENIAN and IRAN and IRANIAN also which comes from the
word AYR and ARIA or ARIAN...Therefore, IRAN, means "the country of
Ariens" and "Aryan", means free people!! But, if we look
in the dictionary, the synonym of the word ARIA, especially in the
Persian dictionary, since if you want to find the origin of each word,
it is necessary to check in their language, and to seek in their
language of origin. Therefore ARIA was part of a population, which lived
in the ancient Persian plateau, already 7000 years ago before Jesus
Christ, which was between Tadjikistan and the Iran of today and part of
India.... For 9000 years, even more, part of these Arien people have
started to emigrate towards the India of today, and then they went down
to the Persian Gulf and a great part of them went down towards Greece,
Europe and especially Germany. This means that the grand father of the
Iranian, of the Persian countries and of the Indians of India and the
Greeks, the Romans and most of the countries of Europe of today and
America are of the Arien origin.
The exposition of 7000 years of Iranian art in Paris
Roman Greshman grand archaeologist and French researcher in Iran! R.Greshman is a grand
archaeologist and French researcher, with whom the Iranian history is
indebted of great discoveries on its civilisation. In a small article,
he explains us and gives us a diagram of several exposures organised
since 1931 in London until 1961 in Paris: "exactly 30 years ago
from that which opened in London, in 1931, a great exposure of Iranian
art. This was the year where the Iranian Plateau knew the beginning of
its archaeological research. Admittedly, the French Delegation in Persia
counted at that time more third of century of scientific activity but
all her effort, or almost, was related to the site of Suse and the
elamite civilisation whose centre was in the plain of south-west Iran,
It is-with-statement, geographically speaking, in the prolongation of
the Mesopotamia plain. Besides some monuments in ruins were known since
always, of the historical times, achéménides, parthes or sassanides,
which raised and drew by Flandrin and Coste, already in 1840, the past
of the Plateau itself remained " terra incognita" from the
archaeological point of view. This explains the composition of the
London Exposition where, on fourteen rooms, less than two were devoted
to the pre-Islamic Iran.
The Iranian plateau, First grounds of our the sphere Certain historians
confirm that the first grounds of our sphere having emerged from water
were located in a region called in the past era Mesopotamia (old
Persia), as well as of others historians located them in Africa or in
Americas. This justifies perhaps certain resemblance in the old rites
and roots of dialects of these three continents. Roman Greshman, of
which we quote here an extract of the writings concerning the Iranian
plate, is part of the archaeologists and historians who confirm these
theses:
"The
archaeological research which was continued on the Plate, by several
nations, and France initially, allows us to illustrated the Iranian
development of art since the 5th millennium before J-C until 19th
century, without a solution for continuity. Each era is thus represented
here, perhaps of an unequal way according to the ampler of our
documentation. However, which we sought to underline, is the deep cut in
the civilisation and arts of the Plateau, which starts to appear from,
and of the fact, of the arrival of the Iranian elements who gave their
name to this Plateau. The Pre-history The
Mèdes and the Persians, followed by their nearest relatives the Cimmériens
and Scythes, penetrated by successive waves in Iran, by radically
changing the aspects of the human life. The great parcelling out of the
country was to support the Iranian riders: we can suppose that by
entering with the services of many local heads and chieftain, these
mercenaries, that they favoured from of a small field, and who, in
return, were to provide troops made up of their men, replaced little by
little the same heads or chieftain that they use to serve. A slow
substitution had to occur during centuries, which reached in an unequal
way the various parts of the Plateau. What followed had consequences of
cardinal importance for the economic and social life as well as for arts
of the Plate, at the first centuries of the 1st millennium before J-c.
It produced something similar to that knew Italy when that of the cities
replaced the culture of the country «Villanova» after the arrival of
Etrusques. Gradually occurred in Iran, the transformation of the
prehistoric villages whose cultivated art did not exceed, or hardly, the
painted pottery, in boroughs or fortified cities, and the passage of the
agricultural life and countrywoman in "oikos" under authority
of a chieftain or a prince. On artificial terraces surrounded by cities
built on low ground, the houses of those risen; It is the era where they
starts to use more and more of iron, which stimulates a powerful effort
from the workshops of the metallurgists; finally, the horse, certainly
known before but never on such a large quantity, because of its breeding
by these people, that were nomad not long ago, provides to those a new
force which allows them a rapid and deep domination on the conquered
land. At that time also the realisation of great work of irrigation
started. Ecbatane, modern Hamadan, the capital of Mèdes, was founded at
the end of the 8th century before J-C It is also during the second
quarter of the 1st millennium before our era which was born, according
to the Soviet scientists, the three great arts centres of the Iranians
of central Asia: Samarkand, Merv and Balkh. We have admitted as well
that It is for this time as the date of the composition of Gathas, where
the oldest part of AVESTA, the sacred book of the Iranians. What do
these nomads bring on which they have become the undeniable Masters of
the Plateau, in the field of art Rider-warriors and hunters which passed
their life in the animalistic ambience, those who raised and those who
drove out, It is the image of the animal it is snuff above all in the
cultivated arts. Animalistic
art, such as we know it since the beginning of Iranian arts themselves,
such it remained at the posterior times: sometimes one works on a ground
mud by giving him the form a bird or of a horse; sometimes it is
decorated of one head or of protome of an animal; this one climbs on an
axe out of bronze, decorated by a sword, covered on its body of the
harnessing elements. The "zoomorphe junction ", or animal
ornament by a part of another animal, which constitutes to the
characteristic of arts of the nomads of the Eurasia steppes, such as we
knows it in the Scythes of Russia of the south or at their parents of
the valleys of Siberia of the south, which flourish at the pre historic
era in the mède art and will remain sensitive in the posterior artistic
events of Iran. Very significant for new born civilisation from the new
comers were their contacts with the countries of old Orient, with higher
cultures than those of the pre-Iranian inhabitants of the Plateau. It
was found that the Iranians became the immediate neighbours of Elam, of
Babylonia, of Assyrie and Urartu, powers with which they had probably
entered in very close connection, in particular with the last one of
them, of which they even had to undergo their sovereignty at the
beginning. Let us recall
that It is to the 8th century before our era that the Greeks started to
base their colonies on the southern and south-eastern edges of the Black
Sea area close to Transcaucasie towards which Urartu succeeded in
extending its domination and perhaps even earlier, their counters on the
borders of the Eastern Mediterranean. These two factors escaped to us
until the day when the witnesses of the exchanges between Iran
pre-history and the Greeks of 7th and 8th century before our era,
appeared on the islands of those. However, as attracted as they were by
the Western world, the Iranians never broke their connections or bonds,
with the driving world of the Eurasia steppes, the areas which they came
from and where still remained the people to which they were connected,
carrying the cultures they had themselves at one time. Five rooms of our
Exposure are devoted to this period Iranian pre-history of art, which
covers the broad period of the first four centuries of the 1st
millennium before J-c. This is not only the richness of the acquired
collections which justifies importance of their presentation but also,
and especially the fact that we are judicious to recognise in the
achievements of this time the bases of posterior arts which we will know
under the historical dynasties. Because, It is due to the rhyton pre-mède
which will derive the gold achéménide rhyton, exposed in the room
where one can admire arts of the first world empire: It is the sword of
Amlach or of Luristan which announces the golden sword of gold of the
King of the Kings (exposed in the same room), and It is a bronze of
Luristan with two protomés of animals which gave birth to the idea so
largely used by the achéménides architects when they designed the
capitals of the palates in the form of double protomés of bulls, of
lions or of scratch. The historical executives contributed continuously
to the formation of the first Iranian State. Just like the Israelites
tribes, under the pressure of Philistines, chose SAÜL and the royalty,
the Mèdes, which followed by the occupations of their country by
Assyriens, or of the pressure exerted by Urartu, choose the same way
while entrusting their destiny to Deiocès and to its descent. At the
end of the 8th century before our era, the Mèdes formed a kingdom (C
712-550) to which will succeed that of the Persians which will be
founded by Cyrus the great. Two political tribes were presented in front
of Cyrus, this remarkable leader of Man, this strategist with the
powerful talent. In the Occident, it is the possession of the
Mediterranean coast, this minor Asia where, at the border of the rich
Lydie, the Greeks held the maritime bases. On the side of Orient, it is
the assurance of the need of safety. By the creation of a great
organised State which absorbed part of the old cultures, the borders of
the civilised world were moved back far towards East, to the borders of
Oxus (Amou-Daria) and Yaxarte (Syr-Daria), from where they continued to
be driven to the people and the tribes of " the external Iran
". Syrus devoted his life to the tracking of these two goals and
sacrificed it to the second. Few kings left the memory of a similar rise
to that which haloed Syrus. Great captain, leader of Man, he was
favoured by the fate which filled in him. Generous and benevolent, he
never thought of running in the same mould of
the conquered countries and had the wisdom not to change the
pillars of tradition of each kingdom which were connected to his crown.
Everywhere he introduced himself as a successor national kings.
Alexander was not the first to adopt a similar policy; He just had to
follow the example of cyrus to be acclaimed by its new subjects. This
new breath passed on the world, driving out the cries of the cutthroat
victims, extinguishing the fires of the destroyed cities and releasing
the nations reduced to slavery. The Persian named him
"Father"; The Helens saw in him as a "Master" and a
"legislator", and the Jews, a "Oint". Persia, the PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION OF Iran. The
Iranian Plateau is a triangle situated between two depressions, the
Persian Gulf in the South and the Caspian Sea in North. Like a bridge
thrown between central Asia and former Asia, it forms a headland, which
connects the steppes of interior Asia to the plates of Minor Asia and,
beyond this one, with Europe. This situation explains the historical
role, which the Plate during millennia of history of humanity had to
play. Mountains, which rise around depression central, desert today, and
which is the bottom of a desiccated sea delimit this triangle. The
western mountains or Zagros stretches to the north-west to South-east,
on more than 1000 km from length and 200 of width, a high chain of 1000
to 1700 meters, with multiple parallel folds which hide valleys long
from 50 to 100 kilometres and broad from 10 to 20. Below the pastures of
the high parts of these mountains, the remainder of forest, formerly
dense, of oaks, walnut trees, of oaks, wild amandiers and of pistachio
trees. Still at a low level, in the high valleys, the vine, the fig tree
and the pomegranate grows; the culture there is very developed: corn,
barley, poppy, cotton, tobacco. The heat of summer of the low valleys
forces the man that are in charge of the breeding of the goats, sheep
and horses to go up towards the high mountain pastures. Also a strong
part of the population carries out a nomad life, which is imposed to him
by nature and the climate. In the central part of Zagros, a projection
is detached which moves towards west of the plain of Mesopotamia and
which causes the curve of the Tiger which, in this part of its course,
approaches Euphrate. This projection in the shape of a cleaver is like a
threat suspended by the mountain above the plain. And, in fact, It is
from there that left, at the second millennium before J-C, the invasion
of Kassites which lived the actual Luristan and which dominated
Babylonia during more than five centuries. The septentrional part of the
triangle is marked by the chain of Elbourz, with its peak of Demavend
exceeding 5600 meters, and which borders the South of the Caspian Sea by
merging its curve. It is a high and a narrow barrier, which separates
the coastal band, with its luxuriant vegetation, of the centre of the
desert areas. At its end, Elbourz reached the Iranian Azerbaïdjan whose
centre is occupied by the lake of Urmia, area whose population is the
densest of Iran and in the rich valleys where they cultivates the corn,
the millet, cotton, rice, the tobacco, the ricinus, the melons. Called
" medic isthmus ", Azerbaïdjan, by the roads of the
Northwest, the North and the Northeast, which leads us to it, is a
country of penetration of easy to reach. This province, one of the two
"wounds" of mountainous armature of Iran, saw coming, during
history, and installed themselves in the valleys staged around the lake,
the Mèdes and the Persians, the Kurds, the Mongols, Turco-Tatars.
There, were born the dynasties of the mède and of the Persians. There
too, in front of this entry door of Iran, and during centuries, the
Persian empire assembled the guard, barring the road with the multiple
invasions which happened, through the Caucasus, on the steppes of Russia
of the South, by raising there work of fortifications which remain still
upright. A mixture of races, a hard but healthy climate, a fertile
ground, worked out a hard-working and energetic racial type, which
contributed largely to the development and the prosperity of this Old
Iranian province. At the East, the chain of Elbourz form mountains of
Khorassan, not very high and of an easy passage, with a valleys of great
fertility where grew corn, ore, rice, cotton, the vine, the poppy. This
attic of Iran, by its geographical configuration, constitutes the second
"door" of penetration on the plate. There by, flowed a lot of
invaders coming from the Eurasia plains, which cover thousands of
kilometres in North, at the west and to the east. Just like Azerbaïdjan,
the khorassan is a "crossroads" of people and it encountered
the raids of Turcomans until the end of the 19th century. The valley of
Atrek and the plain of Gorgan, between the Caspian Sea and the mountain,
are natural oases of migration towards Iran where sassanides king
raised, to defend oneself, a long brick wall of several kilometres, of
which still remain the vestiges. In this area of Iran of the Northeast
were born several dynasties: those of the Arsacides, the Safavides, and
the Kadjars. Lastly, to the mountains of edge the chain of the South
belongs, called the chain of Makran, which is a bored line of two
passages, one towards Bender-Abbas, formerly a very prosperous dock on
the Gulf of Oman, the other towards East, Beloutchistan and Quetta. In
the central part of the Plate that two interior chains cross, is spread
the great depression of the desert, driest of the world, which is
divided into Dacht and Kevir with North and the Dacht of Lute in the
South. The first part is a succession of basins of mud and of salt where
nothing grows and where no one lives there. By places, around these
hollows, where the ground has a less content salt, living is possible
and one can meet true oases there. Lute, on the other hand, is an
entirely desiccated basin, and the rare explorers who had courage to
traverse this inhospitable desert, affirm that large deserts of central
Asia, such as those of the Gobi, appear to be fertile areas compared to
them
Recent geological
research in Iran could show a time where the major part of Europe was
under the glaciers, the Plateau passed by the rain period during which
even the high valleys were covered with water. Its central part, today a
large salted desert, an immense lake or an inland sea where was
disposed, coming from the high summits, of many torrents. The fossilised
fish and shells weren’t the only ones coming to this desert but often
also of the high valleys, largely illustrate the physical aspect of the
country such as it was several thousands of years before our Christian
era. At a time, which fit approximately between fifteen and ten thousand
years before our era, started to occur a slow change of climate; the
period of rain that succeeded which on indicated under the arid era name
and which continues still nowadays. The reduction in the waterfalls, on
one part, the high level of the lakes and the inland seas, on the other
part, slowed down the course of the torrents and of the rivers which
brought water from the mountains, because of the regularisation of their
flow, accumulates on the corner of the alluvial deposit, forming
terraces which emerged soon and constituted a stage of transition
between the future plain or valley and the mountain itself. At that
time, the prehistoric Man lived already on the Iranian plateau. Hidden
inside dogged holes in the wooded side of the mountain and covered with
branches, or occupying, generally, one of the many caves which are for
the majority of the underground beds of ancients rivers and we have, in
spring 1949, for the first time in Iran, identified the human traces
have course of our exploration of a cave of Tang-i Pabda, in the
mountains of Bakhtiari, in the North-East of Shushtar, Mankind carried
out a life of hunter seeking food, and more often employed the tricks
rather than force; he knew the usage of the stone hammer, blow of fist
as of the axe it is bound in a split stick, all rudimentary tools,
hardly trimmed by the glares. The equipment of bone that he would
represent by cut Alenes in the most resistant bones of the animals is
much less frequent than the stone tools. But already Mankind employed a
hardly cooked coarse pottery, which at the end of its habitat in the
cave, was of a black dark fact of an accentuated fumigation, of ceramic
type also attested in the oldest installations of Mankind on the plain,
and significant index making it possible to attach one to the other two
phases of habitat. It is admitted that in this primitive society, a
particular task dealt with the woman: The first sedentary of the plain 500 years before Jesus-Christ Progressive
drainage of the valleys, due to advancement of the arid period, caused
deep changes under the conditions of existence of Man. The large central
lake decreasing of surface, its edges, where the silt of the torrents
left a fertile deposit, cover of a rich vegetation of pastures and
savannas. The animals, which lived the mountain, went down towards these
lately formed meadows, and Man, which lives of their hunting, followed
them there. Finally abandoning the slopes of the mountains and the
terraces, he installed himself to live there. From this time that we can
roughly place at the 5th millennium before the Christian era we can
follow almost no solution of continuity the evolution of the culture of
Man on the Iranian Plate. Admittedly, this one was influenced
differently according to the areas, the configuration of the ground, the
climate, the contacts with the neighbours, the invasions and the
migrations, but the differences which resulted from it cannot be taken
into account and even still often escaped to us, of the whole areas of
Iran remaining virgin archaeological research until this time.
The
step in the development of the prehistoric civilization of Iran, which
we will indicate per Period 2, is only a more advanced phase of that
which has just been seen. Its remainders accumulate above those, which
corresponded to the installation of Mankind in the plain. No war, no
upheaval violent seems to have disturbed this prehistoric village that
no influence has ever marked from outside. Man, always after the
research of the improvement of its tools, does not indicate either
embellishment or amelioration of its residence. That is how the houses
become larger and the bearings indicated the utilisation of doors. The
cob yields the place to the raw brick, which just got invented. At that
time, the brick is only a lump of mud more or less worked between the
palms of the hands and dried at the sun, and on which hollows marked
with the thumb give more of adherence to the mortar of jointing (fig.
6). It had the advantage on cob to give more regularity to the wall and
to prevent it of cracking. The embellishment of the interior calls upon
the red painting which one coats the walls of the rooms, and who is a
mixture of oxide of iron, if running on the Plate, and of fruit juice;
this fact illustrates the taste of the variety in research of Man and
its capacity of invention. Under the beaten ground, where, from places
to places, a hollow emplacement marked cuts or bowls, to some 15 or 20
centimetres of depth, the dead, remained near of the hearth of family.
For the affinity of the taste, which appears in the arrangement of the
residence also, arises from the new ceramics. Beside the products which
existed previously, another pottery appeared, of more reduced forms, but
of a better look than before and cooked better, attesting to the
invention of the spinner simple wooden plate posed on ground and
manoeuvred by an assistance, and the improvement of the furnace. The
great attraction of this ceramics, its innovation, lies in its
decoration which reproduces in black on dark red bottom, of the of
animals continuations: leaping birds, wild boars, ibexes. By simple
features, the images on the potter full animals, of a vigorous realism,
and, almost simultaneously, it slips towards a simplification of its
naturalistic reason, towards a stylisation in which it is often
difficult to find the primitive subject (fig. 7). Since this time, the
prehistoric Iran reveals an art as fresh in ceramics as in its products
of carved bones since its beginnings.
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