09-04-2007, 08:10 AM
Quote:I see two references to the "Burnt City" but no reference to what it was or what period it belongs to.Like Jiroft, the Burnt City belongs to the most ancient urban settlements in Iran: the top levels date back to the first half of the third millennium BCE. Lower levels still have to be excavated, but it is very likely that these were cities as early as the fourth millennium.
This proves -at the very least- that Sumeria was not the only "cradle of civilization"; and in fact it more spectacular theories have been developed. One of them is that it all started in Iran, and that civilization (defined as urban life) moved from there to the Indus Valley and to Elam. This may explain the linguistic similarities between the Dravidian languages of India and ancient Elamite.
As far as I know, those linguistic similarities are not really proved; and only two text are known from Jiroft, still undecifered. So, evidence is almost absent. Still, some chapters from our class books on ancient history need to be rewritten (more...), and the spectacular theory might indeed be the "future history of prehistory".
