Uncovering Iran's Lost Civilization: Jiroft, an Ancient Civilization That Remained Hidden Until 2001

In 2001, a flash flood on a plain in southern Iran, exposed the archaeological remains of a previously unknown ancient civilization. The beautiful and captivating finds that came out of the ground brought to light the 4,000 year old Bronze Age culture that prospered alongside the likes of the Indus and Mesopotamian civilizations. An ancient, possibly mythological city whos discovery could forever change our understanding of history, like that of the legendary Troy and elusive Punt. This is Jiroft: Iran’s Lost Civilization

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RESOURCES

Review: Jiroft and "Jiroft-Aratta" A Review Article of Yousef Madjidzadeh, "Jiroft: The Earliest Oriental Civilization" Reviewed Work: Jiroft: The Earliest Oriental Civilization by Yousef Madjidzadeh

5000-year-old objects recovered in Jiroft, Tehran Times, 2018

Jiroft is the ancient city of Marhashi: U.S. scholar, Tehran Times, 2008

Indus Components in the Iconography of a White Marble Cylinder Seal from Konar Sandal South (Kerman, Iran) by Massimo Vidalea & Dennys Frenezb, South Asian Studies 2015

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#ancientIran #Archaeology #Iran #mesopotamia

[lambert]

The sad thing is that so few people know of this incredible civilization, even among professionals. I just had the privilege of visiting Jiroft today and the museum there (displaying exclusively the relics of Jiroft civilization), and I was astounded. The Jiroft civilization was just as old and sophisticated as the other major civilizations of its time. The relics I saw in the museum were astonishingly creative and sophisticated artworks. Huge pottery vessels; vessels made of soapstone with intricate designs, showing serpents, scorpions, and some other animals, almost always adorned with bones and precious stones; little toys made of bronze; small statues made of marble; board games made of soapstone in the shape of animals and a 'scorpion-man.'
I believe the Jiroft civilization deserves no less attention than civilizations like Egypt and Sumer.

[aqmorisny]

Thank you for making the video about the history of my country Iran.
I have heard about Jiroft historical sites in the past but I didn't know what exactly the story was, your work is pretty amazing and educational.
You can find a new old civilization with Every shovel you put in the soil of Iran(a little bit of exaggeration).
We have a piece of land in a rural area in countryside we had a plan for constructing a new house on the land, so I picked up and shovel and a pickaxe to prepare the foundation, after some days of breaking sweats, I found some old tools such as jars, rusty knives, hooks, trowels, jar leads, a clay oven under the first layer of the soil.
It turns out that the tools were for the mother of my grandfather, there was an old house there and after the migration of my grandfather to Tehran the old house has been turned ruined they decided to bring the remaining down to the floor and some old tools of them remained under the soil.
Today my country facing a huge problem, the Islamic Republic, this type of government try to destroy people's minds by forcing the Islamic religion in all form you could imagine
They force women to wear hijab, you have watched the news about Mahsa Amini's sad story which is happening all the time in Iran.
Ironically some of their reasons for killing and putting oppression of people are historical, the Mullahs(Islamic clerics) say that the hijab historically is a part of Iranian culture, they show images of Takht-e-Jamshid that men wear full cloth and say they are women and this is reason for hijab from before Islam for women! I know it is crazy but happening in Iran.
Many people and I would like to change the situation by bringing a secular democracy to Iran.
Please help many of the Iranian people with creating content about clothing in the ancient history of Iran, if you can.
I wrote a lot, Thank you for your time.

[talitek]

THIS IS SO COOL! Thank you so much for sharing. I had no idea this culture existed, even though I've been on a massive Bronze Age binge recently. Can't wait to learn more about this civilization!
I wonder if we'll be able to interpret the writing system and find out what language they spoke. Would be incredibly cool if we learn it's an Indo-European language.

[upasanasarmah]

It was so beautifully made... you have such a excitement in your face when you talk about this kind of things. I love that.. Good to have you back. 🤗

[williamking]

I remember reading about this around 2004 or 2005 in either a short newspaper or magazine article (might have been Archaeology Magazine, I had a subscription back then), and it was indeed quite exciting to learn about. I have not kept up much with archaeological news from then until quite recently, so it is so cool to find out more. The scripts that were shown are quite amazing. Hopefully the Joroftians' writing will someday be decoded and their language translated so we can fill in the gaps of ancient Middle Eastern history.

[lawrence]

Always good to learn of something new. Thanks Raven, great video.

[IranAzadLoading]

Thank you :) jiroft was likely related to Elam. The oldest Lion and Sun symbol that is traditionally on the flag of Iran has been found in Jiroft

[camillastacey]

The artwork is absolutely amazing, it looks so contemporary in a lot of ways, seeing how excited you were made me feel super emotional!

[Artur_M.]

An immensely fascinating topic!
I remember learning for the first time about this civilisation from a video by History with Cy (a really cool channel) two years ago like it was last month.

[meysamghahremaninejad]

I appropriate for pointing out the looters issues. one of my distant relative found a ancient burial ground in a cave near a remote seasonal lake in west part of Iran {He was poor and jobless and had mouth to feed} and upon he founded an Artifact (I did not see the Artifact but the one who saw it describe it as an angel like figurine made out of eroded metal or something, most likely belonging to Sassanian era). he was smart enough to not tell anyone about the site, so he come up with a fake back story about the artifact being a family heritage, so he met the smugglers who promises him a lot of money, then they took it from him by pointing a gun at his head and left him alone in the cold freezing mountains, after this incident he did not dare to go back to the burial ground but after few weeks the government agents became interested about some rumors and starting asking question, and soon they arrested him, turns out somehow the smugglers had been caught and led the agents to him, so they beat him for good and finally he told them where he founded the Artifacts. He remained in prison for some years, His family fell apart, And utimately perished in addiction

[budgetgitarr]

5:33 If I travel to Egypt and start looking for ancient artefacts to sell one could say that I'd be part of a pyramid sceme.

[mozhgansavabieasfahani]

Thank you for bringing attention to Jiroft. Jiroft deserves much more international attention and investigation than it has received. Islamic Republic should be given credit for recovering thousands of artifacts from Jiroft. Neglect of Jiroft, I suspect, is because of the racism that has been cultivated by US propaganda against Iran. Comparable important archaeological sites in Turkey, for example, have received much more attention than Jiroft. But, if Iranian people are anything it is enduring and persistent. Jiroft will persist and it will be adequately studied. زن زندگی آزادی. Women, life, freedom.

[velvetgoldmine]

Fantastic video Raven! I'm excited to learn more about this civilization! The artifacts found were beautiful, and it would be amazing to have a more complete understanding of the history of the area.

I love the empathy you showed to poor people trying their best to survive 💖The world is hard out there, and capitalism is broken. I thought I couldn't love you more than I did after learning of our shared affinity for Moulin Rouge, but this sent me over the moon! Keep up the awesome work!

[golddragonette]

I'm an archaeologist, and yes the loss of context is severe - but people were trying to not starve!!

[elihinze]

Just when it starts to feel like we've uncovered all we can, something else amazing rises from the sands. And right between two world-changing ancient cultures, no less!
Also... perhaps a video on rainbows in the ancient world is in order? 👀

[mcburcke]

Great info! BTW, the second "script" example at 13:00 immediately struck me as being musical notation rather than a language script. Just my impression. But, on the sample tablet in the video has only eight symbols on it; there are eight notes in a musical octave. Other tablets may expand the number of this type of symbology, but this one tablet is very intriguing for what it may be.

[dougniergarth]

Haha . . I see your game of Ur back there. It made me smile.
This is the first I've heard of the this new possible culture and I thank you for bringing it to wider attention!

[DinoTamer-]

This is so cool! Thanks so much for all this new info!

[jerrycratsenberg]

Wow! Thank you so very much for sharing this exciting discovery. By the way, I like your sweater! Thank you also for your compassion for the looters.

[rolandcooke]

That was wonderful, thanks for educating us!