A team of Iranian and foreign archaeologists recently began a new phase of excavations at the 6000-year-old Rahmatabad Tepe near Pasargadae in the Marvdasht region of Far Province, Masud Rezaii Monfared, the director of the Marvdasht Cultural Heritage and Tourism Office, announced. Experts from the Parseh and Pasargadae Foundation and the Archaeology Institute of the University of Tehran led by Dr. Hassan Fazeli Nashli, and a number of U.S. archaeologists led by Reinhard Bernbeck and Susan Pollock from Binghamton University will be conducting the excavation.
     Located 140 kilometers north of Shiraz, the provincial capital of Fars, Rahmatabad Tepe is one of the most significant ancient sites in the Marvdasht region. The tepe dates to the Chalcolithic era like the Tall-e Bakun site on the plain of Persepolis. Many unique artifacts have already been discovered by Iranian experts at the site during their geophysics surveys. “The operation will be carried out in two stages, which will last a total of 70 days. The first stage is dedicated to random excavations which will be completed in 45 days and then the team will follow up the work through library research,” Rezaii said.

Source: Mehr News (6 June 2005)