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The quest for the mysterious, hidden, past has been with me from the childhood. From the days of wishful diggings for treasures in the dark recesses of the old house, to the sinful thrill of raiding my grandfather's old chest to find all sorts of wonderful, mysterious objects. This, together with a sense of our own mortality, creates a powerful force for wanting to know about and particularly to discover the past. My interest in the history of Iran took a turn for more intense when I left for Britain in 1979. As I read more, I became more focused on the history of my home town area, Kerman and soon discovered my own dusty, hidden, chest of treasures.  

 
Major archaeological sites from the fourth and third millennia BC

Following an archeological survey of the South-East Iran in 1930's by Sir Auriel Stein, in 1960's and 1970's a number of archeological expeditions spent a few seasons digging at different locations through the Kerman province. Of these, three teams are worthy of mention; one team from Harvard University lead by Professor Lamberg-Karlovsky focused on different layers of the 7000 years old Tape-Yahya at Sogan valley; another team from Illinois University lead by Professor Joseph Caldwell worked on the remains of Tal-i-Iblis, another 7000 years old settlement and a third team by Iranian Department of Archaeology, lead by Mr Hakemi, dug the rich graveyards of the 6000 years old Shahdad near the great Lut desert. The wealth of discoveries though great, went almost unnoticed by the public in the pursuant academic research in the form of Doctorate theses and expedition reports and scientific journal papers. Little attempt was also made to correlate the findings at different sites.

 
The oldest Standard in the world, Shahdad, 3000 BC

In the mid eighties, when I was working on my own PhD at Bristol University , I had an opportunity to simultaneously carry out an exhaustive international inter-library search and collect almost all the published and unpublished papers and reports on the archaeological excavations in Kerman and the surrounding regions. Similar to sifting through a mound of human remains, I laboriously sifted, combed through and compared the detailed academic jargon to piece together the way of life and the history of these fascinating prehistoric people whom with their relatives and contemporaries, Sumerians at Mesopotamia, civilized the world.

       
    Soap stone bowl, Shahdad, 3000 BC                 Clay figurine, Shahdad, 3rd Millennia BC

 
Ceremonial in-laid chlorite  figurines                                Carved stone bowl             
            Jiroft, 3rd millennia BC                                                   Jiroft, 3rd millennia BC

Shortly after the publication of the book and as a result of flush flooding that laid open parts of a vast prehistoric burial site in the fertile Jiroft basin, the interest in the Kerman prehistory took a cynical turn. Organized digging and looting of the hundreds of unprotected archeological mounds and settlements in the Jiroft area by locals which were tempted by the financial rewards of international smugglers and antique dealers, created a tragic period before the authorities could control the situation and in which thousands of exquisite artifacts of the great Arrata civilization of Kerman were dug unrecorded and smuggled out of the country. Even now, occasionally the news of presentation for sale of some looted artifacts at auctions or discoveries of some others at airports or warehouses of some Persian Gulf states and other countries including hit the headlines.

Jem stone in-laid chlorite cup, 3rd millennia BC
(One of the looted and smuggled items)  

This heart breaking event had such a profound effect on me that for a while I went into denial and completely detached myself from the subject. However, the subsequent wonderful work being carried out by Professor Majidzadeh in the area and the wealth of new information coming out, together with the fact that the book is now almost out of print, makes it necessary that an updated and extended version of the book to appear. I am looking for some spare time to do that.

 
The beautiffuly formed and exquisitly carved stoneware of Jiroft basin indicate the
highly advanced artistic abilities of the 5000 years old prehistoric people of Kerman 

Following the publication of the early Civilizations of Kerman which deals with a period between 5000 and 2000 BC, I spent some time researching for another book dealing with the period from 2000 BC (coming of the Arians to the region) to the advent of Islam. This is my current project on the subject and I hope to finish it in the summer.

 
Jiroft, 3rd millennia BC