Expert unearths underground rock-cut architecture in Iran

Iranian archeologist unearths underground rock-cut architecture during the first excavation season of Tappeh Qaleh in Robat-Aghaj Village in Khomeyn, Markazi Province.

“The architecture indicates that the complex, which dates as far back as the Middle Islamic centuries (the sixth and seventh centuries AH) had residential application,” the Public Relations Office of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT) reported recently.

Head of the excavation team Majid Montazer-Zohouri said the rock-cut architecture had been made in a conglomerate ground, some of the architectural evidence of which are observable today.

“He pointed to two main north-south and east-west corridors, saying that the main north-south corridor is approximately 90 meters long and 1.5 meters wide,” the public relations office quoted.

Montazer-Zohouri also noted that the study of pieces of the monument was postponed to the next excavation season due to the completion of the excavation period.

He added, “The inhabitants of the rock-cut spaces for their settlement in the area had made rooms on the two sides of the corridors with different sizes and so far seven rooms in the north-south corridor and three rooms in the east-west corridor have been discovered.”

“Except for a room which has cruciform form and was probably a public space, the other rooms are in diverse sizes with square or rectangular pattern and had residential application,” the expert also said.

He mentioned that the team has found some metal pieces related to the fastening devices of wooden doors, glass pieces, beads and bone remaining pieces.

Montazer-Zohouri concluded by saying archaeological facts suggest that the complex has a refuge and residential use which, after the mentioned period of time, had been abandoned and part of it, the east-west corridor, had been turned to a place for livestock breeding.

MG/AI