New Discoveries in Iran Reveal an Ancient Civilization That May Have Predated Mesopotamia's Rise by Thousands of Years

New Discoveries in Iran Reveal an Ancient Civilization That May Have Predated Mesopotamia's Rise by Thousands of Years

Beneath the rugged mountains of southeastern Iran, archaeologists are carefully unearthing traces of a Bronze Age society that could upend the accepted narrative of where writing and urban life began. The discoveries are emerging from the twin mounds of Konar Sandal, near the Halil River in the Kerman province — a region long dismissed as peripheral in the story of early human civilization. The ancient settlement, widely referred to as the Jirof…