2024-02-10 16:16:27
8 kilometers northeast of Sulduz (Naghada) city of Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province and 10 kilometers south of Lake Urmiya, there is a historical monument called Hasanli Hill. Although today it is ignored by Iranian officials, world-renowned archaeologists continue to research and write books about the importance and history of this hill.
Hasanli Hill, a heritage from the Iron Age of Iran and the Middle East, is not a priority for Iran, so it has been provisionally registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and has not been officially registered.
Hasanli Hill, which was included in the list of national monuments in Iran in 1965, according to archaeologists’ researches, has hosted cultures in 10 different periods throughout history, the 10th period being 8,000 years ago. The 1st period, considered the closest culture, belongs to the Elkhanli period. According to archaeologists, of these 10 periods, the most important 3rd and 4th periods belong to three to four thousand years ago.
The historical hill in its most glorious times consisted of a large fortress surrounded by a wall 3 meters thick and 7 meters high. This wall was protected by seven square 10×10 meter towers with a distance of 30 meters from each other.
Archaeological studies were conducted by 5 different teams on this historical hill measuring 250X285 meters and 20 meters high, the first of these studies was conducted by the Iranian team in 1934, the second in 1936 by the British archaeologist Mark Avrel Stein, and the third and fourth studies were conducted by Iran again in 1947-1949. by archaeologists and the fifth and most accurate work was started in 1955 under the leadership of the American archaeologist, Professor Robert H. Dyson, but was left unfinished as a result of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. At that time, the world-famous Hasanli gold bowl was discovered. After the Islamic Revolution, archeological works were continued from time to time, and the most important discovery of this period was the different three-pillared temples.
Archaeologists named Hasanli Hill the Pompeii of the Middle East (a famous historical city in Italy). The reason is that the works on the layer of the hill from 3-4 thousand years ago remained untouched. The sudden collapse of the brick fort after a big fire caused by an enemy attack, and as a result, the preservation of the artifacts helped archaeologists to obtain important information about the culture of that period.
One of the most important features of the historical hill is its architectural style. A hall consisting of four rows of columns measuring 430 square meters was discovered during the work of the American team in the part of the historical hill dating back to 4,000 years ago. it is considered a symbol of a great evolution in the culture of that time. This hall is the oldest pillared hall found in Iran.
In an interview in 2019, the director of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Handicrafts of West Azerbaijan Province stated that 14,000 historical objects were discovered from Hasanli Hill, but he also stated that 7,000 of these 14,000 objects are stored in Iranian museums, he did not provide information about other objects. He also stated that 27 of these objects are designated as national works of Iran.
The most important of the objects discovered on this historical hill is the world-famous Hasanli Golden Bowl. Made of 950 grams of pure gold, the history of this piece dates back to 3200 and 3500 years ago. Found by Robert Dyson in 1957, the reason for the popularity of this object is the patterns on it and the meanings those patterns carry. According to archaeologists, these patterns reflect religious and epic tales. The most important and famous of the patterns are the patterns of the 3 gods, i.e. water, earth and sun god. Robert Dyson later said in his memoirs about the discovery of the golden bowl: “The Hasanli Golden Bowl is such a work that the discovery of it is enough for the life of every archaeologist.”
Although the historical hill is not noticed by the Iranian authorities today, the famous archaeologists and historians of the world continue to sift the information obtained from this historical hill to find light in the deep darkness of history.
In a 2018 article written by a historian named Migen Cifarelli from Columbia University in the United States and published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, research on the patterns of the golden cup and other documents obtained from the hill concluded that homosexuals were accepted in that period along with men and women.
Voice of America