Petroglyphs recently discovered at a site near the town of Gotvand in Iran are being threatened by the use of heavy machinery in nearby construction projects, reported the Persian, Mehr News Agency.
Recently members of the Khuzestan’s Friends of the Cultural Heritage Association (TARIANA) and the Bum-o-Aftab Friends of the Cultural Heritage Society have discovered a number of sandstone panels bearing eleven petroglyphs consisting of ibex and human forms.
In 2009, four similar petroglyphs had been discovered by archaeologists in the same area.
A TARIANA spokesman Mojtaba Gahestuni said, “The traffic of the mechanical excavators working for the Environment Department may cause the destruction of the petroglyphs”
TARIANA has sent official letters to both the Khuzestan Environment Department and Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department highlighting the situation, and their fear for the destruction of the petroglyph panels.
However, despite these protests, neither organisation has responded and the construction work is continuing without any further investigation of the artefacts.
The date of these petroglyphs remains unknown as no research has ever been carried out on them, however, the presentation of the Ibex motif is known from a wide range of periods – beginning in the Natufian (12,500 to 9,500 BCE) to the recent past, therefore further research would be required to provide more accurate dating.
Source: Past Horizons [December 09, 2010]