Dec 00 - In a tunnel at 'Bard Conteh' (Mannaean, early 1st mill. B.C.) leading to an ancient shrine (Tepe Shaytan?, Yezidi?), West Azerbayjan prov.

(Continued from the write-up under the photo of the 4 Kurds)

- The next day someone I'd asked the day before made a point to tell me that he thought Tepe Shaytan or Sheitan might be in a village 4 km.s or so from town (but west, not east). Once there, I asked @ and was told by some locals (the 4 men in the last photo) that they thought a low mound right there with garbage strewn around it was called Tepe Shaytan/Sheitan, but had no clue why. (The last shot was taken of the 4 on that mound.) Around a bend a few 100 m.s on and north of the village near the hwy. was another low mound, this one of solid rock, with carved steps and a platform, and a low, small, squarish tunnel carved into it at the top (shown here). According to a sign this was "Bard Conteh - historical location (1st millenium BC)", Median or Mannaean. I crawled in and along with my flashlight to a roughly carved chamber inside, all too low to stand in, but there could be much fill from over the years. There was soot on the walls and ceiling, and it was warm inside, geothermally warm! I know that Yezidism is practised in northwest Iran, and this area could be a centre for it, and as a living religion it requires a functioning temple or shrine (preferably one you can STAND in), but Bard Conteh isn't it. It might've been once, one of a number in the area maybe, or it could have been used for some Median or Mannaean forebear to Yezidism, but for all the reasons given (the town's reputation, the inscrutable locals, etc.), I think Tepe Shaytan/Sheitan is in use deep inside a mtn. east of town.

- Crawling at the far end of the cave I found a shed snake's skin and it occurred to me that I should crawl right back out. I was told later that a local wouldn't have crawled in there for fear of poisonous snakes.

- Just so you know, I don't believe in Satan, etc. (I wouldn't seek him out if I did), and I'm not religious, I was just having fun being a sleuth for a couple days.

- Bard Conteh is explored in this trippy video at the 5 1/2 minute point: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_D4Jfqy3rA

The narrator states in a hypnotic voice that "archaeologists believe that this place was an ancient temple..." and that "it is ... likely that [it] was built during [the] Mannaean era [early in the 1st mill. BC]. The height of the stairs [carved into the outcrop] are not equal. The peak seems to be someone's grave. On the bottom [near the top in fact, as you can see in the video] there is a hole 75 cm.s in height and 50 cm.s wide. The hole ends in a room which makes it look like a water chamber to transfer water to the peak." ?? The stone ceiling of the room below the 'peak' is only a few feet thick. "Bard Conteh" is nowhere else to be found online, only in that video.

 

Update: I've done the occasional google search for 'Tepe Shaytan' with variations in the spelling of both words, with the name of the town, and for 'Bard Conteh' with Iran, and aside from the video in the link I still haven't found anything on-line as to what I've written about in my comments to this and the last 2 photos. That could be a good thing. I did find this however.: www.allempires.com/Forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29356&OB... , Someone posted my photos and comments (I've made some edits since) to the 'allempires' forum. He wrote that he knows nothing of this shrine and next to nothing of Yezidis in Iran, and which is saying something as he's of Kurdish/Yezidi heritage in part and has a real interest in such things.

 

- Here's another recent find with a google search.: www.academia.edu/6858753/Veneration_of_Satan_among_the_Ah... "Veneration of Satan among the Ahl-e Haqq of the Gûrân region" ("the mountainous districts north of the Kermanshah-Qasr-e Shirin road that were once the core of the Gûrân emirate"), Martin Van Bruinessen in the 'Fritillaria Kurdica' or 'Bulletin of Kurdish Studies', No. 3, 4/03, 2014.

- Some Iranians tour Lalish in Iraq, very interesting.: youtu.be/mJ0ICR0M1FA

 

- From 'Bard Conteh' I walked further north and came across and explored an abandoned, or at least empty, military installation, with rooms arranged around something of a courtyard. There was a huge inscription on an inner wall. I'll scan a photo.

 

Update, March, '24: I've found an article written just over 2 yr.s ago published online re the first archaeological 'investigation' at 'Bard Conteh', which has been identified as Mannaean. I've copied and pasted parts of it just below, but I've edited it for fluency. (English is hard.) Initially I tried to include square brackets for my edits, but there were too many.

- Analysis of pottery indicates "that the site belongs to an Iron Age III settlement; pottery sherds excavated from the site are similar to those excavated at Mannaean sites such as Tepe Qalaychi, Tepe Rabat, Tepe Ziwiye, Qal’e Bardineh, Zendan-i Soliyman and Kul Tarike. ... The site is comprised of two mounds; in a south-north orientation, the main mound which contains the rock-cut structures is the taller of the 2. It has a rock-soil structure that consists of travertine (lime-stone) and covers an area of @ 81 × 75 m.s at an altitude of @ 1300 m.s above sea level.

- The first archaeological study [of] Bardeh-Konte was conducted by Kleiss in the 60s in an Iranian northwestern survey [of] Urartian sites. He published his study results in 1970 in AMI Archaeological Journal [and incorrectly identified the site as Urartian]. Kleiss referred to the site as Sheytan Abad (whose proper name is Tepe Sheytan) [! There's more than one!] (Kleiss, 1970: 117). Actually, Tepe Sheytan was the name of a settlement area contemporary to Tepe Bardeh-Konte @ 1 km. away from it. [Or there's more than 2.] The last archaeological investigation at Tepe Bardeh-Konte was conducted in the summer of 2012. The site was surveyed and stratified under the direction of Mohammad Gorbani. ...

- "On the southern side of the mound at @ 2 m.s above ground level there appears a rock-cut wall measuring 5/50 × 3/60 m.s, comparable to the façade wall at Fakhrigah. The depth of the wall is @ 90 cm.s and it lacks any inscriptions or reliefs. There's an entrance to a rock-cut tunnel in the rock cape [?] on the southern side. ... It's likely that the interior of the tunnel had been naturally developed by water penetration and erosion and the stone-carver took advantage of this natural condition [to carve out and mold the tunnel and interior chamber]. We can't define the proper function of this rock-cut tunnel based on the existing data [nor that of the inner chamber?]; further archaeological investigation is required, however it seems that the rock-cut complex had a ceremonial or ritual function in Mannaean times. The access to the entrance of the tunnel is at the top of the mound. @ 1 meter from the tunnel entrance there is no ceiling [? there are no holes in the 'ceiling' inside}; then its dimensions limit to 100 × 80 m.s. The length of the tunnel entrance corridor is @ 5 m.s and has a slight deviation to the west. The tunnel ends in a vast space measuring 4.56 × 4 m.s with no specific geometrical shape. The eastern wall of this space had been worked and carved carefully with architectural elements such as corners, 2 pillars, and a tablet /b/ the pillars. [! A tablet?] The ceiling in this part had been smoothed almost flat, and reached a height of @ 1.65 m.s from the floor to the ceiling [which sounds about right]. The beginning of the eastern wall had been carved out at an angle of 40 degrees, to a length of 2.5 m.s and a width of 1.3 m.s. The first pillar in the wall is 1.3 m.s in height. The rectangular shaped pillar is 155 × 30 × 20 cm.s. The space /b/ the pillars had been carved into the shape of a tablet measuring 190 × 160 cm.s. On the western wall, which is entirely natural, are two corridor shaped spaces developed by natural erosion. Beyond the 2nd pillar is a framed entrance to another tunnel measuring 70 × 67 cm.s. The length of this corridor is 11.15 m.s, 67 x 64 cm.s wide at its narrowest and 74 × 84 cm.s at its widest; preceding this corridor we enter a space with a total height of 1.74 m.s and width of 1.14 m.s. The ceiling in this section had been cut in canonical shape. [?] Passing through this part there is another framed entrance measuring 64 × 60 cm.s. The space behind this entrance, to a depth of 1 m.s and a height of 1.6 m.s is the last part of this tunnel and rock-cut structure" where I think I found the snake-skin.

- "Conclusion: "... Mannaeans, taking into account their own benefits, played an important role in outbalancing powers in the region by being ally of one of Urartian or Assyrian powers." [I didn't edit that last line.] This could indicate that the Mannaean state had gained acceptance by the great powers of Urartu and Assyria in the 9th century B.C. The Mannaeans had a higher status in regional political relations than other ethnic groups in NW Iran. ..."

www.persicaantiqua.ir/article_133736_db4a5f203d2bc235897f...

 

 

- The next morning I took a bus back to up Tabriz. My trip in Iran had come full circle. I bought a long distance bus-ticket for a journey clear across Turkey, back to Istanbul. I'd be home for Christmas.

- The POET'S MAUSOLEUM, Maqbarat-o-shoara (1971, modernist or post-modernist) - That 2nd visit to the city I made a point to visit a large, abstract construction with interlocking concrete arches that I'd seen photos of my first visit, the site of a modern mausoleum for celebrated Tabrizi poet Ostad Shahriyar and where 400 famous poets and scholars are commemorated, whose tombs were lost in the city's earthquakes. www.flickr.com/photos/bijantaravels/3032400231/ It's on a small island in a large pond or reflecting pool in a park if I recall and I've been reminded of it by photos I've seen of the famous, very much larger, modernist Capitol complex in Dhaka. www.flickr.com/photos/bijantaravels/3032400231/ But it's the poets commemorated there that are of interest, not so much the concrete construction. (To be continued.)

 

 

Done