Word: negahban
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...treasure hunt was unwittingly begun by Professor Negahban when he organized a routine archaeological survey of the thousands of man-made mounds that dot the valleys leading to the Caspian Sea. Remnants of forgotten cities whose mud-brick buildings and ramparts have long since crumbled, all the mounds looked interesting. But one afternoon last fall Dr. Negahban walked out of a forest in the Goha Valley and spotted five of them piled close together. "I knew instinctively," he says, "that I had found my quarry...
Full-Dress Dig. Dr. Negahban's party made exploratory borings in a mound named Marlik aftera nearby olive grove. Out of the red earth came gold buttons, small bronze cows, red carnelian beads, and two cylindrical seals used to roll impressions on moist claydocuments. The University of Teheran granted Dr. Negahban funds for a full-dress dig, and the 400-ft.-long boat-shaped mound was systematically excavated...
...pouring vessel heavily inlaid with carved golden animals. One of the creatures has a human body, with a bird's wings and two animal heads. In its outstretched arms it holds two winged lions. On another part of the vessel a golden lion attacks a golden deer, Dr. Negahban suspects that these symbols are religious...
Most of the treasures of Marlik Mound are already safe in the Iranian Archaeological Museum, but new finds always give Dr. Negahban something else to guard. By now he is surfeited with gold; he would rather dig up a clay tablet...
Still, there are four more mounds to be excavated, and Dr. Negahban hopes that these will tell him what ancient people lived in the Goha Valley and buried their treasure there. "I won't leave a scrap," he says. "I won't budge until all the mounds are finished...