The iron secret south of Lake Urmia was revealed; Discovery of the ancient workshop

This iron production area has been documented through scientific exploration in this area. Archaeologists hope that the completion of this project will lead to other archaeological researches in the iron metallurgy basin in the region south of Lake Urmia.

Salah Salimi, head of the archeological board of “Vesta Sheikh” said:

This area is located in the south of West Azarbaijan province, in the south of Mahabad city and on the dirt road from Kani Sepi village to Kani Rash and about one kilometer from the main road from Mahabad to Sardasht.

According to this archaeologist, “Wasta Sheikh” is a relatively small area on a gentle slope inside a small valley, and the remains of iron production (including slag, iron ore, pieces of clay tails) are scattered in an area of ​​about half a hectare. In this excavation, archaeologists have concluded that “Vesta Sheikh” is considered an industrial area and basically, the Resh mineral area is not a suitable area for living due to its mountainous nature, and for this reason, we see the formation of seasonal industrial areas in small dimensions and thin layers in this area. .

Vesta Sheikh, head of the archeological board, said:

Although due to the weather conditions, the exploration continued in a limited way, but it had significant results. These results include a large amount of diverse range of slags in round form, iron ore that had not yet entered the smelting process, a large number of broken clay tails of the furnace and parts related to the body of the iron smelting furnace. The initial investigations of the findings indicate the production of iron in the sponge way, and the next phase of this project will focus on the laboratory analysis of the findings and accurate dating of the area.

The Vesta Sheikh area was identified along with 17 other areas in 2018 under the supervision of Salah Salimi in the framework of the investigation of iron smelting areas in the Rash Mahabad and Barikaye Sardasht areas, and according to thermoluminescence tests, some of the areas were dated to the Parthian and Islamic periods (Seljuq period). . In the continuation of this project, to understand more about iron metallurgy and to answer basic questions such as “When and how did iron metallurgy start in this region?” Also, in order to complete the information about the iron production cycle in the southern region of Lake Urmia, limited exploration in the area of ​​Vesta Sheikh Kani Rash Mahabad was put on the agenda.