Ahead of Their Time

As his team unearthed a cache of 73 stone steles buried in a mound in southwestern Iran, archaeologist Abbas Moghaddam of the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research added yet one more question to his growing list about the people who lived at the ancient settlement of Chega Sofla some 6,000 years ago. Since he started leading excavations in 2016 at this site amid the rich agricultural fields of the Zohreh Valley, 10 miles north of the Persian Gulf, Moghaddam and his team have found surprise after surprise that have both deepened and complicated their understanding of the farmers who lived there during the Later Village Period (ca. 5000–3700 b.c.). The cache of steles, some of which were carved with depictions of ibexes confronting each other, was found beneath the floor of the village’s temple. This is the first temple that dates to this period—also known as the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age—to have been excavated in Iran.

Eric A. Powell is deputy editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.