Mystery of jar burial in Iran's Gohar Tepe

[emad]

LONDON, November 7 (IranMania) - The discovery of the burial place of an adult in a jar in Gohar Tepe of Mazandaran, has faced the archaeologists active in this area with new questions, CHN reported.

Gohar Tepe in Mazandaran province is one of the most important historical sites of Iran. Evidence shows that from 7000 years ago to the first millennium before Christ, a lot of people lived in the region, enjoying urban life structures since 5000 years ago; the discovery of architectural structures and graves in this region are evidence of continual life during the later centuries there.

Previous to this a kind of jar burial was discovered in the region, with an infant in it. Due to the discovery we came to the conclusion that the children might have been buried in jars within the Iron Age (3450 to 2550 years ago). Now the recent discovery of the skeleton of an adult man in the jar faced us with new questions,? says Ali Mahforouzi, head of excavation team of Gohar Tepe in Mazandaran.

The clay remains which have been discovered in the vicinity of this jar burial indicates that they should have belonged to the Iron Age, but we have not discovered any kind of adult jar burial during this period so far,? added Mahforouzi.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=37461&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

[benburch]

1. Perhaps it was to conceal a murder?

An anomalous burial seems to me as though it could be an evidence of a crime.

Consider an archeologist examining the remains of the USA 3000 years from now. 99.999% of burials are in caskets either buried 6' deep, usually in a vault or in mausoleums, but every now and then they find one burial in a plastic tarp buried shallow...

[htuttle]

3. In that same vein...

...I wonder if future archeologists will end up thinking that the ruins of Giants Stadium are a huge ceremonial tomb for an ancient king named 'Jimmy Hoffa'. "

[GrpCaptMandrake]

5. There's a great satirical musing on the topic

published a couple of decades ago called "Motel of the Mysteries." Pure genius.

Of course, the greatest likely high-profile murder in the ancient world remains Akhenaten, the apostate Pharaoh.

[bananas]

2. He was pickled by aliens.

[emad]

4. I think that same recipie is what invented saukerkraut....

and Polish gherkinhs in brine (ogurki kwaszone)...