A stone structure has been discovered in the foothills of Kuh-Hossein mountain, near the Achaemenid necropolis of Naqsh-e-Rostam, some seven km from the Persepolis, Fars Province. The structure, discovered by cultural heritage expert Siavash Arya, is thought to either be a water pool or an ossuary, CHN quoted public relations of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO). According to the provincial ICHHTO’s archaeologists, the discovery is most probably an ossuary; because there are already close to 50 ossuaries and burial niches on the site, registered on the national heritage list. “The stone grave will be classified among the ossuaries,” archaeologist from the provincial ICHHTO Mohammad Paknejad said.
The manmade structure is a rectangular space hollowed out of stone. Further information on the discovery will be obtained after archaeological exploration around Kuh-Hossein mountain. Should the structure be an ossuary, it probably dates back to the Achaemenid era or onward up to the late Sassanid times, when it was believed that elements including water, earth, and fire should not be polluted with corpses, and thus dead bodies were placed on stone structures not permeable to water.
