Anthropology.net

Really quickly, Andrew Lawler has published more than just new news on the the origins of civilization.

He’s also reporting on Yousef Madjidzadeh’s debacle involving the authenticity of the Jiroft tablets… you should read about current situation summarized in his article, “Ancient Writing or Modern Fakery?“

If you want some more background on the excavations at Jiroft, Andrew’s covered that before, but for Smithsonian, there are also two excellent review articles of the excavations at Jiroft here as well as “What was Jiroft?”

Here’s an illustration and also a photograph of one of the Jiroft tablets:

And there’s just one more piece on Iranian archaeology in this week’s edition of Science, “Cracking Open the Iranian Door,” where,

“Hassan Fazeli-Nashali, the new chief of the Archaeology Research Center in Tehran, laid out a bold plan for engaging more foreign scientists and honing the skills of Iranian academics.”