TEHRAN -- At Shahr-e Sukhteh, one of Iran’s most important archaeological sites, a 4,600-year-old game, a carved bone comb and remarkably preserved traces of eggs, textiles and leather are bringing new dimensions of an ancient city to light.
The discoveries were made during the 21st season of archaeological excavation at the site, where researchers have been investigating both its residential quarters and cemetery. Together, they offer a more intimate picture of life in the third millennium BC: not only how the inhabitants worked and were buried, but how they adorned themselves, entertained themselves and participated in the everyday rhythms of urban life.
Known as the ‘Burnt City’, Shahr-e Sukhteh lies 56 kilometers south of Zabol in Sistan. Covering some 273 hectares, the city was occupied from the late fourth millennium through the third millennium BC, across four cultural periods, and formed the center of the Helmand civilization.
The latest excavations have added nuance to our understanding of how its inhabitants used the city. In the north-eastern part of the residential area, archaeologists identified two architectural phases alongside animal remains, tools, stone-working debris, simple and decorated animal figurines, and hearths.
The evidence suggests that this was not simply an industrial quarter. Alongside craft activities, the area appears to have accommodated the ordinary business of living.
The cemetery has yielded some of the season’s most revealing material. Among plain, decorated and brightly colored pottery are previously unrecorded forms of burial, as well as organic remains whose survival is particularly unusual in an archaeological context.
Egg remains, textiles and leather have all been recovered. Such materials are ordinarily among the first traces of past societies to disappear, making their preservation an especially valuable opportunity to examine aspects of technology, economy, consumption and daily life more directly.
Perhaps the most evocative discovery is a distinctive form of a 4,600-year-old game. Its presence offers a glimpse of leisure and social interaction in a society that is often understood principally through the evidence of production, subsistence and trade.
The game suggests another dimension to Shahr-e Sukhteh: a city in which people also made time for play.
Another remarkable object is a carved bone comb, for which no comparable example has so far been
  identified in the region. Similar examples have been reported from certain sites in Central Asia, making the object of particular interest for future studies of craftsmanship, personal adornment and cultural connections.
The comb is a small object, but its significance lies precisely in its intimacy. Alongside the game and the preserved organic materials, it moves the archaeological record away from the monumental and toward the personal, revealing aspects of how people lived, entertained themselves and cared for their appearance.
Shahr-e Sukhteh’s importance extends beyond the rarity of individual finds. The site provides an opportunity to examine one of the significant experiences of urban development in the third millennium BC, preserving evidence of the transition from a more limited rural way of life to a large, organized and complex settlement.
The current excavations are accompanied by an extensive program of interdisciplinary research. Researchers are undertaking OSL sampling for dating, radiocarbon analysis of organic materials from the settlement and cemetery, anthropological studies, sampling for ancient DNA and palaeopathological analysis of human remains.
The combination of these approaches promises to place the newly recovered objects within a richer picture of the people who made and used them. At Shahr-e Sukhteh, even the smallest surviving traces – a game, a comb, a fragment of textile or the remains of an egg – can offer a way into the texture of urban life 4,600 years ago.