5 Iranian Inventions Thousands of Years Ahead of Their Time
WANA (Dec 28) – The archaeological site of Shahr-e Sukhteh (The Burnt City) in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Southeastern Iran, proves that 5,000 years ago, Iranians laid the foundations of modern medicine and cinema in the heart of the desert.
Unlike other ancient civilizations built on warfare, this 151-hectare industrial hub had no fortifications or weapons, suggesting a society governed by knowledge, trade, and technology.
The World’s First Eye Prosthesis
In 2006, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a woman with an artificial eye in her left socket. Far from a simple stone, it was a masterpiece of material engineering made from natural bitumen mixed with animal fat.
The World’s First Eye Prosthesis. Social media/ WANA News Agency
Most impressively, it featured golden capillaries thinner than 0.5mm and a central pupil, demonstrating a sophisticated grasp of both anatomy and aesthetics.
The Birth of Animation (Pixar in the Bronze Age)
Long before the Lumière brothers, an artist in Shahr-e Sukhteh mastered “persistence of vision.” On a pottery goblet, five sequential images of a mountain goat were painted.
When the goblet is spun on a potter’s wheel, the goat leaps toward a tree and eats a leaf. This represents the world’s first attempt to break the dimension of time through moving images.
Animation pottery. Social media/ WANA News Agency
Advanced Brain Surgery
While superstition dominated medical thought elsewhere for millennia, doctors here performed successful skull surgeries. The skeleton of a 13-year-old girl with hydrocephalus shows a precise triangular incision made to relieve cranial pressure.
Healed bone tissue around the cut proves the patient survived for a long period after the operation, confirming the surgeons’ immense skill.
Millimeter-Precision Engineering
To build a city with complex infrastructure, precision is mandatory. Archaeologists found a 10cm ruler made of ebony featuring markings at 0.5mm intervals.
The archaeological site of Shahr-e Sukhteh (The Burnt City) in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Southeastern Iran. Social media/ WANA News Agency
This tool proves that the city’s stepped architecture and water systems were not the result of trial and error, but of rigorous mathematical calculation and engineering blueprints.
Urban Planning and Sewage Systems
While sanitation remained a challenge for European cities until the 19th century, Shahr-e Sukhteh utilized a sophisticated network of clay pipes for sewage and surface water drainage.
This “smart city” management allowed for a high population density and public health standards that were unheard of in the ancient world.
The network of clay pipes for sewage and surface water drainage in Shahr-e Sukhteh. Social media/ WANA News Agency
The Legacy
Shahr-e Sukhteh serves as a testament that the Iranian plateau was a global crossroads of innovation. These ancestors were not just poets or warriors; they were scientists and inventors who viewed the world through a lens of logic and progress.
Was the Burnt City (Shahr-e Sukhteh) Actually Burned?
In reality, contrary to what its name implies, no major fire ever occurred in Shahr-e Sukhteh. This name was given to it by a British military officer named Colonel Beat, due to the presence of vast amounts of ash surrounding the city.
However, these ashes were the byproduct of furnaces used for producing metal objects, which were piled outside the city as waste. The Burnt City was abandoned due to the reduction of water, the shifting course of the Helmand River, and the drying of the region’s climate; no major war ever took place there.
This City was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014. UNESCO recognized this city as a symbol of the first, largest, and most advanced Bronze Age cities in eastern Iran and the Middle East, offering unique evidence of humanity’s transition from cave-dwelling to complex civilization and urbanization.
