An Overview of the Traditions and Rituals of Burial Practice in South Eastern of Iran with Looking at the Neighboring Civilizations (Fourth and Third millennium BC)

The present paper intends to highlight excavations on cemeteries and the situation and condition of burial corpses to figure out the social behavior of the human past in the south-eastern civilization of Iran during the third millennium B.C. The tradition of burying the dead bodies in the ancient region of south east of Iran is not clearly determined. It is due to the limited number of excavated cemeteries and their distribution in this region. However, the Shahdad's excavations, Mahtoutabad, Khaje Askar, 14th Bampur Graveyard, and especially the Shahre Sokhta as a world heritage site cantina the most complete reports enable the writer to investigate ancient cemeteries in the region. Statistical data provided from the Shahre Sokhta cemetery between 1999-2009 field seasons were used as baseline information and analytical framework to study the burial traditions of the past millennia in the South East of Iran.