The Belief in the Other World in Pre-Historic Iran (A Philosophical Analysis based on Archeological Proofs)

Following the growth of human sciences, archeology, as one of the materialist and spiritual branches of human sciences, has recently been seeking to learn about the quality of the formation, continuity, and change of early societies. It has been doing so on the basis of tangible and intangible proofs and through investigating the development of thoughts, cultures, traditions, and beliefs of such societies. Moreover, archeologists aim to perceive this process of change and development alongside rational and logical findings in relation to human worldviews as an everlasting treasure which has lingered since pre-history until now. Death and its life-related and ontological dimensions in different cultures and societies have always been among the most fundamental problems attracting the attention of human beings all over the world. In fact, humans are essentially living beings who are always thinking about death and have continually kept their connection with this concept in the course of history. Archeological proofs represent the most tangible legacy of death-related thoughts and demonstrate people’s attention and sensitivity to death, which are themselves rooted in their philosophy of the other world. In the present paper, the author has tried to deal with the philosophy of death and Man’s thanatoptic nature during the second and first millennia BC based on some archeological diggings in an Iron Age cemetery (which represents a specific age and a region with a rich ancient history and culture). She has also sought to particularly study burial traditions and their changes along with their underlying ideological foundations. In this way, with references to certain archeological studies and discovered artifacts in field excavations, the author hopes to shed some light on Man’s awareness of death and their beliefs in relation to the world after death and analyze the transfer of such thoughts and all their evolving dimensions to the next generations based on rational and logical principles.