[-empyre-] burnt cities

[Alan Sondheim]

Burning or burnt cities go all the way back to the beginnings of what 
passes for civilization - look at

Shahr-e S.kht (Persian: ... ......, meaning "[The] Burnt City"), also 
spelled as Shahr-e Sukhteh and Shahr-i Sh.khta, is an archaeological site 
of a sizable Bronze Age urban settlement, associated with the Jiroft 
culture. It is located in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, the 
southeastern part of Iran, on the bank of the Helmand River, near the 
Zahedan-Zabol road. A proposal is submitted to include it in the World 
Heritage List of UNESCO.[1] The reasons for the unexpected rise and fall 
of the Burnt City are still wrapped in mystery. Artifacts recovered from 
the city demonstrate a peculiar incongruity with nearby civilizations of 
the time and it has been speculated that Shahr-e-Sookhteh might ultimately 
provide concrete evidence of a civilization east of prehistoric Persia 
that was independent of ancient Mesopotamia.

(From Wikipedia) - This is in Iran; other sites talk of four layers of 
ash.

I became interested in this because it relates to the sarinda or suroz I 
play. If you're interested, check the History of Balochistan article in 
Wikipedia.

So many archaeological remains have layers of ash -

- Alan