Shalom Ronli-Riklis was an Israeli musician, music teacher, the conductor of the IDF Orchestra. Shalom Ronli-Riklis was born in 1922 in Tel Aviv; as a young man, Riklis learned to play the piano. His piano teacher Vincze-Kraus taught at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv University. During his studies at the Hebrew Gymnasium "Herzliya," he learned to play the trumpet and the French horn, which would become his main instrument. After graduation, he joined the Jewish Brigade. Following a period of service in the infantry, Riklis joined the Orchestra Brigade. Shortly before his release from the Brigade, he was appointed the orchestra conductor. After his release from the Brigade, Riklis graduated from the Academy of Music in piano and conducting. There he took courses under Igor Markevitch at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg from 1953–56. Riklis served as a member of the first unit of the military police. In 1949 he was invited to conduct the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, orchestra, founded shortly beforehand.

He served as conductor of the IDF orchestra for 11 years, until stepping down in 1960. During that time, Riklis improved the quality of the IDF brass band; this was the first full brass band in Israel. Under his leadership, it became a prominent musical ensemble in Israel. Many of its members in the brass and percussion sections were among the first Israelis to join the Israel Philharmonic orchestra. IDF at the time was the only army in the world who had two orchestras: the symphonic orchestra, founded by Riklis, a wind ensemble; the symphonic orchestra toured the country, while the wind ensemble played military parades, light music, Jazz. His great love was working with teenagers. During his tenure with the IDF Orchestra, he developed the Youth Corps as its conductor; the youth ensemble would go on to win first prize, a silver harp, at the Queen Juliana competition for orchestras in Kerkrade, attended by over 100 bands. The youth ensemble won three times in a row: 1958, 1962 and in 1966. After three consecutive first prizes, the harp remained permanently in Israel and has been stored in the IDF archives.

This band toured in 1967 under his Riklis' baton in the United States and Canada with American star Danny Kaye. They were met with great success. After leaving the army, he worked for many years at the Israel Radio Orchestra in Jerusalem. Riklis headed the faculty and conducted the Chamber Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv University, he is credited with teaching many generations of musicians in Israel. In 1961, he was sent by the Singapore Foreign Ministry to build and consolidate the country's classical music; as part of this work he worked with various youth orchestras. In 1971, he was appointed deputy of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra by Zubin Mehta, in 1984, he founded the Young Philharmonic Orchestra. Dozens of his students went on to perform with various orchestras worldwide. Riklis conducted many orchestras in Israel, he served as a mentor to various musicals and judged numerous music competitions. In 1990 he was the first European to win the Silver Star of Singapore. Riklis died in January 1994 after a long illness.

He is buried in the Yarkon Cemetery

The "Jiroft culture" is a postulated early Bronze Age archaeological culture, located in the territory of present-day Balochistan and Kermān Provinces of Iran. The hypothesis is based on a collection of artifacts that were confiscated in Iran and accepted by many to have derived from the Jiroft area in south central Iran, reported by online Iranian news services, beginning in 2001; the proposed type site is Konar Sandal, near Jiroft in the Halil River area. Other significant sites associated with the culture include; the proposition of grouping these sites as an "independent Bronze Age civilization with its own architecture and language", intermediate between Elam to the west and the Indus Valley Civilization to the east, is due to Yusef Majidzadeh, head of the archaeological excavation team in Jiroft. He speculates they may be the remains of the lost Aratta Kingdom, but his conclusions have met with skepticism from some reviewers. Other conjectures have connected Konar Sandal with the obscure city-state of Marhashi, that lay to the east of Elam proper.

Many artifacts associated with Jiroft were recovered from looters described as "destitute villagers" who had scavenged the area south of Jiroft before 2001, when a team led by Yusef Majidzadeh began excavations. The team uncovered more than two square kilometers of remains from a city dating back to at least the late 3rd millennium BC; the data Madjidzadeh's team has gathered demonstrates that Jiroft's heyday was from 2500 BC to 2200 BC. The looted artifacts and some vessels recovered by the excavators were of the so-called "intercultural style" type of pottery known from Mesopotamia and the Iranian Plateau, since the 1960s from nearby Tepe Yahya in Baft; the "Jiroft civilization" hypothesis proposes that this "intercultural style" is in fact the distinctive style of a unknown, long-lived civilization. This is not universally accepted. Archaeologist Oscar Muscarella of the Metropolitan Museum of Art criticizes that the excavators resorted to sensationalist announcements while being more slow in publishing scholarly reports, their claims that the site's stratigraphy shows continuity into the 4th millennium as overly optimistic.

Muscarella does acknowledge the importance of the site. Earlier excavations at Kerman were conducted by Sir Aurel Stein around 1930. One of the most notable archaeological excavations done in Kerman Province was one done by a group led by Professor Joseph Caldwell from Illinois State Museum in 1966 and Lamberg-Karlovsky from Harvard University in 1967. Archeological excavations in Jiroft led to the discovery of several objects belonging to the fourth millennium BC. According to Majidzadeh, geophysical operations by French experts in the region indicate the existence at least 10 historical and archaeological periods in the region belonging to different civilizations who lived in this area during different periods of time in history. According to the French experts who studied this area, the evidence remained from these civilizations may be traced up to 11 meters under the ground. "What is obvious is that the evidence of Tal-i-Iblis culture in Bardsir can be traced in all parts of the region. Tal-i-Iblis culture, known as Ali Abad period was revealed by Joseph R. Caldwell, American archaeologist," said Majidzadeh.

The primary Jiroft site consists of two mounds a few kilometers apart, called Konar Sandal A and B with a height of 13 and 21 meters, respectively. At Konar Sandal B, a two-story, windowed citadel with a base of close to 13.5 hectares was found. Helmand culture of western Afghanistan was a Bronze Age culture of the 3rd millennium BC; some scholars link it with Shahr-i Sokhta and Bampur. The term "Helmand civilization" was proposed by M. Tosi; this civilization flourished between 2500 and 1900 BC, may have coincided with the great flourishing of the Indus Valley Civilization. This was the final phase of Periods III and IV of Shahr-i Sokhta, the last part of Mundigak Period IV. Thus, Jiroft culture is related to Helmand culture. Jiroft culture flourished in the eastern Iran, the Helmand culture in western Afghanistan at the same time. In fact, they may represent the same cultural area. Mehrgarh culture, on the other hand, is far earlier. An inscription, discovered in a palace, was carved on a brick whose lower left corner only has remained, explained Yusef Majidzadeh, head of the Jiroft excavation team."The two remaining lines are enough to recognize the Elamite script," he added.

"The only ancient inscriptions known to experts before the Jiroft discovery were cuneiform and hieroglyph," said Majidzadeh, adding that" The new-found inscription is formed by geometric shapes and no linguist around the world has been able to decipher it yet." Archeologists believe the discovered inscription is the most ancient script found so far and that the Elamite written language originated in Jiroft, where the writing system developed first and was spread across the country. Other scholars have called the authenticity of the cyphers into question, suggesting they may be examples of several modern forgeries in circulation since the earlier looting at the site. Prehistoric Iran Kulli culture International Rankings of Iran in History Jiroft, Fabuleuse Decouverte en Iran, Dossiers Archeologica 287, October 2003. Yousef Mazidzadeh, Jiroft earliest oriental civilization. O. White Muscarella, Jiroft and "Jiroft-Aratta": A Review Article of Yousef Madjidzadeh, Jiroft: The Earliest Oriental Civilization, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 15 173-198.

Andrew Lawler, Anci