The Archaeology of Iran encompasses the following subjects:

Archaeological discoveries in Iran

Archaeological sites in Iran Some of the prehistoric archaeological sites of Iran are listed below: *Paleolithic **Hotu and Kamarband Caves **Darband Cave **Qal'eh Bozi **Do-Ashkaft Cave **Warwasi **Bisitun Cave **Kashafrud **Kani Sib, Piranshahr, Kani Sib *Neolithic ** T ...

: * Achaemenid inscription in the Kharg Island *

Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton The Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton () is a gold rhyton from the Achaemenid Empire, dated to about 500 BC. It is 6.7 inches high (about 17 cm.) and is made in solid gold, with the different parts joined together by soldering, done so skilfully ...

* Acropole Tomb *

Apadana hoard The Apadana hoard is a hoard of coins that were discovered under the stone boxes containing the foundation tablets of the Apadana Palace in Persepolis. The coins were discovered in excavations in 1933 by Erich Schmidt (archaeologist), Erich Schm ...

* Bardak Siah Palace *

Bushel with ibex motifs The bushel with ibex motifs, also known as the beaker with ibex motifs, is a prehistoric pottery artifact originating from Susa, an ancient city in the Near East located in modern-day Iran. This piece of art is believed to have been created dur ...

Code of Hammurabi The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed during 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organized, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian language, Akkadi ...

* Egyptian statue of Darius I *

Golden bowl of Hasanlu The Golden bowl of Hasanlu () is an ancient artefact, a cup or bowl in gold, decorated in relief, and now in the National Museum of Iran. It was discovered by Robert H. Dyson in 1958 while excavating the site of Teppeh Hasanlu, near the city of Na ...

Great Wall of Gorgan The Great Wall of Gorgan is a Sasanian-era defense system located near modern Gorgan in the Golestān Province of northeastern Iran, at the southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea. The western, Caspian Sea, end of the wall is near the remains ...

Hasanlu Lovers The Hasanlu Lovers are a pair of human remains found at the Teppe Hasanlu archaeological site, located in the Naqadeh in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. Around 800 BCE, the city of Hasanlu, located in north-western Iran, was destroyed by a ...

* Islamic ceramics from the Susa site *

Luristan bronze Luristan bronzes (rarely "Lorestān", "Lorestāni" etc. in sources in English) are small cast objects decorated with bronze sculpture from the Early Iron Age which have been found in large numbers in Lorestān Province and Kermanshah in western ...

* Musicians plate *

Narundi Narundi ( dingir, dna-ru-ti) or Narunde was an Elamite religion, Elamite goddess worshiped in Susa. She is attested there roughly between 2250 BCE and 1800 BCE. Multiple inscriptions mention her, and it assumed she was a popular deity at the time. ...

Nazimaruttaš kudurru stone The Nazimaruttash kudurru stone is a boundary stone (kudurru) of Nazimaruttaš, a Kassite king of Babylon, c. 1307–1282 BC (short chronology). It was found at Susa and is now displayed at the Louvre. Some kudurrus are known for their portra ...

Parchments of Avroman The Parchments of Avroman (or Awraman) are three parchment documents, found in 1909 in a cave in the Hawraman region of Iranian Kurdistan. They were found in Tang-i Var, Kuh-e Salan Mountain, near the village of Shahr Hawraman. The documents were f ...

Parthian bas-relief at Mydan Mishan The Parthian bas-relief at Mydan Mishan is located kilometers south-west of Hamadan, and 2 kilometers west of the well-known Ganjnameh inscriptions of the Achaemenid Persian period. The relief, dating to the Parthian period, is reachable by cross ...

Persepolis Administrative Archives The Persepolis Administrative Archive (also Fortification Archive or Treasury Archive) are two groups of clay administrative archives — sets of records physically stored together – found in Persepolis dating to the Achaemenid Persian Em ...

Rock art in Iran Rock art in Iran includes archaeological petroglyphs, or carving in rock; pictographs, or painting on rock; and rock reliefs. Large numbers of prehistoric rock art, more than 50,000, have been discovered in Iran. Dating back to 7000 years before ...

Shami statue The Shami statue is one of the main surviving works of Parthian art. It is currently in the National Museum of Iran (Inv. no. 2401) and was found at Shami (modern Khūzestān Province), where there was an ancient sanctuary. The bronze Bron ...

Statue of Hercules in Behistun The Statue of Hercules in Behistun (or Statue of Heracles/Herakles in Bisotun, Persian language, Persian: تندیس هرکول) is located on Mount Behistun, Iran. It was discovered in 1958, and is the only extant rock sculpture from the period ...

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin is a stele that dates to approximately 2254–2218 BC, in the time of the Akkadian Empire, and is now at the Louvre in Paris. The relief measures 2 meters in height (6' 7") and was carved in pinkish sandstone, with ...

Ziwiye hoard The Ziwiye hoard is a treasure hoard containing gold, silver, and ivory objects, also including a few gold pieces with the shape of a human face, that was uncovered in a plot of land outside Ziwiyeh castle, near the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan ...

Archaeologists

Geneviève Dollfus Genevieve (; ; also called ''Genovefa'' and ''Genofeva''; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) was a consecrated virgin, and is one of the two patron saints of Paris in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Her feast day is on 3 January. Recog ...

Roman Ghirshman Roman Ghirshman (, ''Roman Mikhailovich Girshman''; October 3, 1895 – 5 September 1979) was a Ukrainian-born French archeologist who specialized in ancient Persia. Ghirshman spent nearly thirty years excavating ancient Persian archeologic ...

Frank Hole Frank Hole (born 1931) is an American Near Eastern archaeologist known for his work on the prehistory of Iran, the origins of food production, and the archaeology of pastoral nomadism. He is C. J. MacCurdy Professor Emeritus of Anthropology a ...

Wolfram Kleiss Wolfram Kleiss (1930–2020) was a German archaeologist who spent many years of his life in Iran researching and excavating archaeology. Biography He was director of the German Archaeological Institute in Tehran. He retired in 1995, and died in ...

* Roland de Mecquenem *

Jean Perrot Jean Perrot (10 June 1920 – 24 December 2012) was a French archaeologist who specialised in the late prehistory of the Middle East and Near East. Biography Perrot was a graduate of the Ecole du Louvre where he studied under two experts in S ...

* Henry T. Wright

Iranian archaeologists

Kamyar Abdi Kamyar Abdi (; born in 1969 in Tabriz) is an Iranian Anthropology, anthropologist and professor of Near Eastern archaeology at Shahid Beheshti University. After studying theoretical physics for a year, he began his undergraduate studies in archae ...

(born 1969) Iranian; Iran, Neolithic to the Bronze Age *

Abbas Alizadeh Abbas Alizadeh (born 1951) is an Iranologist and Persian archaeologist. Alizadeh is a senior research associate at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of The University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, o ...

(born 1951) Iranian; Iran * Massoud Azarnoush (1946–2008) Iranian; Sassanid archaeology
Hamed Vahdati Nasab
(born 1974) Iranian; Iran, Human Evolution, Neanderthals, Paleolithic *

Fereidoun Biglari Fereidoun Biglari () () is an Iranian archaeologist and a museum curator. Career Fereidoun Biglari is co-founder and head of the Paleolithic department in National Museum of Iran which was established in 2001. He is serving as a member of the r ...

(born 1970) Iranian Kurdish; Paleolithic *

Touraj Daryaee Touraj Daryaee (; 20 July, 1967) is an Iranian Iranologist and historian. He currently works as the Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies and Culture and the director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies at the University of Californ ...

(born 1967) Iranian; ancient Persia (Iran) * Seifollah Kambakhshfard (1929–2010) Iranian; Iron Age Temple of Anahita * Yousef Majidzadeh (born 1938) Iranian; Jiroft culture (Iran) *

Sadegh Malek Shahmirzadi Sadegh Malek Shahmirzadi () (24 April 1940 - 12 October 2020) was an Iranian archaeologist and anthropologist. Career Shahmirzadi is the author of over 60 research articles and books. Shahmirzadi's book, ''Dictionary of Archeology English-Persi ...

(1940–2020) Iranian; ancient Persia (Iran) *

Marjan Mashkour Marjan Mashkour () is an archaeologist and member of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. She is the first Iranian to specialize in the field of zooarchaeology and has been engaged in many field and laboratory projects in Iran and t ...

(born 19??) Iranian; zooarchaeology of Europe and the Middle East * Ezzat Negahban (1926–2009) Iranian; Iran *

Shahrokh Razmjou Shahrokh Razmjou (Persian: شاهرخ رزمجو) is an Iranian archaeologist and historian, specializing in Achaemenid Archaeology and History. He received his PhD in Achaemenid Archaeology at the University of London. He established the Inscr ...

(1966) Iranian; Achaemenid Archaeology * Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis (1951) Iranian; the British Museum's Curator of Middle Eastern coins *

Alireza Shapour Shahbazi Alireza Shapour Shahbazi (4 September 1942 Shiraz - 15 July 2006 Walla Walla, Washington) () was a prominent Persian archaeologist, Iranologist and a world expert on Achaemenid archaeology. Shahbazi got a BA degree in and an MA degree in East As ...

(1942–2006) Iranian; Iran * Parviz Varjavand (1934–2007) Iranian; ancient Iran (Persia)

Archaeological institutions in Iran

Society for the National Heritage of Iran The Society for the National Heritage of Iran (SNH; ) was a grassroots political and archeological group created by a group of educated, and nationalistic Iranians in 1922, toward the end of the Qajar governance in Iran. The society was composed ...

Museum of Ancient Iran The Museum of Ancient Iran is located at the western part of Mashhq Square in Tehran, Iran. It was designed by André Godard by the order of Ali-Asghar Hekmat, then Minister of Education of Pahlavi Iran. Two Iranian master builders, Ostad Morad T ...

National Museum of Iran The National Museum of Iran ( ) in Tehran hosts some of the world's most important monuments dating back through preserved ancient and medieval Iranian antiquities. It is an institution formed of two museums; the Museum of Ancient Iran and the ...

Zagros Paleolithic Museum Zagros Paleolithic Museum ({{Langx, fa, موزه پارینه‌سنگی زاگرس) is a museum in Kermanshah, Iran, established in 2008. The museum contains stone tools and animal fossil bones from Paleolithic sites in Iran. History The museum ...

* Iron Age museum

Archaeological cultures in Iran

Traditional water sources of Persian antiquity Most rivers in Iran are seasonal and have traditionally not been able to supply the needs of urban settlements. Major rivers like the Arvand, Aras, Zayandeh, Sefid and Atrak were few and far between in Persia. With the growth of urban settle ...

Palaeolithic Era in Iran The Palaeolithic Era in Iran is the prehistory of Iran in the period from c. 800,000 BCE to c. 11,000 BCE and can be divided into the Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic periods.{{cite book, last=Conard , first=Nicholas J ...

Bus Mordeh phase The Bus Mordeh phase is an archaeological phase in Khuzistan (Ali Kosh) that is roughly dated somewhere between 8,200 BCE and 7,000 BCE. Hunter gatherers were still active but agricultural settlement had also started with emmer, wheat and two-row h ...

Kura–Araxes culture The Kura–Araxes culture (also named ''Kur–Araz culture, Mtkvari–Araxes culture, Early Transcaucasian culture, Shengavitian culture'') was an archaeological culture that existed from about 4000 BC until about 2000 BC, which has traditionally ...

Baradostian culture The Baradostian culture was an Upper Paleolithic flint industry culture found in the Zagros region in the border-country between Iraq and Iran. It was preceded by the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian culture, directly overlying it without an interve ...

* Talish–Mughan culture * Trialetian Mesolithic *

Zarzian culture Zarzian culture is an archaeological culture of late Paleolithic and Mesolithic in Southwest Asia. The period of the culture is estimated to have existed about 18,000–8,000 BCE. It was preceded by the Baradostian culture in the same region an ...

Gutian people The Guti (), also known by the derived exonyms Gutians or Guteans, were a people of the ancient Near East who both appeared and disappeared during the Bronze Age. Their homeland was known as Gutium ( Sumerian: , ''GutūmKI'' or , ''GutiumKI''). ...

Jiroft culture The Jiroft culture,Oscar White MuscarellaJiroft(2008), in: Encyclopedia Iranica. "For archeological accuracy the terms "Jiroft" or "Jiroft culture" employed to define a specific ancient Iranian culture and its artifacts should only be cited withi ...

References

{{Asia topic, Archaeology of

Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Archaeology of Iran Archaeological museums in Iran Archaeological cultures in Iran Archaeological discoveries in Iran