From 1800 onward, with the arrival of foreign missions in Persia, an interest in the identification of places mentioned in the Bible and by classical authors grew. In the first half of the nineteenth century, an effort was made to provide written descriptions and hand-drawn illustrations of visible monuments.[1].By The late 19th century, despite maintaining its independence,Iran was nominally transformed into a buffer zone between the British and Russian empires in Asia. The Anglo-Russian mutual understanding opened Iran to British and Russian agents, some with archaeological interests. In the early 1840s, the Russian Baron Th.A. de Bode and the British Austin H. Layard traveled in Lurestan and Khuzestan and recorded some archaeological sites.
From 1836 to 1841, Henry C. Rawlinson copied the trilingual inscription at Bisotun and made a major breakthrough in deciphering the cuneiform script.11 Later, based on the recently translated cuneiform inscriptions and classical texts, George Rawlinson published the first modern history of ancient Iran from the Median to the Sasanian periods,in a series which eventually culminated in the publication of The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World.[2]
In 1839, Flandin was, along with Coste, made a laureate of the Institut de France, and they both joined the embassy of the Comte de Sercey to Persia (1839–41). After parting from de Sercey’s mission, they left Isfahan (31 May 1841) with very limited financial means and retinue. They pursued their periplus towards Hamadān, Kangāvar, Bīsotūn, Ḥolwān, etc. They went back to Isfahan and then on to Shiraz and the Persian Gulf (Būšehr), returning to Tehran via Shiraz, Isfahan, and Kāšān. They then traveled to Tabrīz, where disastrous sanitary conditions hampered their return through Trabzon or Tiflis so that they had to take the Tabrīz-Baghdad route through Kurdistan instead.Despite its many predecessors, Flandin’s Voyage en Perse remains a model of its kind and an important source, particularly on early Qajar Persia, due to both its text and its illustrations. It provides many precious observations on history, archeology, arts, architecture, geography, social and court life, royal and provincial administration, military organization, etc. Itineraries are carefully noted. A table of distances between clearly identified stages is given in “time necessary at the ordinary pace of a horse”.
King Naser ad-Din Shah’s interest in antiquities gradually grew beyond excavation and he had a museum built in one of his palaces in Tehran. Schindler wrote in 1875 that “the Shahanshah [king of kings] has permitted some foreigners to dig at [some] mounds. It is a pity that these ancient artifacts are being taken away from this land. It would be a good idea to put everything like bricks, seals, etc. in the Shahanshahi museum.[3]
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Systematic excavations were begun later in the century. At the same time, general surveys aimed at the history of ancient Persian art and architecture were prepared. While visiting Iran from 1880 to 1881, French architect and historian Marcel Dieulafoy met with some of the close companions of King Nasr al-Din Shah.
In 1901, the French archaeological mission under the directorship of de Morgan obtained a monopoly on all foreign archaeological activities in Iran; from that time until 1930, French archaeologists were the only active excavators in the country. The coup d’état of 1921 was the beginning of Iranian modernisation. Political and economic treaties with Russians, French and British were invalidated. Among the new administrative activities in Iran was the passing of the Antiquities Law by the parliament in 1928-29, an event which marked the end of the French domination of archaeological research in Iran, and the establishment of the Antiquities Service in 1930.[4]
Systematic excavations were begun at Persepolis in 1931 by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, which remained in the field until 1939. The excavations were originally directed by Ernst Herzfeld and then by Schmidt (1934-1939). After 1939, die work was continued by the Archaeological Service of Iran under Andre Godard, Mohammad T. Mustafavi, and Ali Sami. From 1968 to 1974, a program of exploration and restoration was undertaken by Giuseppe and Ann B. Tilia from the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estrerno Oriente (IsMEO), Rome. In spite of the persistent activities of foreign expeditions, the archaeology was still unfamiliar in Iran and there were so few Iranian experts in the field. Hence, Iranians carried out so little activities in this period. It is worthwhile to note that the first group of archaeology students in Iran graduated in 1941 from Tehran University. Independent investigations of Iranian scholars prior to 1320 were limited to 1934 excavations carried out by A. Hakemi in Hasanlu Tepe in Sulduz valley, West Azerbaijan, and the restoration of Persepolis excavations in 1939 by I. Behnam and A. Sami.
The nearby site of Pasargadae, capital of Cyrus the Great, also attracted the attention of early travelers such as Robert Ker Porter and Marcel Dieulafoy. Herzfeld visited the site in 1905 and undertook the first excavations there in 1928. Further studies were made in 1955 by Sami. A definitive excavation was carried out between 1961 and 1963 by David Stronach, director of the newly established British Institute of Persian Studies.[5]
In 1940, the first group of students of archaeology graduated from the Department of Archaeology of the Faculty of Letters at Tehran University. Some of these graduates later studied at prestigious universities in Europe and the United States, as did Ezzat Negahban, for example, who at his return to Iran began excavating the Royal Cemetery at Marlik in the province of Gilan. The glamorous and exotic gold and silver treasures of Marlik attracted the attention and interest of Iranian officials, who began to pay special attention to the development of archaeological research in the field and at the university. Negahban soon established the Institute of Archaeology at Tehran University; the graduates of this institute became active in field archaeology all over Iran, some also going abroad to earn their PhD and other higher degrees. In 1957 Negahban invited Braidwood to come to Iran. Braidwood`s presence in Iran cleared the road towards new direction in study of the Iranian Prehistoric period, since Braidwood, in addition to survey the Kermanshah region, excavated at the Neolithic sites of Sarab, Asiab and Siabid, near the city of Kermanshah.[6]
From 1960 on the Archaeological Research Centre of Iran, which was the new name for the older Antiquities Service of Iran, there were many new nations. When F. Bagherzadeh took the office,many permissions were issued for archaeological field work, both for surveying or excavations. Some of the permissions were issued for the joint projects. Among them were the joint project of Chogha Mish and Susa, the two most outstanding ones.
The overthrow of the shah of Iran and subsequent events virtually halted archaeological activity in Iran. In spite of considerable hardships of the late 1970s and several years afterwards, archaeological research in Iran never completely halted. A few Iranian expeditions were at work, even during the difficult years of the war. Since the 1990s, nevertheless, archaeological research in Iran experienced a considerable reinvigoration. The amount of field expeditions has risen to more than 250 programs in March 2005–March 2006, including a dozen foreign – Iranian joint missions since 2000. The Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, the successor of the National Organization for the Protection of the Ancient Monuments of Iran and the since 1985, called Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization since 2004, supervises this ambitious program of research and conservation. Archaeological research is organized by one of the subdivisions of ICHTO, the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research.[7]
1960 to the Islamic revolution of 1980 was a period during which the major goal of archaeologists in Iran was to understand past cultures and cultural mechanisms. From 1980 to 2000, only Iranian archaeologists were active in Iran; since then, the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization has begun issuing special permission for archaeological research and excavation in Iran within the new framework of the Joint Project. The two first were the joint Iranian- French team that began surveying the Marv Dasht region in Fars and the Iranian-Italian team continuing the earlier study at Old Atigh Mosque in Isfahan. The first Joint project which was actually active in excavations was an Iranian-German team that began surveys and excavations at Arisman and Veshnaveh on the Central Iranian Plateau near Kashan. They were soon followed by an Iranian-Japanese team excavating and surveying in Rostamabad in Gilan province in north Iran in 2003.
The German Mining-Museum Bochum exhibition was the first exhibition outside of Iran that introduced the results of scientifically oriented archaeological research, directed by both Iranian and non-Iranian scholars. The purpose of the exhibition was to help understand the role of Iran, in human’s development and use of technology.[8]
Research into the Palaeolithic period in Iran gained considerable momentum in the 1990’s. Although there was hardly any earlier Paleolithic research tradition to build upon in Iran. The first official investigations were carried out in 1988 by Enayatollah Amirluo who excavated a test trench in the Epipaleolithic open site Qal’e Asgar, in the vicinity of Damavand, that yielded a microlithic assemblage. Since the early 1990’s F. Biglari, later often in cooperation with S. Heydari, undertook numerous field surveys, especially in the Kermanshah area but also elsewhere. Other surveying teams also recorded Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic sites, and the number of known sites has thus augmented considerably. Numerous open sites are among these, underlining the importance of intensive field walking surveys as opposed to the earlier emphasis on cave sites. Establishing the Center for Palaeolithic Research at the Iran National Museum in 2001 finally provided an administrative frame for this specialized research, and a considerable output in new research results has been achieved. [9]
Several regions have been subject to large scale survey projects during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Abbas Alizadeh has answered the challenge to study the material deriving from various pre-revolution survey projects stored in the National Museum, Tehran, and has built up a “pottery bank” plus database that should allow scholars to gain a comprehensive picture of the representative material culture in various regions in all periods. He has so far concentrated mainly on Khuzestan, and has carried out additional surveys in this area as well11. The revelation of the staggering number of sites previously recorded, for example during Robert Wenke’s survey in 1973, which no longer exist was the saddest outcome of this survey, making the pottery bank in the National museum all the more important.[10]
Over the last decades, some sites with rock engravings have been recorded. Judging from the motifs mostly found among these engravings, it seems that this rock art was created by pastoralist groups seasonally using the respective territories. None of the engravings can be dated securely but it seems that most date between Iron Age and early modern times. However, it cannot be excluded that also older rock engravings exist.[11]
One of the important archaeological discoveries during recent decades is Jiroft culture in the Kerman region.Many artifacts associated with Jiroft were recovered from looters who had scavenged the area south of Jiroft before 2001, when an international team led by Yousef Madjidzadeh 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.
One of Iranian archaeologists that had a fundamental role in reorganizing the Iranian archaeology administration during recent years was Massoud Azarnoush. He helped young archaeologists and students to join to the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research and participate in various archaeological research and activities. Although his career was historical archaeology, but he had a keen interest in developing research on the pre- and proto-history of Iran, especially Paleolithic studies. He emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary studies such as archaeobotany and zooarchaeology. Azarnoush welcomed international cooperation, and the series of rescue excavations in the Bulaghi gorge near Pasargadae in cooperation with teams from Germany, France, Poland has been one of the rare successes of archaeological fieldwork in Iran during the past 20 years.
Unfortunately, an important part of the new information from recent investigations remains largely unknown to the non-Persian speaking public. Several publication series in Persian have been released, but only very few of these have been published in other languages. With some exceptions Iranian archaeologists have thus not been able to present their work to the international public.
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