Iran Archaeology

In this essay I seek to explore the icon of the Fighting Cock movement (Khorus Jangi) and of its Manifesto, " The Slaughterer of the Nightingale, " in order to consider its implications and imagistic allusions. In outlining the background of the Khorus Jangi and associated movements, I discuss the imagery of the khorus both in ancient Iran and globally, and in the context of the ideology of the Khorus Jangi. The Manifesto is discussed and analyzed and it is seen that the khorus prefigured the Manifesto, and heralded the appearance of a new movement in painting, as distinct from what had already happened in surrealist and modernist circles in writing. The manifestation of surrealist and modernist ideology in imagery seems to have been a response to this wake-up call of the Khorus Jangi.

Aida Foroutan, “Why the Fighting Cock? The Significance of the Imagery of the Khorus Jangi and its Manifesto ‘The Slaughterer of the Nightingale,’” Iran Namag, Volume 1, Number 1 (Spring 2016), XXVIII-XLIX.

https://www.irannamag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1.1-English-Foroutan-Iran-Namag.pdf

Dynastic connections in the Arsacid Empire and the origins of the House of Sāsān, in: The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: Adaptation and expansion, Editors: Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis; Elizabeth Pendleton; Touraj Daryaee; Michael Alram, Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow, 2016, 23-35.

See http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/the-parthian-and-early-sassanian-empires.html [Published by the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) Archaeological Monographs Series]

ABSTRACT
The old rivalry between branches of the Parthian royal house
and clans, including the Younger (western) Arsacids, the
Gondopharids in Indo-Parthia, the Sūrēn and Kārin, revived
when a rebellion broke out in Persis under the leadership
of Ardashir I, son of the Gondopharid prince Sāsān. The
connections between the Gondopharids of Sakastan and
the Sūrēn with Persis under Ardashir eventually led to the
overthrow of the Younger Arsacids.
A comparison of the diverse traditions about Sāsān shows
that the Persian writings and Sasanian inscriptions were
manipulated for specific political reasons. The Shahnameh
tradition traces Sāsān’s ancestry to the late Kayanids, harking
back to the historical Achaemenids. The same tradition
suggests that the ancestral seat of Sāsān’s forebears was in
India, where they had fled in fear of Alexander. Sāsān was
in fact a member of the Arsacid Gondopharid line, the ruling
dynasty of Indo-Parthia, who reigned in Afghanistan and the
north-western regions of India. Even under Farn-Sāsān they
held Sakastan, Arachosia and probably part of Sind.
Most probably Sāsān was the father of Ardashir, as
indicated by the Shahnameh, Agathias and the Armenian
authors, and as implied by Narseh’s inscription at Paikuli.
The coins and inscriptions of Ardashir I and Shapur I say
Ardashir I was the son of Pābag. Tabari, Kārnāmāg and
Bundahishn give a version that Ardashir’s father was Pābag,
but include Sāsān in the genealogy.
For reasons of propaganda Ardashir I, and later Shapur I,
endeavoured to downplay Sāsān’s role, so as not to be
perceived in Persis/Fars as a foreign dynasty. The paradox
is that, assuming Sāsān was Ardashir’s father, the Sasanian
dynasty in fact had a Parthian, and perhaps even an Arsacid
ancestry. Moreover, the early Sasanians built up their empire
thanks to the support of the chief clans of Parthia including
the Sūrēn and Kārin. That is why the Sasanian Ērānšahr
has been referred to as “the empire of the Persians and
Parthians”. And that is why Ammianus perceived the royal
house of Persia as the Arsacids.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to gather information about the Elamite cities and lands in the period when the Awan dynasty was known as the ruler of the Elamite world, and some suggestions have been made about the history, chronology and genealogy of the Elamite rulers in this period. Finally, a new periodization on the history of Elam in the third millennium BC is proposed.

This study examines a little-known case of Enlightenment knowledge transmission centred on the rock-cut monument of Darius I at Bīsotūn in western Iran. It discusses a report on the monument published by the cartographer and historian Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, which originated with the Decalced Carmelite monk Emmanuel de Saint-Albert (born Jean-Claude Ballyet); who transmitted it to Isaac Bellet, a doctor involved in secret negotiations in Constantinople; who in turn sent it to Louis, Duke d'Orléans, in Paris; who passed it on to d'Anville. The collison of scholarly interest, political service and scientific personality offers a fascinating case study of the Enlightenment 'republic of letters' in action.

From engraved metal artifacts of bronze land (Luristan), it should be referred to unique objects named disc pin head that are from makeup, ritual and religious requirements. Different types of these pinheads are observed from graves, temples and also on deco rational motive of figures applied in decoration motive of figures applied in decoration of pinhead. Building pinheads began from the late of third millennium B.C and continue to the first half of first millennium B.C. Disk pinheads have much more diversity and different species that at eight and nine centuries B.C reach to its peak of development and beauty. Disk pinheads is composed of one flat engraved head and one bar that often are made of bronze and sometimes both bronze and iron with two methods. Molted in mold and hammering. Pin heads are divided into two disc pinheads: circle and square and based on motive and deco rational subjects on its disk are divided into several motive and subjects that are geometrical, herbal, human, animal and combinational motives, Key questions pacing present researcher are: 1) what is the objective of building and decoration of these pinheads? 2) Why these objects are often obtained from grave and temples? In present writing. In addition to answer the questions and considering and analyzing the motive of these pinheads from the art and visual perspective, it is tried to offer the integrated and rationale analysis based on motive typology, use kind, building method, building technique and motive of disc pinheads that are made in bronze and iron age.

Preliminary Report on Archaeological Survey of Komijan, Markazi Province

Abstract
These days the role of middle- point regions is one of the important issues for archaeological researchers due to their importance in political, economical, social and cultural interactions. Archaeological surveys have important role for knowing of political and cultural changings in various regions. One of the goals of the Komijan Town survey and studying is reaching to the role of the middle- point regions during the different periods of human life in the region. Komijan Town is located between the center of Iranian plateau and Zagros. This town had had role in the cultural communications. The region has been consisted an immense plain with ranges around it. Mentioned plain is bounded on the west by Famenin Plain in Hamedan and on the south by Shaara greens valley. It has been a place of settlement for human groups in different periods in comparison with regions of piedmont and has had the main role in regional communications as well. Qara Chay River is the most important river of the region that is came at the part of the plain. Komijan Town archaeological survey carried out in 2009 in 1625 square kilometers space. At the end of the survey has identified 90 footprints relating to prehistoric era until contemporary centuries: sites, petrology and historical buildings.
Keywords: Komijan, Archaeological survey, Iranian Plateau, Zagros and middle- point region.

"""Located at southwest of northern Khurasan province , Jaajarm is at the northeast furthermost of Iranian central plateau. The town is included three major plains: Shoqan, Sankhast and Jaajarm where are semiarid with less precipitation , from climatic point of view. Kal-e Shur river originated from asfaraien ranges at east and flows into Kvir Desert at south of Jaajarm plain. The region was registered at 2009, when 161 site were recognized, among st 11 popular prehistoric ones, from Neolithic to Iron age. Being categorized in 3 settlement clusters, the region prehistoric sites present special pattern. The first cluster that is located at north is Shoqan productive mountainous plain. The plain is at the ancient Nishapur- Gorgan road, which is regarded as secondary today. The second cluster, including parts of Sankhast and Jaajarm, penetrate into the region from north of Central Plain. Tepe Pahlevan, the earliest recognized site through the survey, categorized in 2nd cluster, undoubtedly was a manufacturing center for lithic beads. The 3rd cluster is located at south of Sankhast and Jaajarm plain on desert margins and close to Kal-e Shur River. The peripheral territories of the sites of 3rd cluster are saline soil.
Study on settlement clusters of prehistoric sites of Jaajarm indicate that they were located at commercial rout while the ancient climate of the region differed from today conditions.          """

Recent research on the phylogeny of Neanderthals recognises a division within Neanderthal groups around 150ka suggesting a population turnover is likely to have occurred in the Caucasus. For instance, Neanderthal remains dated ca. 100ka associated with fully fledged Levallois lithic industry were con-firmed in the Azokh 1 Cave, at the Lesser Caucasus. This exciting finding, however, raises the questions of whether the Neanderthals impacted on the Southern Caspian Corridor (SCC), which is a geo-ecologi-cal continuum of the Caucasus. What role did SSC play in the world of hominin expansion?In his expedition to Iran during 1960s, McBurney considered SCC provided the closest and fastest route connecting Europe and Caucasus to the Central Asia and Siberia and any hominin movement from the west might be expected to pass this region en route to the east. In his excavation at Ke’Aram Cave located in SCC he documented Middle Palaeolithic )MP( artefacts reminiscent of the Zagros Mousterian which are seen to be closely related to the Teshik Tash Cave in Central Asia. McBurney’s conclusion allows this research to hypothesize that the SCC, with the dual role of biogeographical corridor of expansion and habitat, witnessed a series of human evolutionary events that occurred at least in the Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5 and 4. It aims to go further to suggest that SCC as a potential place of admixture of Ne-anderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans. The exceptional physiogeographic condition of the SCC provided a milder climatic condition making this region highly attractive as a glacial refugium during the cold episodes of MIS 5 and 4 for different hominins. Thereby this research also hypothesizes that con-temporaneous MP assemblages from western- and eastern-most areas of the corridor represent a high degree of cultural affinity.For testing these hypotheses, I conducted a survey on the unknown areas of the southern Caspian Sea shore, especially south-eastern parts. This survey led to the discovery of several Palaeolithic sites, includ-ing Kiyasar 1 Rockshelter. I also re-analysed the lithic assemblage from KeAram Cave. The location of the newly discovered Palaeolithic sites together with the techno-typological analysis of the lithic assem-blages revealed a different settlement pattern and lithic techno-complex than what is known from the Palaeolithic period in other parts of the Iranian Plateau.In the second step, I compared lithics from SCC to the data from Azokh 1 cave in the Lesser Caucasus as western- and from Teshik Tash cave as eastern-most site of the SCC using chaîne opératoire as well as attribute analytical methods. All lithics have been carefully compared to the Zagros MP assemblages, where stratified Zagros Mousterian artefacts are associated with the Neanderthal remains, to trace any possible cultural exchange between these sites. No affinities to the Zagros Mousterian, have been ob-served in these assemblages.For the third step of the project, in 2019, I excavated Sorheh Rockshelter located in the Alborz Moun-tains. Sorheh is located at the elevation of 1904 asl, in an unknown region for the Palaeolithic research. Five charcoal samples from Sorheh were 14C dated between 24 to 39 kya cal. BP. Despite of the time span, the lithic industry has no affinity to the yet-known Upper Palaeolithic (UP) cultures from the Iranian Plateau. The most significant point of the lithics from Sorheh is the strong use of Levallois technology. Preliminary inter-regional comparisons bear no resemblances to the MP of the Zagros and the Iranian Central Plateau sites, but more affinities to the Caucasus. More data are needed from Sorheh to under-stand the nature of the deeper archaeological layers and find out why the Levallois technology persisted until so late, at the time that in other regions of the Iranian Plateau, well-developed bladelet industry of the UP had been already developed.The new data from survey in south-eastern SCC and excavation in Sorheh Rockshelter in the Alborz Mountains, demonstrate the complex picture of human settlement dynamics in one of the strategic re-gions in the Iranian Plateau. Continuing research in Sorheh and the promising sites of the SCC will make it possible to determine its role in the expansion of hominins from Europe towards Central Asia and their possible admixture in this refugium.

The present MA thesis aims to estimate the expansion of the Old Elamite kingdom in one of its glorious periods. In about 2000 BC the UR III Empire had been destroyed by the allied groups with the Šimaškian Kingdom being one of them. Following the destruction of this powerful empire, Khuzestan came again under the direct reign of the Elamites.
The Elamite Kingdom, first Šimaškian and then Sukalmakhs, and the Mesopotamians had prosperous relations until the attack of Hammurabi, the Babylonian King in ca. 1700 BCE. Over the span of three hundred years (1900-1600 BCE), Elam underwent one of its most powerful periods. During these three hundred years, the Elamite Kingdom had
established borders in the Western part; but there is little known about the Elamites frontiers in the East, North and South.
In this thesis, attempt is being made to discover those parts of Iran, which could have been under the influence of the Elamite Kingdom. Archaeological and written sources have been used for this purpose. Due to differing contents of the said materials and their different in methodological approaches, the writer has endeavored to arrive at
conclusions by studying each source separately , then comparing the two together, and finally attempting to interlock them together.
For the first chapter, Elamite and its neighbors toponyms were collected via written sources, i.e. Elamite and Mesopotamian texts. In the same chapter the role of various tribes of the Eastern sector of Mesopotamia were investigated. In the second chapter, through studies of archaeological data, number and size of the archaeological Sites in seven geographical districts were clarified including: Khuzestan,
Fars, Central Zagros, Bakhtiari Mountains, Pusht-i Kuh, Kerman, and the Northern Coast of the Persian Gulf.
In the third and final chapter, results of the first and second chapters were analyzed and submitted to comparative evaluation. In the first part, Elamite toponyms were classified and compared. Second section, comprising the archaeological data, were processed in the same manner.
Final section attempts to present a unified picture through both textual and archaeological data in order to establish the size of Elamite Kingdom over the three hundred years (1900-1600 BCE) period.

کتاب در جستجوی سفال ایران، سفرنامه‌ای علمی و خواندنی درباره‌‌ی هنر سفالگری ایران با قدمتی ده هزارساله است، که نتیجه‌ی مطالعات و تحقیقات میدانی، پژوهشگر برجسته ژاپنی، پروفسور میتسوکنی یوشیدا بوده است.
نویسنده کتاب به‌عنوان یک باستان‌شناس، مدیر دانشگاه  و موزه‌ی کیوتو، در سال ۱۹۵۶م. نخستین سفر  پژوهشی خود را به ایران انجام داد و از آن پس شیفته‌ی  فرهنگ و هنر ، به‌ویژه تاریخ هنر سفال و سفال‌سازی ایرانی شد.
از آن زمان و تا سال ۱۹۶۴م.، چندین بار دیگر به ایران سفر کرد و به اقصی نقاط ایران رفت تا با پیشینه این هنر بیشتر آشنا شود و در نهایت مجموعه‌ی اطلاعات و دستاوردهای علمی و پژوهشی خود را در قالب کتاب حاضر منتشر کرد.
این کتاب یکی از منابع ارزشمند وکمتر شناخته شده درباره‌ی تاریخچه‌ و سبک‌شناسی سفال ایران (از دوران باستان تا روزگار معاصر) است که برای نخستین‌بار به فارسی ترجمه و در ایران منتشر می‌گردد.

The University of Tübingen and ICAR (Tehran, Iran) jointly initiated a new archaeological project in the Jiroft Region of South-Eastern Iran in 2015. A systematic archaeological, geographical and geological survey is carried out in a vast region to the south of Jiroft, comprising the Halil Rud Basin and several plains to the south of it. Settlement patterns from the Neolithic to the Islamic periods and natural deposits of stone materials, such as chlorite and diorite, are a particular focus of the project. The results will contribute to a better understanding of interregional exchange and communication routes between the Halil Rud Basin and neighbouring regions, especially during the Bronze Age.

"مقدمه
دشت همدان از دوره مس- سنگی منابع زیست محیطی کافی برای استقرار گروه های انسانی را فراهم آورده است ولی نام همدان بیشتر با نام تاریخی هگمتان/ اکباتان گره خورده است. منابع معتبری که در مورد همدان، هگمتانه یا اکباتان نگاشته شده را می توان در دو بخش مجزا از هم مورد بررسی قرار داد: 1) منابع تاریخی شامل منابع کلاسیک: الف) گل نبشته ها و سنگ نبشته های بین النهرینی و نیز ب) منابع یونانی و رومی: هردوت در سده ی پنجم ق م (هردوت ،قرن 5 ق م :کتاب یکم ، بند نود و هشت)، در مورد ساخت هفت باروی استوار و مدور با رنگ های متفاوت توسط دیااکو مطالبی آورده است. در کتاب مقدس، در عهد عتیق (کتاب مقدس،عزرا: باب 5، آیه ی 17 و باب 6 : آیه ی 2), و نیز در استر 106، همچنین در دو کتاب 3 و 4 از آپوکریفا داستان طوبیت (TOBITH) و یودیت (JUDITH) از هگمتان صحبت به میان آمده است. کتزیاس (کتاب هشتم،فصل ششم کوروش نامه)، کاخ اکباتان را به سمیرامیس ملکه ی آشوری که بر اساس گفته وی، 1500 سال پیشتر از کتزیاس می زیسته، نسبت داده و اشاره کرده که آن ملکه از کوه ارنتس (ORONTES) آبراهه ای برای شهر اکباتان کنده است. گزنفون (مشایخی،1386:265)،اظهار کرده است که کوروش «بنا به عادت، هفت ماه در بابل، سه ماه زمستان را در شوش و دو ماه تابستان را در اکباتان اقامت می گزید.» پلی بیوس (حدود204-122 ق م ، درکتاب 10، فصل 27، بند6)، تختگاه مادها را دردامنه الوند و بدون بارو توصیف نموده است و افزوده است که کاخ ها در خارج ارگ قرار داشته اند. پلوتارک از مکتبی در اکباتان صحبت می کند که در آن حکمت، نجوم، طب و جغرافیا آموزش داده می شد و همواره 100 تن در آن به تحصیل مشغول بوده اند (صدری افشار:بی تا:57 ،27،24). ایزدور خاراکسی، در کتاب ایستگاه های پارتی در مورد اکباتان و فواصل راه های آن مطالبی را عرضه داشته است (Characenus 1913:70). در کتاب پهلوی "شهرستان های ایران " بند 26 آمده که همدان را یزگرد شاپوران (یزگرد اول،پدر بهرام پنجم و مشهور به یزگرد بزهکار) ساخته است (آسانا،1371: 66). ج)منابع مورخین اسلامی و سیاحان و سفرنامه نویسان: ابن فقیه در کتاب البدان (290 ه . ق)، مسعودی در مروج الذهب (319 ه . ق)، ابودلف خزرجی در سفرنامه اش (341  ه . ق)، طوسی سلمانی (نیمه ی دوم قرن ششم ه . ق)، یاقوت حموی در معجم البلدان (حدود 620 ه . ق) و مورخین دیگر دوران اسلامی به تفصیل در مورد همدان و گاهی در مورد پیشینه آن ، بخش هایی را اختصاص داده اند، از آن جمله می توان به مجمل التواریخ ابن شادی، زبده التواریخ حافظ ابرو، اخبار الطوال دینوری، صوره الارض ابن حوقل، احسن التقاسیم مقدسی و ... اشاره کرد. همچنین سیاحان و سفرنامه نویسانی همچون گهماخر اتریشی (1886 م)، جیمز ادوارد  الکساندر (1827 م)، بوکینگهام انگلیسی (1829 م)، هانریش کارل بروگش آلمانی (1862 م) و نیز ناصر الدین قاجار (1287 ه ق)، ظهیر الدوله  حکمران همدان (1324 ه ق)، اولیاء چلپی در سیاحت نامه (1065 ه ق /1654 م)، صوفی سیاح، شیروانی در بستان السیاحه و حدائق السیاحه (حدود 1250 ه ق)، آبراهام جکسن (1903 م -1904 م)، شاردن، تاورنیه، فریز، کپل، کوست و فلاندن، رابرت کرپورتر و چند سیاح دیگر نیز مطالبی در مورد همدان به نوشته ی تحریر در آورده اند (برای اطلاعات بیشتر ن.ک. اذکایی،1380 :  214-179).
2) آراء و نظرات محققین و باستان شناسان: ژاک دمورگان در سال 1896 میلادی  به بررسی 24 روزه ای در همدان پرداخت (De Morgan , 1896 , pp.239-259 ). این بررسی در نهایت منجر به کاوش شارل فوسه در تپه موسوم به قلعه شاه داراب و سر قلعه شد. وی از 16آوریل تا 13 اکتبر 1913 میلادی (مصادف با اوایل جمادی الاول تا 10ذی القعده 1331 هجری قمری برابر با 1292 هجری شمسی) به مدت 6 ماه، با همکاری ویرولو و با هزینه موزه لوور و با نظارت دکتر اسماعیل خان، کارشناس ایرانی عتیقات، در دو نقطه از آن تپه که گمان می رفت هگمتانه باستانی باشد، به خاکبرداری پرداخت. امروزه آن دو محل، موسوم به چال شتر خواب و گودال فرانسوی ها در نزدیکی موزه هگمتانه مشخص است؛ با آغاز جنگ جهانی اول، خوشبختانه ادامه کاوش ها برای هیئت فرانسوی مقدورنشد. درمورخه 24شهریور 1310شمسی، تپه هگمتانه به شماره 28 در فهرست آثار ملی به ثبت رسید. اریک اشمیت در سال 1314، عکس هایی هوایی از فراز همدان گرفت که نشان دهنده بافت فشرده معماری بر روی تپه موسوم به هگمتانه است.
پس از آن تا سال 1348 که مرکز باستان شناسی ایران به منظور ساماندهی این تپه، مرحوم مهندس محمد مهریار را به هگمتانه گسیل داشت (مهریار1355:98-92)، دانشمندان، مورخین و باستان شناسانی که به دوره ماد می پرداختند، همیشه از این تپه به عنوان پایتخت مادها نام برده اند.  مرحوم مهریار با خرید منازل و واحدهای ساختمانی روی تپه، تا سال 1355 مبادرت به تخریب آنها نمود و 25 هکتار از اراضی سطح تپه را از بافت محلات و ساختمان ها آزاد کرده و زمینه ای را فراهم ساخت که چندین سال پس از آن، اولین دور کاوش های باستان شناسی ایرانی در این تپه به سرپرستی  دکتر محمدرحیم صراف صورت پذیرد.
دکتر صراف از شهریور 1362 تا شهریور 1379 توانست یازده فصل کاوش باستان شناسی و یک فصل گمانه زنی به منظور تعیین عرصه و پیشنهاد حریم تپه هگمتانه را به انجام رساند و «از ابتدای شروع کاوش تا کنون در طی 11 فصل، فضایی بالغ بر 1500متر مربع از محوطه باستانی هگمتانه، کاوش باستان شناسی گردیده است» (پژوهش های انجام شده در هگمتانه،آرشیو پایگاه هگمتانه،بی تا،بدون شماره صفحه). حاصل این کاوش ها ، کشف واحدهای معماری خشتی بزرگی بود که به نظر بقایای یک شهر تاریخی است.
کریستف بنش، از مرکز تحقیقات علمی فرانسه (CNRS)، به پیشنهاد دکتر مسعود آذرنوش (ریاست وقت پژوهشکده باستان شناسی)، از 28 آذر تا 2 دی ماه 1380، تحقیقات ژئوفیزیک تپه هگمتانه را به انجام رساند. ایشان در گزارش خود ذکر کرده اند: «به رغم پیچیدگی علمی- فرهنگی محوطه تپه هگمتانه، امکان اخذ نتایج مثبت از بررسی ژئوفیزیک وجود دارد.» (نامه ی مورخ 28/12/1380 به شماره ی 8589/2/11 از دکتر مسعود آذرنوش، ریاست وقت پژوهشکده ی باستان شناسی به آقای حبیب الله رشید بیگی، مدیر پایگاه هگمتانه).
دور دوم کاوش های باستان شناسی، به سرپرستی دکتر مسعود آذرنوش، با هدف «رفع ابهام در گاهنگاری تپه هگمتانه»، طی سال های 1383 تا 1385 و با ایجاد چند کارگاه لایه شناختی به سرانجام رسید ( آذرنوش 1386: 36-20). ایشان در سال 1385 به منظور پیشنهاد محل احداث موزه ی همدان در بخش شمالی تپه، گمانه زنی به منظور تعیین حریم تپه را نیز سرپرستی نمود. دکتر آذرنوش پس از انجام لایه نگاری، در سال 1387 به منظور مشخص کردن بافت تاریخی شهر خشتی مکشوف، کاوش هایش را ادامه داد و در حین انجام ماموریت دار فانی را وداع گفت.
شانزدهمین فصل کاوش های باستان شناسی تپه هگمتانه توسط دکتر یعقوب محمدی فر، استاد دانشگاه بوعلی سینای همدان، انجام شد. پس از آن، نگارنده در تابستان 1389، به منظور بازنگری عرصه و پیشنهاد حرایم تپه هگمتانه، به این محل راهی شد و در نهایت محمد رحیم رنجبران، رئیس وقت پایگاه هگمتانه، در سال 1391 و 1392 دو فصل در این تپه تاریخی به کاوش پرداخت.  به علت اهمیت این تپه باستانی ، محوطه ی مذکور از سال 1378 تا 1388 در زمره ی پروژه های بزرگ سازمان میراث فرهنگی کشور محسوب می شد و امروزه این پروژه به سازمان میراث فرهنگی، صنایع دستی و گردشگری همدان واگذار شده است.
تاریخگذاری های نسبی اخیر از کاوش های باستان شناسی نشان می دهند که دوره بناهای خشتی مکشوف در همدان پیشتر از دوره اشکانی نیست؛ چیزی که تاریخگذاری مطلق نیز به اثبات رساند. از شواهد دیگری می توان به گورستان های متعددی اشاره نمود که در نقاط مختلف همدان در سال های اخیر به دست آمده اند. این گورستان ها متعلق به دوره اشکانی هستند.
از آنجا که در یکصدمین سالگرد اولین کاوش های تپه باستانی شهر همدان هستیم، ترغیب شدم تا با جمع آوری مقالاتی در باب تاریخ و باستان شناسی شهر همدان از نویسندگانی که بخصوص در سال های پس از انقلاب در این شهر کار کرده اند، اطلاعات تازه تری در مورد آثار تاریخی همدان ارائه دهم.
این اثر تقدیم می گردد به مرحوم محمد مهریار، برای اقدام بزرگی که در خریداری و تخریب بناهای معاصر بر روی تپه شهر همدان انجام داد که اگر چنان نکرده بود از هگمتان/ اکباتان امروزه فقط نامی می ماند. جناب آقای دکتر محمد رحیم صراف، برای مشخص نمودن پلان شهر باستانی در روزگار سخت جنگ ایران و عراق، مرحوم مسعود آذرنوش، برای تاریخگذاری شهر مکشوف در همدان، و جناب آقای دکتر پرویز اذکایی، برای تمام سعیش در زنده نگه داشتن مباحث تاریخی مرتبط با همدان در مجامع علمی.   
علی هژبری
تابستان 1392

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Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

In the Near East, the most ancient writing systems currently known in the world appeared at the end of the 4th millennium BC: the proto-cuneiform writing in Southern Mesopotamia and the proto-elamite writing on the Iranian Plateau. Both used for administrative and accounting purposes, these writing systems displayed important parallels, such as the numerical systems and the numerical value signs, and dissimilarities since most of their signs differed from each other. Because of the apparent break in the scribal tradition on the Iranian Plateau around 2800 BC, the proto-elamite writing did not give birth to any offspring which could have helped us in its decipherment, contrary to the proto-cuneiform writing and its heir, the cuneiform writing. For this reason, although it is known for more than one century thanks to the French excavations in Susa, the protoelamite writing remains still largely undeciphered and only the shared elements with the proto-cuneiform writing (such as the numerical systems) are finally well understood.
In the mind of the non-specialists, the Near East is usually reduced to (Southern) Mesopotamia. In order to render all the complexity of the historical context which witnessed the invention of writing in the Near East, this paper presents state of the art research on the Iranian Plateau and the important scientific corpus of the proto-elamite tablets.

M.J. Olbrycht,
Arsacid Iran and the Nomads of Central Asia – Ways of Cultural Transfer, in: Complexity of Interaction along the Eurasian Steppe Zone in the First Millenium CE, Edited by Jan Bemmann, Michael Schmauder (Bonn Contributions to Asian Archaeology, Volume 7) Bonn 2015 [Vor- und Fruhgeschichtliche Archäologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn], 333-390.

ABSTRACT
Arsacid Iran and the Nomads of Central Asia – Ways of Cultural Transfer'

One of history’s greatest paradoxes is the phenomenon of military needs serving as an essential spur to technological progress (thanks to the invention of new kinds of weaponry) and to the furtherance of numerous aspects of culture. Moreover, wars promote mutual contact and exchange between different peoples. This applies in particular to Iranian and Central Asian history, which has been determined to a great extent by warlike nomadic peoples. Arsacid Iran faced a number of invasions from Central Asia, and the invading tribes more than once brought new types of arms which were then adopted by the Parthians. Mutual influences also resulted from peaceful contacts (the Silk Road trade, diplomatic contacts, tributes, bridal exchange between royal houses). The Parthians were not averse to assimilating new military technologies, such as enhanced types of the bow (the Hunnic and Sasanian types), swords, daggers, and scabbard slides, developed by the nomads of South Siberia, Mongolia, and Central Asia, or created in China.
The perennial contacts the Arsacids kept up with the steppe peoples and principalities under dynasties of steppe origin augmented the nomadic features in Parthia’s culture and aristocracy’s ethos. Principalities of this kind – the Indo-Saka of Greater Sakastan and the Kushans on the area of today’s Afghanistan and Pakistan – flanked Parthia on the east, while on the west the Parthians neighbored on Arab nomads, troublemakers in Babylonia penetrating right into northern Mesopotamia, where they set up their local power centers at Edessa and Hatra. The nomadic ethos, which remained strong even after the settlement of the Arab elites, made them ready to adopt salient elements of Parthian culture.
Throughout the Parthian Empire and along its marches the lifestyle of the nomadic shepherds proliferated, but at the same time trade, craftsmanship, agriculture, and life in the cities flourished. The Arsacids managed to combine all these different social and ethnic building-blocks into the core of a vast cultural community which R. Ghirshman has called an “Oriental koine”, stretching from Syria to the borders of China, from the Crimea and Sarmatia to the Indo-Saka. The koine went well beyond the borders of the Parthian Empire. The culture of the ruling groups in the Arsacids’ vassal and neighboring states followed Parthian customs, hence the similarities in dress, arms, and ethos. We may speak of an peculiar network of elites looking up to and emulating the same cultural patterns.

Nine Linear Elamite inscriptions are presented and analysed here, all written on gunagi type metallic beakers. In particular, seven of these vessels are part of H. Mahboubian's collection in London. It is proposed that the gunagi beaker type should be attributed to the late 3rd/early 2nd millennium BC while the names of the Early Sukkalmah rulers Ebarat II and Šilhaha (twentieth century BC) can be read among the sign sequences inscribed on some of them. The paper addresses the present understanding of Linear Elamite writing, along with typological, chronological and iconographic considerations on the gunagi vessels. It then presents an analysis of the sign sequences of the nine Linear Elamite inscriptions. This analysis leads ultimately to phonetic value identifications of some of the signs. This study is followed by a technical note on the chemico-physical examination of 13 samples collected from the Linear Elamite inscribed silver gunagi vessels of the Mahboubian collection.

Analisi di un modello di studi nella conservazione ed il restauro elaborato in Italia ed esportato all'estero.
L’Istituto Italiano per il Medio Oriente negli anni sessanta e settanta, sotto la guida del più grande orientalista italiano, Giuseppe Tucci, presidente dal 1947, promuove i rapporti culturali, ma anche politici ed economici, tra l'Italia ed i paesi asiatici.
Il suo lungo intervento in Iran (1964-1979), che ha riguardato una serie di edifici di diversa epoca a Persepoli, a Lenjan e soprattutto a Isfahan, è stata un’esperienza feconda di acquisizioni tecniche; ne è derivato, infatti, un grande arricchimento delle nostre conoscenze sui caratteri costruttivi delle magnifiche strutture a volta islamiche, così come un’esatta nozione del particolare tipo di dipinti prodotti da quella cultura.

Title: Cities and Mint Centers Founded by Sasanians.
Sasanians played a critical role in urbanization of Persia and greater Iran.
Many of these cities (more than 100) were built for economic reasons and mintage of coins required to improve trade, military payments and local and civic markets.

I) The sign NIM, used with a topographic value, is first attested without any
doubt through Eanatum inscriptions (KUR NIMki), who ruled Lagaš around the
third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. It is proposed to consider as unsuitable
the systematic translation of this sign by ‘Elam’, at least in 3rd millennium BC
Mesopotamian texts.
The different meanings and values of this sign are reviewed here, in a strictly
chronological way, and more particularly the changing topographic reality this
sign encompassed.
II) Then the distribution area of the ‘Elamite’ language speakers will be examined,
through an evaluation of the onomastic features (above all anthroponomy)
available in the cuneiform texts.
Finally, hypotheses about Susa will be proposed, distinguishing three different
and independent spheres of data: the material assemblage (archaeology),
records of political control and indications of linguistic / cultural identity.

This article combines historical analysis with international-relations theory to contend that geopolitical developments around the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle third century BCE were indirectly responsible for the emergence of the Parthian state and a new international system of states in the ancient East. Since the death of Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Empire had ruled over much of the East; however, disastrous military conflicts at home and abroad in the West caused a sudden decline of Seleucid power in the 240s-
230s BCE. The troubles of the Seleucid state caused what political scientists call a power-transition crisis that damaged Seleucid hegemony over the East when the Seleucid satraps of Parthia and Bactria declared their independence. Moreover, the deleterious civil wars between Seleucid dynasts in the West and the rebellions of eastern satraps encouraged the nomadic Parni tribe from the Central Asian steppe (later known as the Parthians), who had been seeking a new homeland for decades, to invade northeastern Iran and establish a new kingdom. With the Parni’s successful conquest of Parthia and its immediate consequences, a new interstate system of tripolarity between the Seleucid Empire, Bactrian Kingdom, and the newly formed Parthian state emerged in the ancient East.

Four tablets probably written in the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE were recently found in Konar Sandal, an archaeological site in the Halil Rud valley in southeastern Iran. Three of them are bigraphical, with a Linear Elamite inscription and a second inscription in previously unknown signs that are qualified here as ‘Geometric’. The fourth tablet remains enigmatic. Descriptions of the tablets, a study of their signs and semantic structure, and hypotheses concerning their content are given here.