Museum of Ancient Iran

Museum of Ancient Iran
موزهٔ ملی ایران; Muze-ye Melli-ye Irān
	Museum of Ancient Iran
Established	1937; 86 years
Location	Tehran, Iran
Type	Archaeology museum
Director	Jebrael Nokandeh
Owner	ICHTO
Website	irannationalmuseum.ir

The Museum of Ancient Iran is located at the western part of Mashhq Square in Tehran, Iran. A French architect, named André Godard, started the construction of the museum on 11 May 1934 by the order of Reza Shah. The museum building was completed in 1937 and then was opened for the public.

The land allocated to this museum is 5,500 square meters, of which 2,744 square meters is used for the foundation of the museum.^[1] The Museum, along with the adjacent Museum of the Islamic Era, make up the National Museum of Iran.

The building[edit]

The museum encompasses an area of about 11,000 square meters, with its main building built in three floors. Its architects, Andre Godard, along with Maxim Sirow, were French architects whose designs were inspired from the Palace of Kasra in the ancient city of Ctesiphon of the Sassanian era.^[2]

The construction of the museum was started in 1934 and was completed within two years by Haj Abbasali Memar and Professor Morad Tabrizi. It was officially opened in 1937. Primarily, the first floor of the museum was dedicated to pre-Islamic history of Iran and the second floor to the post-Islamic era.

The museum building was originally intended to be an anthropology museum. But after the Iranian revolution, with the establishment of the Cultural Heritage Organization and the concentration of ancient objects in the Museum of Ancient Iran, it was suggested that the museum be renamed to the National Museum of Iran and another museum named the Museum of Islamic Art be added to it. Eventually, in 1996, with the official opening of the Islamic Museum, the whole complex of the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of the Islamic Era was officially named as the National Museum of Iran. The works of the Islamic era were officially separated from the Museum of Ancient Iran and moved to the adjacent building, which had been built in 1958.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Collection[edit]

The oldest part of the museum, built by hand is made of quartz stones found in the basin of the river Kashaf Rud east of the city of Mashhad. From the middle Paleolithic period, which coincides with the emergence of Neanderthals in Iran, also remains of interesting tools made of pyrite or remains of animal fossil fountains, found in caves in Zagros Mountains and central Iranian Plateau like the caves of Bisotun and Khorramabad which are put on display in the museum.

In the New Paleolithic period, which corresponds with the expansion of modern human intelligence in Iran, the construction of a blade of tools became common place. The oldest human remains discovered in Iran are seen in this section, which is known for its tooth. This tooth is the oldest remains of human fossils in Iran, which was discovered in a cave near Kermanshah called Wazma. This small Asian tooth, which is related to a nine-year-old child, dates back 20–25 thousand years ago and was discovered by gamma-ray spectroscopy.

In the new Paleolithic period, making bone tools and using personalized decorations such as pillow pendants, animal teeth, and flowers were also common in Iran. One of the most important places of this period is the cave named Yafteh in Lorestan province which displays many of these objects in the museum hall. Some examples of hybrid instruments, the application of stratification, and the preservation of foodstuffs from the Ali Tappeh cave in Mazandaran and Shalom cave in Ilam which are associated to the Metamorphosed Rock period can also be seen in the museum.

From the Neolithic and Romanesque art, works such as the oldest Iranian clay from the Gange Darre Hill, the oldest human and animal mud samples from the Sarab Hill, and some stone tools are shown in the hall, including Shoush (Khuzestan), Ismail-Abad and Cheshmeh Ali (Tehran), Taleyakon (Fars) from the most important sites in the 5th and 4th millennium BC. Copper and stones in Iran, with samples of their pottery are painted and seen in the hall.

Vessels of Jiroft and Shahdad with diverse designs such as the battle of man with mythological beasts and the pattern of geometric, animal and plant elements are typical examples of these vessels displayed in showcases. Another important work of this period in the museum is the flower of Shahdad, which shows a naked man with his hands on the chest, probably in prayer mode. Containers, war devices, decorative objects, human and animal buildings, including the metal objects of the late Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, are shown in the hall. A number of objects displayed in the prehistoric art section of the hall belong to the Ilam civilization.

Of all the periods in Ilam, many works of art have survived. Chogha Zanbil Temple is one of the most important architectural remnants of this period, with works such as a cow's statue with inscriptions, glass tubes, bricks and clones on it, are featured in the hall.

The works in the museum hall attributable to the Medes are from the ancient places of Nowshajan, Hasanlu, Godin, and Babajan. During this era, the construction of iron objects expanded, including the objects of Hasanlu, which is one of the most prominent examples in the hall. Glazed pottery was also created, a notable example of which is the glaze of Zivia, showing two goats on the two sides of a Lotus flower.^[6]