Archaeology and public works: an example from Iran

The contrast, often dramatic, between the needs of the economic development in the protection of our cultural heritage concerns mainly those countries which are endowed with a glorious past full of historical remains, among them there is Iran as well. In this country, one of the fields that stands for one of the main risk for the protection of the cultural heritage is represented by the ambitious plan to build several dams in order to solve the country water and energy problems. The author shows one of the project worked out by the Iranian Office for the Cultural Heritage, whose goal is to cope with such emergencies. This project refers to archaeological surveys carried out in the area which should be flooding by the Sinvand dam, not so far from the ancient centre of Pasargade, in the Fars area: this project presents an additional interest since it is based on a international collaboration totally new for the Moslem Republic. An "archaeological mission" of the Ravenian branche of the Alma Mater Studiorum (Facoltà di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali), shas taken part to this valuable program, and as explored two rural settlements of Achemenide and Post-achemenide Age (VIth-Ist century B.C.) age, in collaboration with the Iranian Centre for the Archaeological Researches. The results of these three excavations performed, represent the first proof of the region occupation belonging to this period, outside the big dynastic complexes of palaces

Technical and diagnostic investigation on some metallic objects coming from the Isiao Excavations at the site of Barikot (Swat, Pakistan)

The authors introduce new studies on the metallurgic activity carried out in the archaeological site of Barikot (Swat, Pakistan). The collaboration between the IsIAO Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan and the Diagnostic Laboratory of the Department of Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni Culturali of the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna allowed the achievement of new useful data that are quite interesting even if the research is still at the beginning and needs further checks. In particular some samples show traces of niobium. This element is fairly rare but, in some cases, is present into the crystal net of cassiterite. In the samples, the traces of niobium are always correlated with the presence of tin in the alloy. If these data will be confirmed, it’s going to be possible to hypothesise that tin minerals used for the alloy of the object found at Barikot may come from mining sites characterized by the presence of niobium

The bust-pillar: a new type of monument in Ancient Iran?

In the art of pre-Islamic Iran we have evidence of relief busts in stucco for which a particular position on top of a semi-column can be reconstructed; at the same time we have a few specimens of sculptural human heads in the round, the lower part of which suggests a joint with an element other than the body of a statue. After describing the evidence on the basis of the available publications, the author attempts an interpretation based on the physical features of these busts or heads. This leads him to suggest the existence of a new type of architectural sculpture, the \u201cbust-pillar\u201d, which seems to be solely present in the architecture of Iran during the Arsacid and Sasanian periods

Vestnik drevnej istorii

Una delle pi\uf9 prestigiose riviste di storia antica, gi\ue0 dell'Unione Sovietica e oggi della Russi

Honar va me'mari-ye seluki

Il saggio costituisce un capitolo della monumentale opera "Grande Storia dell'Iran" dedicato all'arte e all'architettura del periodo seleucide

The archaeology of Ancient Persia from the Achaemenids to the Sasanids (6th century B.C. - 7th century A.D.)

English translation of the same chapter in the same volum

Din dar dowreha-ye seluki va ashkani

Il saggio costituisce un capitolo della monumentale opera "Grande Storia dell'Iran" dedicato alla religione nei periodi seleucide e arsacid

Yunanima'abi dar dowre-ye seluki va ashkani

L'articolo costituisce un capitolo della monumentale opera "Grande Storia dell'Iran", dedicato all'Ellenismo in Iran nei periodi seluecide e arsacide

Archeologia della Persia antica dagli Achemenidi ai Sasanidi (VI sec.a.C.-VVI sec.d.C.)

Sintetica introduzione all'archeologia dell'Iran preislamico quale capitolo del catalogo di una mostra di reprti iraniani

Recensione di M. Shenkar, Intangible Spirits and Graven Images: the Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity, 4), Brill, Leiden-Boston 2014.

La ampia recensione del volume ne presenta una sintesi volta a porre in evidenza gli aspetti metodologici, che vengono poi sottoposti a revisione critica nella seconda parte del lavoro