Graves, crypts and Parthian weapons excavated from the gravesites of Vestemin

The article describes a series of finds of Parthian military items in the graves and crypts of Vestemin in northern Iran. These findings are especially significant as they provide an array of discoveries of military equipment: swords, daggers, spearheads,arrowheads, armor and a possible helmet. This study obliges a revision of Winkelman’s observation that “few finds of weapons have been made inside Iran” with respect to Parthian military equipment. In an overall sense, these findings may prove to be as significant to the domain of Parthian military studies as the well-known site of Dura Europos. The excavations have also discovered a coin of Philip the Arab or his son from the earlySasanian era which has assisted the authors’ dating of the Vestemin site. The site of Vestemin is not exclusively a burial venue as the site also has defense works as well as a fortress dated the later Parthian era c. 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE)

Tracking the existence of Dioctophyma renale in Parthian Empire of Iran (247 BC-224 AD)

Paleoparasitological investigation in the archeological site of the Caspian Sea littoral revealed the presence of human Dioctophyma renale infection, a ubiquitous kidney-residing helminth of mammals, during the Parthian Empire of Iran (247 BC-224 AD). This study reports the oldest human infection with giant kidney worm in the Middle East, mainly in an area where the infection is reported nowadays. The paucity of records throughout the literature suggests that the same species of parasite occurred with low frequency in the past, as well. The cemetery in the archeological site of Kiasar represented a unique opportunity of studying human and animal parasites of the Parthian Empire in Iran