Renewal and perspectives in Iranian archaeology over the last two decades

Abstract

These few pages provide a very schematic overview of archaeological research in Iran since the end of the 20th century. The recent evolution is sharply marked with the port-revolutionary period with a new policy and the emergence of new generations of numerous and well-trained archaeologists. Most of them are employed in the provinces and work on rescue excavations, which are increasingly organised upstream as preventive excavations, but also on multi-year programs to provide information on less known archaeological periods. The western half of the country is much better known and more studied than the eastern half, but the recent field research launched in the south, along the Persian Gulf, and in the northeast (Khorasan) is very promising.