Abstract:
From the last decades of the 19th century until the end of Erich F. Schmidt excavations in Rayy in 1937, numerous commercial and few scientific archaeology missions worked at Rayy. Schmidt’s excavation in the prehistoric mound of Cheshmeh Ali brought an international fame for Rayy among archaeologists interested in Iranian prehistory. Nevertheless, Rayy was already renowned among antiquarians and Islamic archaeologists as well as commercial excavators for its beautiful Islamic ware unearthed from the ruins of once-glorious Early and Medieval Islamic city of Rayy in clandestine diggings. Schmidt’s excavations was a turning point in the archaeology of Rayy due to its scientific approach and conformance to the new Antiquities Act, which obliged excavators to divide objects and submit reports to the Iranian government. Today, archaeological heritage of Rayy, including fine prehistoric pottery from Cheshmeh Ali, beautiful Islamic wares and fascinating Sasanian-Islamic stucco are displayed in museums around the world. Excavation reports and documents from such missions are kept in various archives as well, many of which still unpublished. Investigating the archaeological history of Rayy shows that before ratification of the Antiquities Act in 1930, excavated objects were either traded in antique markets by diggers or shipped out of Iran by archaeological missions and found their way to European collections and museums; no report or object was necessarily handed over to the Iranian government. The present study extensively reviews archaeological activities that were conducted in Rayy in the early decades of the 20th century and puts it in the contexts of the historical development of archaeological organization in Iran, that was gradually evolving by the establishment of Antiquities Department and ratification of the Antiquities Act. Additionally, distribution of archaeological material and documents from Rayy in different archives is comprehensively presented to pave way for further research on the archaeology of Rayy and its history
Machine summary:
However, Rey's ancient heritage, even before that, and from the late 19th century, attracted the attention of archaeologists, antique dealers, and commercial excavators, both Iranian and non-Iranian, due to the beautiful Islamic objects and pottery discovered in the ruins of the magnificent city of the early and middle Islamic centuries of Rey. Schmidt's excavations, due to their scholarly approach on the scale of that period, and also because they proceeded within the framework of new laws related to archaeological activities in Iran, were a turning point in the maximum archaeology of Iran and Rey. Before Schmidt, and apart from commercial excavations, the French Archaeological Delegation in Iran also conducted a brief survey and excavation in the Rey plain.
The background of archaeological activities in these decades, especially in the context of the history of Iranian archaeology, which was in the process of developing a new identity for itself and organizing an administrative and legal mechanism to manage and supervise excavations and archaeological findings and the presence of foreign delegations, as well as identifying the distribution of cultural materials and archaeological documents related to these activities in museums and research institutions with the aim of creating a platform for future research, is the main focus of this writing.
The joint expedition to Iran, led by Schmidt and supported by the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia and later the American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology, began its activities in Iran in 1931 AD, 1310 AH, with excavations at the Tappeh Hesar in Damghan, which lasted two seasons (303) 1933 Schmidt).
(
, 
, 
)
