The Achaemenid Empire is traditionally believed to have been founded by Cyrus the Great during the middle of the 6 th century B.C. In 559 B.C., Cyrus became the king of Persis, and 9 years later,...
A mass grave containing the remains of more than 250 people was discovered by archaeologists at the ancient city of Haft Tappeh, Iran. Scientist are now working to determine how these people perished...
The skeletal remains of several hundred bodies piled high behind a ruin wall are testimony to the terrible tragedy that unfolded in the ancient city of the Seven Mounds. Archaeologists have uncovered...
The Iron Throne from the Game of Thrones is perhaps one of the most iconic objects in 21st century pop culture. The concept of the throne, as many already know, has been in existence for a much...
In the ancient Near East, archery became the predominant means of launching sharp projectiles, replacing spear-throwing. The history of archery, however, may have originated further down south during...
Sitting in a remote valley about 70km (43 miles) north of Yazd in Central Iran, is the deserted and crumbling mud-brick village of Kharanaq. The site has been occupied for approximately 4,000 years,...
The ziggurat is arguably the most distinct architectural feature of the Mesopotamian civilization. Nevertheless, some of these structures have been found to exist outside the area once occupied by...
The Biblical city of Shushan, now the modern Iranian city of Shush, has been added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage List along with six...
Between the 3 rd and 7 th centuries AD, the country now named Iran was part of the Sasanian Empire, Rome’s great rival in the East. Under this empire, Zoroastrianism was recognised as the state...
Read Part One At first, Zarathushtra preached among ordinary people on the streets but met harsh resistance from the conservative priesthood, and his teachings were dismissed. For twelve years he...
There was a time when the philosophy of oneness, one entity and one universal power emerged out of the polytheistic teachings. The Persian words goftare nik, pendare nik, kerdare nik meaning good...
Nowruz, known as the Persian new year, is one of the most ancient celebrations in history and has been celebrated for around 4000 years in what is now Iran and in the extended cultural area known as...
In 977 AD, a Persian poet named Ferdowsi began on a grandiose poetic journey that would take him 33 years to complete. He used ancient Persian tales which had been told from generation to generation...
The Umayyad- and Abbasid Caliphate of the Arabs had invaded and occupied the Sassanid Persian empire for 144 years when in 10 July 795 AD, a child was born in a village called Balal Abad situated...
Excavations at Persepolis, a magnificent palace complex in Iran founded by Darius the Great around 518 BC, have uncovered a great ancient gate in Tale-Ajori, within the Firouzi Complex. Even older...
The island of Kish is a resort island located off the coast of Iran. Although it is well known as a tourist destination, it is also steeped in history. One of the most magnificent features of this...
Archaeologists in Iran made an unexpected discovery during excavations at the Farash ancient historical site at the Seimareh Dam reservoir – a 5,000-year-old water system . The research team is...
( Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 ) Just as the Pazyryk culture greatly resembled the Scythian culture to their west, I think we can also see cultural similarities in the Norse and Celtic peoples to the...
( Part 1 and Part 2 ). The origin of the word Amazon may have come from the Iranian language. The work ha-mazan (phonetic pronunciation) meant warrior and the nomadic Scythians that migrated into the...
(Go to Part One) . The ancient Scythians, the ones who predate the nomads, worshiped as their main deity not a god but a goddess, the half snake half woman deity known as Tabiti, who coincidentally...
Herodotus describes the Scythians living in the area north of the Black Sea about three thousand years ago. According to him they traced their ancestry directly from Zeus and the river nymph...
For Iranians around the world, the winter solstice is not just the longest night of the year, it is also the time to commemorate the triumph of Mithra , the Sun God, over darkness in an ancient...
A team of Iranian and Italian archaeologists has discovered the remains of an ancient temple in an Elymais site in the Kaleh Chendar region in southwestern Iran. Elymais (the Greek name for Biblical...
Last month we reported on a major development for ethics in archaeology when we saw the US return a historically significant artefact to Iran – a precious Persian silver chalice dating back 2,700...
