TEHRAN – Decades of Tehran-Rome collaboration in the arenas of archaeology and cultural heritage has gained momentum following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Italian Ambassador to Iran Giuseppe Perrone said on Sunday.

He made the remarks addressing a conference devoted to mark 60 years of collaboration in the fields of cultural heritage and archaeology, which was held at the National Museum of Iran in downtown Tehran, ISNA reported.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, cooperation between Iran and Italy in the arenas of history and culture was further expanded and integrated by the means of working teams and projects, Perrone said.

Iran and Italy are also collaborating in fine arts, cinema among other fields, the Italian envoy said, adding “But archaeologists demonstrate a core and essence of our collaboration from past up to the present, what that goes back to our history.”

The envoy along with Deputy Tourism Minister Mohammad-Hassan Talebian also cut ribbon on a public exhibition, which is dedicated to excavated relics, documents, and joint efforts archaeologists and restorers from the two countries have so far made.

This exhibition aims to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the collaboration of archaeologists, experts and researchers from Iran and Italy to demonstrate their efforts to restore and preserve [ancient] monuments, the envoy said.

Iran and Italy are also collaborating in fine arts, cinema among other fields, he said, adding “But archaeologists demonstrate a core and essence of our collaboration from past up to the present, what that goes back to our history.”

Jebrail Nokandeh, who presides over the National Museum of Iran, for his part, voiced hope that such events help to sustain and reinforce joint interactions, saying the exhibition illustrates a profound cultural exchange that is deeply rooted the two nations that are inheritors of rich culture and heritage.

He described this kind of relationship as the most enduring form of friendship that can be “an inviolable role model” for other nations.

Talebian, Iranian Center for Archaeological Research Director Rouhollah Shirazi, and a senior official from the Italian Institute for the Middle East and Far East, were amongst other speakers at the event, the report said.

From the early 20th century on, according to Encyclopedia Iranica, Italians participated in the scholarly investigation of ancient Iranian history and culture, most notably Ugo Monneret de Villard, but Italy’s direct involvement in field archeology in Iran dates from relatively recent times. The first agreement between the Iranian Archeological Services and the Institute for the Middle and Far East (Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, IsMEO, q.v.) was reached only in 1959. Under its learned and dynamic director, Giuseppe Tucci (q.v.), IsMEO had already started archeological research in Pakistan (1956) and Afghanistan (1957).

Since 1960 the Center for Archeological Excavation has organized large-scale excavations in the region of Sistan; the Center for Conservation carried out especially significant research at Persepolis and Isfahan.

From 1976 to 1978 Italian researchers from the Institute of Mycenaean and Aegean-Anatolian Studies (a branch of the National Research Council [Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche]) conducted surface surveys, directed by P. E. Pecorella and M. Salvini, in the Urmia and Usnaviye plains, as well as in the area between Lake Urmia and the Zagros Mountains in Iranian Azerbaijan.

An important highlight of Italian archeological work in Iran lies in the area of paleobotanical research, which formed part of the studies in Sistan and later at Tepe Yahya, Tepe Hesar, Qal’a-ye Esma’il Aqa, and Tepe Gijlar.

Organized by Iran’s Research Institute of Cultural Heritage & Tourism, the conference aimed to discuss four main areas of Iranian cultural heritage, namely; archaeological findings relative to prehistorical times, the ones that is liked with Achaemenid-era, ones linked to Parthian and Sassanid times, and the field of conservation.

AFM/MG