TEHRAN – The Danish archaeologist Peder Mortensen, famed for intensive Iranian studies, dies at 88.

Mortensen, who specialized in the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods of southwest Asia, passed away on December 8 in Copenhagen,” the National Museum of Iran reported.

The archaeologist conducted numerous archaeological research in the central Zagros region, especially Holailan region, and conducted excavations in several caves and Tepe Guran hills in that region, the results of which were published in several articles and a volume “Excavations at Tepe Guran.

Some of the finds from Mortensen's excavations and surveys in Holailan are on display in the prehistoric galleries of the Iran Bastan Museum in the National Museum of Iran.

Jabrael Nokandeh, the director general of the National Museum of Iran, expressed his condolences on his passing to his family and his colleagues, and the archeology community and stated that his name and memory remain in the memory of Iran's cultural heritage.

Mortensen was engaged in research and teaching at the National Museum of Denmark and Aarhus University for many years.

Mortensen studied prehistoric archaeology at Aarhus University and graduated with an MA degree in 1960. He was a curator at the National Museum of Denmark from 1961 to 1968, the director of the Moesgaard Museum from 1996 to 1982, the director for the Danish Institute in Damascus, and cultural advisor to the Danish embassy in Damascus from 1996 to 2001, and then an honorary professor in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Copenhagen.

The first well-documented evidence of human habitation is in deposits from several excavated cave and rock-shelter sites, located mainly in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran and dated to Middle Paleolithic or Mousterian times (c. 100,000 BC). According to Britanica, the mountains are an imposing natural barrier and have traditionally provided the boundary between cultural and political entities, including the early Mesopotamian and Median cultures, the Parthian and Roman empires, and more recently, the Persian and Ottoman empires. The mountains and foothills that approach the range are home to a significant portion of Iran’s population, including, in addition to ethnic Persians, significant numbers of Assyrian Christians, Kurds, and Turks as well as Lurs, Bakhtiari and Qashqai tribal groups.

AFM