Commercial Drilling in Ziwiya Based on Archival Evidence (1946-1952)

Ziwiye is an important Iranian archeological site, located 48 km northeast of Saqez. An accidental discovery and subsequent flow of a collection of ancient objects into world collections and museums, fuled commercial excavations during the years 1948 to 1953. That resulted in the destruction of a large part of the artefacts and architectural evidence and the plundering of excavated objects. No report is yet provided about such operations. This paper aims to find out the details of such operations and objects.

Two groups of documents were examined to collect data for this paper: 1) Archival documents and discovery papers; 2. Documents and official correspondence of the National Museum of Iran regarding the purchase of objects from antique dealers

Not all of the objects provided by commercial diggers belonged to Ziwiye as no expert examination was carried out to assure their authenticity.