National Museum of Iran
Iran Bastan Museum or National Museum of Iran is the first, biggest, and a most important museum in Iran which was specifically designed and constructed as a museum. It was designed by the French architecture Andre Godard inspired by the arch of Taq-e Kasra in Ctesiphon and constructed by Iranian masons, Abbas Ali Me’mar and Ostad Morad Tabrizi between 1933-1936. The building’s brickwork refers to Persian traditional construction. There are more than 2000 artifacts on display in the museum from prehistoric times: Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic; historic time: Bronze Age, Iron Age, Elamite, Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian.
In the Paleolithic period (ca. 3.3 million to 12 thousand years ago), humans were a caveman and making living by means of hunting wild animals and picking wild plants. Primitives used handmade chipped stone tools and after that antler and bone tools. The Paleolithic period is divided into Lower Paleolithic (ca.3.300.000-250.000 years ago), Middle Paleolithic (ca.250.000-40.000 years ago), and Upper Paleolithic (ca.40.000-20.000 years ago), and then Epi-Paleolithic (ca.20.000-12.000 years ago).
In the museum the most ancient artifacts are stone tools belong to the Lower Paleolithic period. at that period, according to archaeological excavations in ancient sites such as Kashafrud in Khorasan, Ladiz in Sistan and Baluchistan, Shiwa in Kurdistan, Ganj Par in Gilan and Darband Cave in Gilan indicates primitives subsisted through hunting, gathering plants and foraging and used stone tools for cutting animal flesh and making wooden tools. Artifacts obtained from these sites are on display in the museum.
In the Middle Paleolithic period which began 250,000 years ago, the early humans lived by means of hunting and gathering plant foods. It was the time when Neanderthals were roaming in western Asia. Also anatomically the early modern humans were existed in this period. The stone tools obtained from caves or open-air sites in Zagros mountains were made from flint and animal bones. The sites in Zagros region are Bisotun, Hawraman, Lurestan, Arsanjan, Qale Bozi and Mirak, Niasar, Parvadeh, Ziviyeh from central Iran. One of the discovered remains of this period is the human fossil founded in a small cave called Wezmeh in the west-central Zagros near Kermanshah. A forearm of a Neanderthal has been also discovered in Bisotun in west-central Zagros. Artifacts obtained from these sites are on display in the museum.
The Upper Paleolithic period in Iran is coincident with the arrival of anatomically modern humans which are known as Homo sapiens. This period is characterized by stone blades and bladelets and ornaments stuff like pendants from shells, animal teeth. Also Hematite, the reddish-black iron mineral appeared in this era. The most important sites dating back to Upper Paleolithic are Yafteh and Kaldar caves in Lurestan, Warwasi, Malaverd and Ghar-e Khar Cave in Kermanshah, Kenarcheh in Kurdistan, Sefid-Ab in Kashan and Eshkaft-e Gavi and Boof Caves in Fars. The remains obtained from these sites are on display in the museum.
Epipaleolithic is the next period which begins about 20,000 years ago and continues to the end of the Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago and is recognized by advanced tools for processing food plants and storing foods and edibles and personal ornaments. The tools and ornaments of this period has been found in Ali Tappeh and Komishan Caves in Mazandaran, Pa Sangar Rockshelter in Lurestan which are on display in the museum.
Then next periods are the Neolithic and Chalcolithic which are between 10,000-5000 years ago and considered a revolution in the long history of the human species. actually bands of mobile hunters and food plant gatherers gradually settled down in small villages from the late of Epipaleolithic period. This is the age of Permanent Villages and Early Towns. The earliest villages were established in the piedmonts of the Zagros Mountains where they could find lots of wild species of wheat, barley, sheep, goat and pig. They started managing their food supplies by domesticating the wild species of animals and cultivating the grains, however populations grew and new villages were established in new areas and the alluvial plains like Khuzestan, Fars and the Central Plateau. Although the early human used stone tools and stone vessels before the establishment of the early villages, he invented to bake pottery vessels. This important invention seems to be used for first time in western and southwestern Iran and developed rapidly from crude and undecorated simple containers to well-baked and sophisticated vessels in various shapes and decorated with exquisite painted designs. The first houses of these early villages were made of packed mud and thatched roofs and then developed into multi-chambered houses made of mud bricks and decorated with colored paintings. Human started socializing and the religions appeared which both were the main reasons for establishing the larger villages and erection of monumental buildings and temples. The collection of different shaped decorated and plain clay figurines confirms the impact of religious beliefs while the nature and structure of each one is not clear to us. These figurines have been discovered at Sarab and Sang-e Chakhmaq which are on display in the museum. In “Neolithic Revolution”, human was freed from searching constantly for food and shelter and started to control over the food supplies and the population grew and then societies appeared and social interactions and conflicts arose. All these factors let the human to fundamental social changes and forming the huge communities and so the “urban revolution” was resulted around 4000 BC.