TEHRAN—Head of the Cultural Heritage Ministry’s Research Institute, Mohammad-Ebrahim Zarei, has called urban archaeology the necessity of knowing the identity of a city.

According to Miras-e Arya (CHTN), speaking at a specialized gathering titled ‘Privacy in Historical Texture’ which was held at the place of ICOM (the National Committee of Iranian Museums), he pointed out the importance of understanding the historical layers of cities and stated: “We have two types of archaeology: archaeology in the city and urban archaeology.”

He added: “Archaeology in the city is related to the exploration of different parts of a city, but urban archaeology includes the examination of maps, documents, excavations, and other historical evidence so that we can understand the structure and identity of a city.”

Zarei clarified: “To accurately understand historical textures, it is necessary to use the urban archaeology approach.”

While referring to various examples and presenting historical and old images of these works to this day, he stated: “For example, in one image, we see that the ancient citadel of Hamedan (Hegmataneh Hill) and the caravanserais are intact and the connection to the market is still established; however, throughout history and especially during urban development, these textures have undergone changes and transformations.”

He gave several examples from Iranian cities and emphasized that Hamedan is a city in which no direct traces of the Median era have been found, but pottery and architecture from that period have been discovered, showing that urban structures existed at that time.

It is worth mentioning that this meeting was held at ICOM under the chairmanship of Seyyed Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaei and in the presence of Zarei, Zohreh Bozorgmehri, Hossein Rayiti-Moghaddam, Fariba Kermani, and Alireza Gholinejad Pir-Bazari.

KD