All Our Findings Are Under Their Boots! The Monologue of Violence in Iranian Archaeology

Confessions of a Green Notebook: Reading Unpublished Documents About the Oppression of Iranian Archaeology Professors During the 1980s

“…It seems that one of the very first conflicts between the Pahlavi regime and the department of archaeology happened during the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in 1971. At the time, many archaeologists stood against the destruction of the context of Pasargadae and the tomb of Cyrus II by officials (to construct facilities to greet and accommodate the foreign politicians) but were framed and arrested (Dezhamkhooy et al, 2015).…”

“…Reading the green notebook's documents not only leads us to figure out the process of oppression of individuals and the toxic atmosphere of the universities in Iran during the first decade after the 1979 revolution but also reveals why and under which circumstances the field of archaeology was reduced to a nationalistic governmental tool in the hands of the powerful people (Dezhamkhooy et al, 2015;Abdi, 2001).…”

Unfinished narratives. Some remarks on the archaeology of the contemporary past in Iran

“…Unsurprisingly, discussing issues such as colonialism, discrimination, division of the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran, armed trafficking, and the dramatic change in people's subsistence is appreciated neither by the governments of the region nor by the international authorities. Collectively, the contemporary context of the Middle East rejects any avant-garde and critical perspectives offered by archaeology and history (Dezhamkhooy, Papoli-Yazdi and Garazhian 2014).…”

“…Only three decades later, the modern historian Ahmad Kasravi and his secretary, Haddadpour, were killed by Fadaiyan-e Eslam, an Islamist fundamentalist group who considered Kasravi's historical doctrine to be against Islamic values. 2 Further, during the 2500th anniversary of Cyrus' reign in 1974, tens of archaeology and history students who opposed the misuse of history and archaeological remains were arrested and archaeology professors were replaced by pro-government ones in order to avoid more demonstrations (Dezhamkhooy, Papoli-Yazdi and Garazhian 2014).…”