Biglari Fereidoun, Nokandeh Jebrae., Naderi Beni Abdolmajid, Hozhabri Ali. (Eds.) Human and the Sea. A Review of Thousands of Years of Relationshipbetween Humans and the Sea in Iran

National Museum of Iran and Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, 2020. — 205 p. — ISBN: 978-622-95143-9-9The Iranian Plateau, situated in between the two seas of Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, has hosted multitudes of people since antiquity – people who have relied either in direct or indirect ways to the waters and resources that are clustered with them. Archaeological evidence dating back to the Upper Palaeolithic period, indicate that the settlers of the Plateau had taken advantage of marine resources of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea from prehistoric times.
This is reflected in exploitation of shells as beads, documented in the context of a variety of type-sites in the Zagros region. Impressions of cylinder seals uncovered in Chogha Mish and Susa – both located in southwestern Iran, testify to the usage of water-crafts for transportation of people and goods in Iran of the 4th and the 3rd millennia B.C.E..
With the emergence of local and regional cultures, such as the Elamites and the Achaemenids, the seas surrounding the Iranian Plateau, became a flashpoint of militaristic adventures as well, and their significance in geopolitical land scape of the region was subsequently amplified. The evidence for an intimate relationship between the settlers of the
Plateau and the sea have also been documented in archaeological finds, artefacts and written sources of Iran of the late antiquity and of the Islamic era.m
The National Museum of Iran is a treasure trove of cultural and historical finds. Many of the artefacts in possession of the Museum feature the relationship of man and the sea at length. The evidence exhibit advancements in seafaring technology, maritime trade and written sources pertaining to naval activities. The present exhibition is the result of a
close correspondence between the National Museum of Iran and Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation, in addition to the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science. The exhibition can be regarded as the first major step which is ever taken by an Iranian institution in demonstrating the capacity of inhabitants of Iran, from pre-historic times to the present, manifest in manipulation of marine resources and exploitation of seas. m
n this exhibition, well over 160 artefacts have been brought together from the National Museum of Iran, the state museum of Gorgan, the state museum of Gilan and the Museum of Susa in Khuzestan. These artefacts have been selected from archaeological finds unearthed in a panoply of sites such as Yafteh cave, Ali Tappeh cave, Tall Suzu, Chogha Mish, Susa, Shahdad, Shahr-e Sukhteh, Persepolis, Shami, Siraf, Tamisheh, the Great Wall of Gorgan, Hormuz Island, Qeshm, the Mausoleum of Sheikh Safi, Iranshahr, Malayer, Astara and the Maritime Reserve of Amir
Abad. This collection accounts for over 30,000 years of human interaction with the sea, from the Palaeololithic age to the Qajar period. It is my hope that it serves as a prism through which visitors may gain insight into the rich history of human engagement with the sea in Iran. The exhibition of “The Man and the Sea: An Account of the Thousands of Years of Human Interaction with the Sea in Iran” is open to the visitors in the National Museum of Iran’s Exhibition Hall, from 15th of December 2019 to the February 14th of 2020. m