OIP 108. The Holmes Expeditions to Luristan E. F. Schmidt, M. N. van Loon, and H. Curvers, with contribution by J. A. Brinkman

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This long-awaited report is a major contribution to the archaeology of Iran. Its multiple authorship epitomizes its prolonged gestation. Schmidt (1897-1964) was one of the founding fathers of field archaeology in Iran at a time when the skills of an archaeologist had to be combined with the tenacity of an explorer and the resourcefulness of a general to achieve anything. The first Holmes Luristan Expedition was directed by him during October and November 1935, when he excavated the primarily Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites of Kamtarlan I and II and Chigha Sabz; the second in May and June 1938, when work was concentrated on a shrine of the mature Iron Age on the slopes of Surkh Dum-i-Luri mountain. Surveys, some from the air, were an integral part of the research program, which opened up central and eastern Luristan to archaeology.

 

 

Where possible Professor Maurits van Loon has incorporated Schmidt's brief accounts of his work, but this volume is very largely the achievement of van Loon and his research assistant, Curvers. A notable piece of rescue archaeology which makes an original contribution to the study of ancient Iran, it owes its merits to a subtle combination of Schmidt's admirable recording of his finds and the scholarship of van Loon and Curvers. The two volumes are very well produced. A separate volume of plates (drawings and photographs) allows for complementary use of text and illustrations. In the main text the finds are separated from site descriptions and presented in chronological and typological categories, with many tables. [From a review by P. R. S. Moorey in Journal of Near Eastern Studies 53 (1994) 133-36].

Two volumes (Text, Plates).

  • Oriental Institute Publications 108
  • Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1989
  • ISBN 0-918986-53-2
  • Pp. xv + 594; 20 catalogs, 32 tables, 265 plates
  • Clothbound 9 x 11.75 in / 23 x 30 cm
  • $110.00