Luristan From the Past to the Present. On the Silk Road: From Luristan Bronzes to Today’s Nomadic Tribes (LURPAP)

This research projects consists in providing new perspective on a group of objects commonly known as “Luristan bronzes”, currently scattered around various museums, particularly in France but also in Iran. The geographical framework of the study is the Luristan region in Iran, well known around the world for its museums and famous bronzes, but not very well known archaeologically. The primary aim of the project is to promote the heritage collections and study the bronzes preserved at the Louvre, and the National Museum of archaeology. In addition to these two French museums, it will also study the rich collection at the Falakolaflak Museum in Luristan and that of the Tehran National Museum in Iran. This will provide a contextualisation of the bronzes in the museum collections. Much of the collections come from clandestine excavations, the remainder from funerary contexts. Only two non-funerary sites, probably rituals, have been excavated, one of them only recently in Sangtarashan. The collections and the excavations, as well as their publications, are often old and require additional perspectives, such as a comprehensive critical catalogue, new typology, chronology and technical studies, and studies on the origins of raw materials. It will also look at the contexts of production and distribution, and the (initial and final) function of these objects and question how they were actually used. The project will also work toward documenting the history of settlement, of different lifestyles and models of territorial organisation, particularly of the Lurs nomads who are still present in the region, and understanding the strategies for occupying the space mobilised by the populations who have lived here since the Palaeolithic period.

Project managers

Martin SAUVAGE , CNRS

Christine LORRE , Musée d'Archéologie nationale de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Internal cluster partners

• Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité (ArScAn) - UMR 7041
• Musée d'Archéologie nationale - Domaine de St-Germain-en-Laye

Associated partners

Iranian Center for Archaeological Researches, Université du Luristan
http://www.richt.ir/Portal/Home/Default.aspx

Musée du Louvre
https://www.louvre.fr/

Musée de Falakolaflak, Iran

Duration

Keywords

Iran, bronzes du Luristan, nomadisme, archéométallurgie, collections muséales