Alexander Nagel - Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Residential Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, USA

Revisiting archival correspondence, materials, and photographs from the site of Persepolis in Berlin, Washington, D.C., and other venues outside Iran attests that Ernst Herzfeld (1879-1948) and other Germans began documenting aspects of the original appearance of the facades of major monuments on the ruins of the site. This presentation willintroduce results of new and ongoing research on documentation and fieldwork by focusing on the preservation and context of lime stone reliefs from the Apadana and the Tachara ('Palace of Darius,' 'Building 1') in institutions outside Iran. An examination of the surface of a series of stone reliefs from these buildings in Berlin and elsewhere in recentyears invites new thinking about original appearances, the working methods of German explorers, and aspects of modern preservation and documentation on the site.

Persepolis, Tablet Preservation, Fars, stone reliefs