Darian Dam The Daryan Dam, also spelled Darian, is an embankment dam constructed on the Sirvan River just north of Daryan in Paveh County, Kermanshah Province, Iran. The primary purpose of the dam is to supply up to of water annually to the long Nowsud Wa ...

was constructed on the

Sirwan River Sirwan may refer to: * Sirwan River Sirwan may refer to: * Sirwan River / Diyala River *Sirwan, Iran Siravand ( fa, سيراوند, also Romanized as Sīrāvand; also known as Sīrāvan and Sirwān) is a village in Darbandrud Rural District, ...

between 2009 and 2015. The Dam is located in the Hawrāmān region of

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...

and

Kermanshah Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...

. The Darian Dam Archeological Salvage Program (DDASP) was planned by Iranian Center for Archaeological Research before flooding the

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

This archaeological program, under the general direction of

Fereidoun Biglari Fereidoun Biglari ( fa, فریدون بیگلری) () is an Iranian archaeologist and a museum curator. Career Fereidoun Biglari is co-founder and head of the Paleolithic department in National Museum of Iran which established in 2001. He is ...

, has conducted several seasons of archaeological surveys and excavations within the area of the reservoir that led to the discovery of a number of important

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

and more later sites. The Main excavated sites were

Darai Rockshelter Darai Rockshelter ( fa, دارای, Kurdish:مرو دارای) is an archaeological site in the southwest of Kurdistan Province, in west Iran. It is located in the Sirwan River valley, between Naw and Asparez villages, in the Hawraman region. ...

(Middle Paleolithic), Kenacheh Cave (Upper Paleolithic), Ruwār tomb (Iron Age), Sar Cham (Chalcolithic and Iron Age), and Barda Mār (19th century). Except for Ruwar sites, all other excavated sites were flooded in 2015-2016. The results of these salvage excavations were presented at the First National Congress on Archaeology of Hawraman: Archaeological Salvage Excavations at the Darian Dam Reservoir in May 2018 at Kurdistan University. Kenacheh_Cave

References

{{Reflist *Adams, Jenny L. and Amir Saed Mucheshi, (2020) The persistence of plastering technology: Defining plastering stones as a distinctive handstone category, ''Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports'', Volume 31,102344, ISSN 2352-409X
The persistence of plastering technology: Defining plastering stones as a distinctive handstone category
*Biglari, F., (2021) Construction de barrage et archéologie de sauvetage dans le Zagros, ARCHÉOLOGIA 595: 10-11. *Biglari, F., S. Shidrang et al. (2017) Survey and salvage excavations at the Darian Dam Reservoir, Hawraman, Kurdistan and Kermanshah, ''Proceedings of the 15th annual archaeological Symposium of Iran'', pp. 49–54, Iranian Center for Archaeological Research (ICAR), Research Institute of Cultural Heritage & Tourism (RICHT), Tehran *Biglari, F and S. Shidrang (2019) Rescuing the Paleolithic Heritage of Hawraman, Kurdistan, Iranian Zagros, ''Near Eastern Archaeology'' 82 (4): 226-235.https://doi.org/10.1086/706536 *Ghasimi, T,(2019
Ruwar: an Iron Age tomb at Hawraman, Kurdistan
''Mehr-e Parseh'' 16:109-111. *Ghasimi, Taher, et al (2021). Ruwar Tomb: New Insights into Material Culture, Burial Practice and Bioarchaeology of the Iron Age Communities in the Hawraman Mountains, Kurdistan, Iran, Bulletin of Miho Museum 21:111-122. *Tehrani, N., M. Mashkour, and F. Biglari, 2018. Ethnoarchaeological studies in the Naw village and the Asparez valley, an attempt to identify seasonal migration patterns and environmental exploitation in prehistoric Hawraman, presented in the First National Congress on Archaeology of Hawraman: Archaeological Salvage Excavations at the Darian Dam Reservoir, Ferdosi Hall, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj. *Saed Mucheshi. A., and S. Khalifeh Soltani, (2019) Shiran: a submerged Iron Age grave in the Darian dam, Hawraman, Kurdistan. In Y. Hassanzadeh, Y. and Vahdati, A.A. and Karimi, Z. (eds.), ''Proceedings of the international conference on the Iron Age in western Iran and neighboring regions'', Vol. 2: 215-226, Tehran, RICHT. *Saed Mucheshi A, Esna-Ashari A, Rahmati S M, Bahadori R, Madani F S. (2019) Compositional Study of the Potteries from Sarcham, Bardemar and Kenacheh Sites, Hawraman Area, Kurdistan Province, Iran. Journal of Research on Archaeometry 5 (1):105-127. URL

Regions of Iran Geography of Kurdistan Province Geography of Kurdistan Hawraman Dams completed in 2015 Dams in Iran Dams on the Diyala (Sirwan) River Archaeological sites in Iran

See also

References