Call Number:

1026

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives

Extent:

25.0 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Item name]. Box [Box number]. Erich F. Schmidt excavation records from Tepe Hissar, Iran. Accessed [Date accessed].

Date:

1931-1932 (bulk) and 1929-1944 (inclusive)

Creator:

Schmidt, Erich Friedrich, 1897-1964

Form:

Correspondence, Field notes, Manuscripts for publication, Maps, Photographic prints, and Site plans

Abstract:

From 1931-1933, The University Museum sponsored Erich Schmidt's excavations and survey at Tepe Hissar and sites around the city Damghan, both in Northwestern Iran, near the Caspian sea. These sites were unique because they were the first American excavations in Iran, but more particuarly because of the long time span represented in the archaeological record. Remains from the Bronze Age to the Islamic era were collected, but Schmidt focused his investigation on the Bronze Age and Sassanian eras.

Archaeologist Erich F. Schmidt was born in Germany in 1897. He studied political science at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin after serving in the German army in World War I. In 1923, Schmidt came to the United States, completing a Ph.D at Columbia University in 1929. While at Columbia, Schmidt joined the staff of the American Museum of Natural History. Schmidt’s position with the museum introduced him to William B. and Gertrude H. Thompson, who were to become his long-term benefactors, and to Fiske Kimball, Director of the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, which co-sponsored the Damghan Project. Schmidt became professor, and eventually professor emeritus, at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. At the time of his death in 1964, Dr. Schmidt was writing the third volume in a series on Persepolis.

After the completion of one season of work (February-May, 1931) at Fara in Southern Iraq (c.f. Near East/Iraq/Fara), Erich F. Schmidt directed excavations at Tepe Hissar, a site located near Damghan on the Northeast Central Iranian Plateau. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Museum of Art in Philadelphia (now the Philadelphia Museum of Art) collaborated on this expedition during June, 1931-February, 1933 due to the proximity of Islamic period sites to the prehistoric mounds of Tepe Hissar. The American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology contributed funds for the second season. Although limited, excavations were undertaken at other sites in the Damghan area: the Damghan Citadel, Tepe Muman, Tari(kh) Khaneh, Nareshan and Shir-i-Shian. Primarily, the excavators worked at Tepe Hissar, focusing on the site of the Sassanian Building and the prehistoric mounds, which dated from the mid-5th to 2nd millennium BCE. After the second field season, the expedition staff went on a reconnaissance trip traveling through Luristan, Fara and other provinces in Iran.

Records concerning excavation at Tepe Hissar were grouped into subseries: general correspondence; reports and publications; field notes; drawings and plans; burial sheets; indexes and catalogs and financial records. For the most part, the original order has been maintained.

The general correspondence series includes as major correspondents Horace H. F. Jayne, the Director of the University Museum; Erich F. Schmidt, the Field Director of the Iranian Expedition; Arthur Upham Pope, the Director of the American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology; Wilton M. Krogman of the Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. William Boyce Thompson, the principal patroness of the Iranian Expedition, and E. Herzfeld. Schmidt's correspondence files appear to be arranged alphabetically by the last name of the correspondent, but the letters are sometimes signed only with a first name.

Schmidt's correspondence with colleagues and friends during his association with the University Museum is mixed with correspondence and financial records from Alishar Huyuk, a site in Turkey, which Schmidt excavated in the 1920's for the Oriental Institute, Chicago. These records were kept within the latter correspondence, so as not to disrupt the original order.

The field registers/catalogs and survey/architect notebooks should be used together to provide information concerning the provenience of objects. A Road Diary dated February, 1931, similar to one kept in the Fara subgroup, describes visits to sites of Schmidt and his crew in the vicinity of Fara and the trip from Baghdad to Damghan. The excavations focused on the burials in the mounds of these sites, and each one was documented with individual "X blanks" sheets, which illustrated and described the position of the remains, and the burial goods associated. Schmidt and his surveyor worked to reconstruct the structures built over many eras, but some of the survey documents were damaged by water and may not be useable.

The drawings and plans are notable for watercolors of some of the burials, of ceramics and other objects, and of the burned building. These are located in the print cabinet or flat files. In addition, there are ink drawings of Damghan scenes done by Ivan Gerasimoff (the painter of the watercolors), who Schmidt reports (1937:9) drew every recorded object.

Included within the indexes and catalogs subseries are two sets of photograph negative cards. One is arranged by object type and within this by field number and another duplicate set, arranged by photographic negative (P.E.) number. The numerically ordered set has the current Museum negative number written on the right corner of each card.