Natinal Museum of Iran the first museum of Iran (as an independent structure) is located at the beginning of 30 Tir Street, in the western part of Tehran’s Mashk Square on 30 Tir Street. The construction of this museum was started in 1308 by the French architect, Andre Godard. The museum building was completed in 1316 and the museum was opened to the public.
The area of Natinal Museum is 5500 square meters, of that 2744 square meters is its infrastructure
Since the plan of a museum should be related to the subject and objects inside it and be related to the history and art of the land, the facade and entrance of the museum was built in the style of Kasra porch. (Kasra porch is the name of the well-known palace of Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanid state, whose porch is 35 meters high, 50 meters wide and 25 meters deep). The color of the bricks is set to dark red for this purpose to represent the architecture of the Sassanid era. The Natinal Museum building is about 11,000 square meters, the main building is built on three floors.
The architects of this building, Andre Godard, along with Maxime Ciro, were French architects who designed Kasra Palace in the city of Ctesiphon during the Sassanid era. Its construction began in 1314 AH, which was completed in two years by Haj Abbas Ali, architect and professor Morad Tabrizi, and was officially opened in 1316 AH.
At the beginning, the first floor of the museum was dedicated to the pre-Islamic Iran section and the second floor of the museum was dedicated to the post-Islamic section.
The expansion of archaeological excavations and the increasing number of works in the Museum of Ancient Iran, caused that this museum in several stages, quantitative and qualitative expansion or in the period 1357 to 1370, in addition to replacing the museum windows, modernizing the heating system and electrical system, units called Warehouses and treasures under the museum were built and added.
In 1375, the works of the Islamic era were officially separated from the Natinal Museum and transferred to the building adjacent to the museum, that was built in 1337.
This building was originally built in 1337 with the aim of constructing an anthropological museum. It was proposed and implemented as the Islamic Museum, that was finally recognized as the National Museum of Iran in 1375 with the official opening of the Museum of the Islamic Era, the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of the Islamic Era.
The oldest Paleolithic part of the hall, that is made of quartz stone, belongs to the Kashfrud river basin in the east of Mashhad, that is more than one million years old. Other old collections of this section are Darband and Ganj Par related to Gilan province and your style near Mahabad, that are about seven hundred to two hundred thousand years old. Interesting artifacts from the Middle Paleolithic and Neolithic periods can be seen in the museum hall, that are between two hundred thousand to about twelve thousand years old. From the Middle Paleolithic period, that coincides with the presence of Neanderthals in Iran, tools made of igneous rock and fossil remains of animals related to caves in the Zagros region and the central plateau of Iran, including Biston and Khorramabad caves have been displayed.
In the new Paleolithic period, that coincides with the expansion of modern intelligent man in Iran, the construction of tool blades became popular. The oldest human remains discovered in Iran can be seen in this section, that is known as the tooth and tooth. This tooth is the oldest human fossil remains in Iran that have been directly dated and discovered in a cave called Vazmeh near Kermanshah. This Asia Minor tooth, that belongs to a nine-year-old child, has been calibrated by gamma spectroscopy, that shows a history between 20,000 and 25,000 years ago.
In the new Paleolithic period, making bone tools and using personal ornaments such as shell pendants, animal teeth and ocher flowers also became common in Iran in this period. One of the important places of this period is “Yafteh” cave (Lorestan) and samples of its objects are displayed in the museum hall. From the next period (Stone Paleolithic), that is characterized by the invention of combined tools, the use of stone and food storage, examples of “Alitapeh” cave (Mazandaran), “Shalam” cave (Ilam) and several other places have been shown.
From the Neolithic and rural period, works such as the oldest clay in Iran from Ganjdareh hill, the oldest clay human and animal statues from Sarab hill and stone tools have been displayed in the hall. Shush (Khuzestan), Ismailabad and Cheshmeh Ali (Tehran), Talbakun (Fars) are very important areas in the fifth and fourth millennia BC. (Copper and Stone Age) are in Iran and samples of their painted pottery can be seen in the hall. One of the important designs in this period is the simplified role of antelope, that can be seen on the surface of Ismailabad and Cheshmeh Ali pottery.
The stone vessels of Jiroft and Shahdad with various motifs such as human battle with mythical animals and the role of geometric, animal and plant motifs are the prominent examples of these motifs that have been displayed in the shop windows. Another important work of this period is in the hall of the Peykar Goli Museum in Shahdad, that shows the half-body of a naked man with his hands folded on his chest, probably shown in prayer.
Utensils, weapons, decorative objects, human and animal figures are among the metal objects of the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age that are displayed in the hall. Gray pottery with a polished and scorched surface, as well as utensils with studded tubes, utensils with animal and human forms, and retons (animal utensils) and iron objects are also on display.
A number of objects displayed in the prehistoric section of the hall belong to the Ilam civilization. Many works of art have survived from all Elamite periods, but the Middle Elamite period is one of the most glorious triple periods of the Elamites. Choghaznabil Temple is one of the most important architectural remains of this period, from which significant works such as cow statues with inscriptions, glass tubes, brick inscriptions and clones have been obtained from it, which are displayed in the hall. Choghaznabil glass pipes are among the oldest examples of glass in Iran. Sculpture, making decorative utensils from natural bitumen, reliefs, cylindrical seals, and sculptures in the form of molds, glazed bricks, porcelain objects, bronze objects and burial mausoleums are other aspects of Elamite art in various periods of Iran. They are seen.
The works of the Median period in the Natinal Museum hall have been obtained from the ancient places of Noshijan, Hasanlu, Godin and Babajan. During this period, the construction of iron objects expanded, of which prominent examples in the hall are Hasanlu objects. During this period, beautiful glazed pottery was made, an interesting example of which is the Ziviyeh glazed pot. The role of two goats on either side of a lotus flower is exhibited.