Due to the outbreak of the virus, some restrictions on visits have been imposed, Jabrael Nokandeh said.

“In order to protect the employees’ and visitors’ health and also preserve the museum artworks, special instructions have been outlined and implemented in the museum.”

It is necessary for all visitors to study the rules and regulations carefully and observe the health protocols, the chief curator added.

“The full reopening of all sections of the museum may not be possible as long as the country is fighting against the virus; therefore we are working to gradually reopen the museum’s exhibition halls.”

In the first stage, he said, only the “Exhibition of Archeological Discoveries in 2009” reopened, and from May 30, the Museum of Ancient Iran (one of the two complexes of the National Museum of Iran) will reopen the section belonging to the beginning of Elamite period to the end of the Sassanid period.

The exhibition features the photos and documents related to an enigmatic tooth which has been recently proved to belong to a Neanderthal child.

Discovered in 1999 in a cave called Wezmeh near Kermanshah, west of Iran, the fossilized tooth is probably the most striking element in the exhibit as it bears the first evidence of Neanderthals once lived in Iran. The tooth was previously thought to belong to a modern human.

 

Source:Iran Daily