Iran’s Research Institute for Cultural Heritage & Tourism (RICHT) and Tehran Department of the Deutsche Archäologische Institut (German Archaeological Institute) will hold an online symposium titled, ‘Working on Stones in the Achaemenid Empire: Methods, Theories and Techniques,’ for three days, from Sept. 17 to 19.
According to IRNA, a large number of Iranian and non-Iranian researchers in the fields of archaeology, linguistics, restoration and archaeometry have been invited to present lectures on their latest researches, a member of the German institute Zohreh Zehbari said.
Stonemasonry is one of the most practical arts in the Achaemenid Period and many movable and immovable works of stone have been left from this period, indicating that a large number of stonemasons who served for the court had enough knowledge about this craft.
There have been a lot of discussions about how to work with stone, the tools used, the stone mines, the techniques used in the construction of stone structures, and methods of quarrying, she said.
This is the first time there is a coherent program on the art of stone crafts during the Achaemenid Era, Zehbari concluded.