The Burials at Cheshmeh Ali and Rayy: The Excavations of Erich Schmidt 1934 – 1936

Abstract

The Iranian site of Cheshmeh-Ali / Reyy was excavated in the 1930s by Erich Schmidt in association with the Oriental Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. Schmidt was simultaneously working on several other significant Iranian sites so Cheshmeh-Ali has never been published. The artifacts are scattered between Iran and the United States. A team is publishing a volume on this Schmidt work. The graves from Schmidt’s excavation include nearly 180 prehistoric and Islamic graves. This presentation is a preliminary look at the graves including the problems with the data and some of the patterns seen in the data.