Hung-e Azhdar. Research of the Iranian-italian Joint Expedition in Khuzestan (2008-2011)

This report makes available the results of the research conducted between 2008 and 2011 by the Iranian-Italian Joint Expedition in Khuzestan in the valley of Hung-e Azhdar (or Hung-e Nauruzi), about 17 km north of the modern city of Izeh. The project’s aim was to acquire new data, and shed new light, on the Parthian rock carving there located, one of the most famous and disputed panels of ancient Iran for the incoherent scene it depicts and remote place in which is located. The exact meaning and chronology of the represented figures have been particularly debated, to the extent that dates spanning from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD were alternatively proposed for the sculpting –or re-sculpting– of the scene. The different interpretations advanced by scholars in the last decades completely change the framework of the panel’s commission and sculpturing, which are of basic importance for the understanding of the events characterizing the history of the region in which it was carved: ancient Elymais.