Archaeological Excavations and Finding Antiques by European Travelers and Orientalists during Qajar Era

The history of new and scientific archaeological researches in Iran mainly dates back to the Qajar period. Although the history of European Oriental studies in Iran has exceeded the Qajar era, however, until the aforementioned period, scientific archeology in Iran did not have much meaning and European officials and Orientalists studies in Iran mainly focused on the identification of Iranian antiquities and few scientific archaeological excavations. The present study has analyzed the main issue of this research namely the circumstances of European Orientalists’ excavations and the development of antiquarian archeology in Iran during Qajar Era through a descriptive-analysis approach based on the most important works and records of travelers and Orientalists about the historical and ancient objects, antiques and archeological excavations in Iran. The findings of this study show that the European Orientalists played the main role in the initiation and expansion of archeological studies based on antiquarian detection, conversion of Iranian historical artifacts into commercial goods and the creation of a market for Iranian antiques and withdrawal of a large part of Iran's cultural and historical heritage to Europe and other countries in the world, during Qajar era.