URING the past centuries many travelers and
scholars have described the impressive ruins of
the Achaemenid palaces, the tombs of the kings,
and other antique remains in the Persepolis area. In 1892
George N. Curzon reviewed and condensed the observations of earlier authors in his own monumental work which
deals with recent Iran and with the vestiges of its great
past.1 Subsequent to Curzon's publication and prior to
the start of extensive excavations, the major contributions to our knowledge of the Persepolis area were made
by Ernst Herzfeld and Friedrich Sarre.2
The excavation of Persepolis was initiated in 1931 by
the late Professor James Henry Breasted, 3 founder and
director of the Oriental Institute of the University of
Chicago. Professor Breasted emphasized the indebtedness
of the expedition to the generosity of an American patroness of art who wished to remain anonymous. Ernst
Herzfeld, who was then Professor of Oriental Archeology
at the University of Berlin, became the first field director
of the Persepolis project. The field activities during his
regime, his publications referring to the results, and the
members of his staff are mentioned below (p. 3). Herzfeld terminated his field work in 1934. The writer succeeded him while still in charge of excavations at Rayy
and conducted both projects simultaneously until 1936.
During the following year the patron institutions of the
Rayy Expedition, namely the University Museum of
Philadelphia and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
joined the Oriental Institute as cosponsors of the Persepolis Expedition.
Partial results of Herzfeld's