Among
the displays to be featured at the new 18,000 square-meter compound are stamp
collections which date back to the Qajar dynasty as well as more contemporary
collections from the Pahlavi era.
According to a press tv report, the museum will also include collections from
the Islamic Republic of Iran, which made special use of the postage stamp as a
medium to deliver its political, religious and social message after the Islamic
Revolution.
Alireza Berangi, the head of public relations at Iran's Post Museum, believes
the ambitious venture will eventually also help to bring the country's postal
system to international standards.
"The largest postal and telecommunication museum enjoys the fruitful cooperation
of the Universal Postal Union's 192 members states," he said.
The museum is sponsored by Iran's Telecommunications Company and will highlight
the evolution of the postal service into a modern telecommunications industry.
The aim of the team's effort is to
inspect and scrutinize relics that have yet to be studied properly. Artifacts
include perfume bottles and jewelry and those linked to ancient superstitions
and beliefs such as sculpture heads and talismans.
According to a press tv report, the team is led by Sepideh Ghaheri, who is a
masters student at Lyon University of France, studying Egyptology.
After Iran's National Museum the team will move onto study and catalogue the
vast collections kept at Tehran's Reza Abbasi museum and Naranjestan museum in
Shiraz.
The collections on display in Reza Abbasi museum belongs to a period between
the 2nd millennium BC to the early 20th century.
Prehistoric artifacts on display are made of baked clay, metal and stone. From
the Islamic period there are pottery and metal objects, textile and lacquer
paintings and calligraphy works.
The monasteries, in the northwest of
the country, consist of three sites of the Armenian Christian faith: St
Thaddeus and St Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor. The structures - the
oldest of which, St Thaddeus, dates back to the 7th century - are examples of
Armenian architectural and decorative traditions.
"They bear testimony to very important interchanges with the other
regional cultures, in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox and Persian,"
UNESCO said in a press release.
The monasteries were a major center for the dissemination of Armenian culture
into Azerbaijan and Persia.
"They are the last regional remains of this culture that are still in a
satisfactory state of integrity and authenticity," UNESCO said.
"Furthermore, as places of pilgrimage, the monastic ensembles are living
witnesses of Armenian religious traditions through the centuries."
The monastery ensemble is the fourth cultural site to be added Sunday to
UNESCOs World Heritage List since the start of the 32nd session of the World
Heritage Committee. The three other properties added were: Le Morne Cultural
Landscape in Mauritius, The Al-Hijr Archaeological Site (Madain Salih) in Saudi
Arabia, and the Fujian Tulou in China.
"Archeologists will excavate
and search for evidence of human life from the Neolithic and Paleolithic
ages," said director of Kelardasht archeology team, Mehdi Mousavi.
"The team will study the site's 6000-year-old caves to determine the exact
date of human life in the area," he added, press tv said.
Bone and coal samples from the site were previously sent to Oxford University
for carbon 14 testing. The results showed that the area dates back to 6000
years ago.
Located in Iran's Mazandaran Province, the Kelardasht mound holds the key to
the past mysteries of the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.
