A museum is planned to be set up in Qazvin Province to display objects dating from the Iron Age period, the head of the provincial office of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization said.
"An on-site museum to exhibit discovered items belonging to the Iron Age will be opened in the prehistoric sites of Qarah Tappeh and Tappeh Zagheh in Sagzabad village about 50 km from the provincial capital Qazvin in the current Iranian year [ending March 20, 2019]," Mohammad Ali Hazrati told IRNA on Sunday.
He said four billion rials ($95,000) have been allocated to the project.
"A cemetery dating back to Iron Age III, ancient weapons, pottery and mud-brick buildings are some of the archeological finds so far in the area," Hazrati said.
Archeological excavations at Qarah Tappeh and Tappeh Zagheh mounds have been ongoing since the 1960s.
"The discoveries point to a 4,000-year-old civilization… Experts believe the broader Qazvin Plain that contains Sagzabad's Qarah Tappeh and Tappeh Zagheh was home to a civilization dating back nine millennia and the existence of prehistoric sites indicates that it served as one of the key birthplaces of civilization in the Iranian Plateau," the official added.
Located 150 kilometers northwest of Tehran, Qazvin was once the capital of Iran during the reign of the Safavid dynasty (1502-1736).
The province boasts numerous historical sites and museums including the Qajar Bathhouse, Chehel Sotoun Pavilion (not to be confused with the World Heritage Site by the same name in Isfahan), and Sepah Street, which is believed to be the first-ever street in the country, built sometime in the mid-16th century by the Safavid King Tahmasp I.
