Taq-e Bostan in Kermanshah

KERMANSHAH,
Aug. 8--Given its antiquity, attractive landscapes and rich culture, Kermanshah is considered one of the cradles of human civilization.
According to cultural heritage experts, the region has continuously been settled by humans since ancient times. Numerous evidence, including Bisotoun Hunters Cave from the Paleolithic Era, confirm the assumption, said IRNA.
The region was also one of the first places in which human settlements including Qaqieh, Tappeh Sarab and Ganj-Darreh were established in 7,000 years BC. This is about the same time that the first potteries pertaining to Iran were made in Ganj-Darreh, near present-day Harsin.
Kermanshah was considered one of the important commercial centers in the fourth millennium BC.
During the Medes, Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacides eras, Kermanshah became a significant health centers serving as a summer resort for Sassanid kings during the period.
Praw, Dalahou mountains with their snow-capped peaks and the inscriptions of Taq-e Bostan and Bisotoun Mountains, which are reminiscent of romance, bravery and legends, are among the historical attractions of the province.
Head of the provincial Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department said that the province was settled by humans since 40,000 years ago and the region was also the origin of developments and events which played a decisive role in the shaping the history of country as well as the world.
Asadollah Beiranvand further said that excavations conducted prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution as well as subsequent undertakings by a French archeological team have confirmed the long history of settlement in the province.

AHVAZ, Khuzestan, Aug. 8--The historical Dav Dokhtar Fort in Ramhormuz, Khuzestan province remains unexplored despite the fact that the edifice was registered on the national heritage list in 2001.
Announcing this, director of Ramhormoz Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Office Jahangir Pirouzzadeh told ISNA that prior to the fortification and maintenance of the monument, archeological works should be undertaken within the fort and its vicinity.
Referring to the allocation of 3.5 billion rials for conducting preliminary studies in Dav Dokhtar Fort, Pirouzzadeh further said that the amount has been made available from the 0.2 percent surcharge from oil revenues earmarked for the city.
He stated that Dav Dokhtar Fort is one a few forts remaining from the Sassanid era.
“We believe that the fort and its vicinity is home to many relics. Therefore we want to access more accurate information on the history of the fort and the events which took place in it,“ he noted.
The official pointed out that the irreparable damages were inflicted to the edifice in recent years due to illegal excavations at the site.
Pirouzzadeh maintained that the fort was not only used for military purposes in the Sassanid period but it also served as a sanctuary for rulers during other eras.

Sadeq Hedayat

TEHRAN, Aug. 8--Jahangir Hedayat, nephew of the noted Iranian writer, Sadeq Hedayat, has announced that negotiations are being held with foreign publishers to republish his uncle’s books abroad, reported ISNA.
He added that although one year has elapsed some of the foreign publishers are yet to reply to letters or make a commitment.
Among the works which have been proposed for republishing are ’Centenary of Sadeq Hedayat in Iran and the World’, ’In Memory of Hedayat 2004’ and ’Dark Room’ (in Persian, English, French, Turkish and Armenian languages).
Events to mark the centenary of Sadeq Hedayat will include all the programs that took place on the occasion of Hedayat’s centenary in Iran, Germany, France, Britain, the US and Canada in 2002.
’In Memory of Hedayat 2004’ also includes a selection of short stories from different contests.
Moreover, the seventh edition of ’Iranian Folklore’ has also been published by Cheshmeh Publishers after a delay of four months.

TEHRAN, Aug. 8--The first international exhibition of illustration of Iranian dictionaries will be held here late fall.
According to ISNA, the event to be sponsored by the Association for Illustrators of Children Books and the illustration group called ’Lak Lak’ will henceforth be held twice each year.
The first round of the exhibit titled ’Elephant and . . . ’ will be held on November 18 while the second round is scheduled to be held in March under the title ’Owl and . . . ’.
Those interested in participating in the event should submit their works for the first round of the event no later than September 6.
So far, the organizers have not issued a call for works by Iranian artists while they have asked the same for foreign artists, which received a favorable response from artists in European countries and Japan.
The artists are free to submit as many works as they can, but, each artist can have only one entry at the exhibit.
The entries for the exposition will later be published in a book.

BEIJING, Aug. 8--China and central Asian countries have created a blueprint to jointly apply for adding the ancient Silk Road on UNESCO’s world cultural heritage list in the next three to five years, Xinhua reported on Monday.
Archaeologists and cultural officials at an ongoing multinational application convention in Turpan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, reached the agreement titled an “Action Plan for Multinational Application for Silk Road on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.“
“The action plan will be the initial step of the multinational application,“ said Gu Yucai, director of the cultural relics protection department under the State Cultural Heritage Administration.
Under the plan, Silk Road countries would take measures to protect cultural relics, improve the environment at sites and carry out promotional campaigns, said Gu.
Protection would focus on substantial relics such as ruins and tombs, as well as valuable non-material relics, such as traditional ballads and dances still performed along the route.
The 2,000-year-old Silk Road was a trade route linking Asia and Europe. It extended from Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, to Europe via south and central Asian countries. It was 7,000 kilometers long, more than half of which is in China. Parts of the Silk Road also pass through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Along this road, gunpowder, papermaking and printing technologies were sent to the West, while Western mathematics and medicine came to China.

TEHRAN, Aug. 8--Executive Secretary of the First International Symposium on Iran’s Sport History Shahrzad Kordbacheh has said that students of Tehran’s Al-Zahra University will make a documentary titled ’Sports Visual Dictionary’ for the first time in the country.
She further noted that researchers, academics and university graduate students have welcomed the initiative to hold the symposium, IRNA reported.
“The students will take photos of valuable works pertaining to Iran’s sports history which are currently being maintained in museums abroad and will display them at the symposium,“ she added.
Topics for discussion at the seminar include ’Ancient Iranian Sports’, ’Sports Since Its Inception to the Safavid Era’ and ’Sports from the Safavid Era to the Present’.
The First International Symposium on Iran’s Sport History will be held at Tehran’s National Olympic Academy on November 20.

This picture released by the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, shows a portrait by Vincent van Gogh, ÔHead of a ManÕ. (AFP File Photo)

SYDNEY, Australia, Aug. 8--An Australian art gallery defended one of its most prized paintings, a portrait by Vincent van Gogh, against claims by some British experts that it is a forgery.
The painting, ’Head of a Man’, is valued at around $15 million, but the director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Gerard Vaughan, conceded that it would be virtually worthless if proved to be a fake, AFP said.
“So far as we’re concerned we are not going to turn around and change the attribution,“ he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“Every great Van Gogh scholar of the 20th century has accepted the authenticity of the picture and has published it as an authentic Van Gogh.“
The painting was purchased by the Melbourne-based gallery in 1940 for 2,196 pounds ($4,185 at current rates) and it is now on loan to the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh--where critics have dubbed it a fake.
Their doubt stems from the fact that the painting is the only horizontal portrait attributed to Van Gogh, is painted on canvas mounted on a panel--an unusual medium for the artist--and is not mentioned in any of his letters, Britain’s Sunday Times reported.
Vaughan said the gallery was open to debate over the authenticity of the painting.
“It is not unusual in the world of art to question an accepted attribution and we will be very, very happy to have that debate,“ Vaughan told ABC radio.
“If it is a fake Van Gogh--which I dispute by the way, but it has been claimed it is a fake Van Gogh--the piece of canvas loses nearly all value,“ he said.