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There are few
books that show the beauty and complexity of Persian art as well as the book Disc-headed Bronze Pins from Luristan: A Symbol of Ancient Iran’s Art by
Ms. Souri Ayazi does. The book shows the magnificent collection of
disc-headed bronze pins in the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, which is the
best and most complete collection of these items in the world. I was
honored to be chosen as the editor of this magnificent volume. Ms.
Ayazi’s research is superb by virtue of the fact that it takes so many
different sources into consideration. This book is a magnificent volume
for anyone interested in Persian art and symbology as all of these decorative
items carry different symbols on them. Based on their decoration, one can
classify these items into:
1. Pins with
cast heads in various floral, animal, geometric, cupolaed and conic designs.
2. Pins with openwork cast heads, usually in a crescentic, circular or
rectangular frames, some with iron shakes.
3. Pins with flat, mostly circular heads of wrought sheets; the surface
decorated with various floral, zoomorfic, geometric, human and semi-human
motifs.
The decorative
motifs range from plain composite ones, from realistic forms to most abstract
forms.
Ms. Souri Ayazi
obtained her Bachelor of Science in History from Shahid Beheshti University in
Tehran in 1980 and later obtained a Master of Arts degree in Curatory and
Archaeology from Iran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Orgnization. She has 25
years of work experience at the National Museum of Iran and 5 years of work
experience at Sa’d-Abaad Palace Museum as the museum expert and curator of the
Department of Prehistory and the head of the Historic and Luristan
Department. Ms. Souri Ayazi played a leading role in the organization of
several exhibitions at the National Museum of Iran. Among many others,
these exhibitions included the “Luristan Bronze Disc-Headed Pins Exhibition”, “Decorative
Architectural Stucco from the Parthian and Sassanid Eras Exhibition”, “The
Treasure of Golden and Silver Objects in the National Museum of Iran”, “Music
and Ceremonial Dances in Ancient Iran”, “The Dialogue between two Cultures:
Iran and Greece: An Exhibition of the Common Heritage of Iran and Greece
at the National Museum of Iran”, “The Clay Figurines and Human Heads of
Ancient Iran Exhibition” and “Selection of 10,000 years of Art and Civilization
of Iran”. She was also involved with the “100 years of Archaeological
Studies of France in Iran” exhibition.
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Some of the
international exhibitions in which Ms. Ayazi has been involved are “7000 years
of Iran’s Art” (an exhibition that was shown in Austria, Italy, Spain, Belgium,
Germany and other countries), “Persiens Antike Pracht” (an exhibition at the
Bochum Museum in Germany), “Forgotten Empire - the world of Ancient Persia
Exhibition” (in London), “Exhibition of Iran’s Archaeological and Art Objects“ (in
Mexico and Japan), and “The Exhibition of Silver Objects of the Sassanid
period” (at the Louvre Museum).
Ms. Ayazi is
one of the three authors of the book “Music in Ancient Iran: Heritage of
Pre-Islamic Period”. There Ms Aayazi wrote a section covering the period
of time from the Median period until the end of the Sassanid period. She
has also published some papers such as “A Catalogue to Introduce Stone Objects
Discovered from Luristan and Ashkani Period”, “Bronzene Scheibenkopfnadeln aus
Luristan” in Persiens Antike Pracht (exhibition catalogue), “A selection of
Luristan Bronze Objects in the National Museum of Iran”, and “Introduction and
Studies of Bronze Human Figurines Related to Luristan”. Ms. Souri Ayazi
prepared several catalogues for the exhibitions held at the National Museum of
Iran, specifically, the catalogues related to the exhibitions of “Bronze
Disc-Headed Pins”, “Decorative Architectural Stucco from the Parthian and
Sassanid Period”, “Golden and Silver Objects of the National Museum of Iran”
and ”Music and Ceremonial Dances in Ancient Iran: Dialogue between Iran and
Greece.” She also collaborated in the preparation of the “National Museum
of Iran Catalogue”, the section related to Historic and Luristan Periods and the
“Ancient Iran Museum Brochure“. Ms.. Souri Ayazi was identified as
the best museum curator by the Iranian Cultural Heritage & Tourism
Organization in 2000, and she was also awarded the ICOM (International Council of
Museums) Medallion by ICOM’s Iran office, for her excellent collaboration in
curatory activities. She received this award on International Museum Day (May
18, 2008).
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Iran has many
top scholars in different fields. Without any doubt, Ms. Souri Ayazi is
one of them. An established scholar who has dedicated her life to the
study, identification and preservation of historical objects and artifacts from
Iran, Ms. Ayazi has played a crucial role in supporting my research on
arms and armor from Iran. I would like to take this opportunity to thank
her for all her support. I wish her all the best with her future research.
More information about
the book Disc-headed Bronze Pins from Luristan: A Symbol of Ancient Iran’s Art.
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