IT is gratifying to be able to announce that the Museum’s work in Persia- so successfully inaugurated by two season s of excavations near Damghan-is to be continued under the leadership of Dr. Erich F. Schmidt at a new site of foremost importance, that of ancient Rhages, now called Ray.
Mrs. William Boyce Thompson, to whom the successes of the Damghan expedition are so greatly due, has indicated her desire to establish, under the auspices of the University Museum, the Mrs. William Boyce Thompson Fund for Archaeological Research in Persia, and thus generously to underwrite for a certain term of years a portion of the Museum’s projected work in this area. The Ray expedition is to be under the joint auspices of this Foundation and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, with the American Institute of Persian Art and Archaeology lending helpful cooperation.
The extensive ruin complex of Ray is ideally fitted to the aim of the expedition: the determination of the entire inner-Iranian culture development at a site extensive enough to give promise of containing important remains of all principal culture periods. Not only the walled town of Ray [Plate X], with an area of fourteen square miles, but also the entire valley of Shah Abdul Azim is included in the expedition’s concession granted by the Council of Ministers of Persia and covering a total area of some fifty square miles.
There is one large mound containing prehistoric strata which apparently reach far beyond the earliest remains (fourth millennium B. C.) of Tepe Hissar at Damghan. The ancient historians refer to Ray as an important city during the time of the Medes. Alexander the Great stopped there before continuing his pursuit of the last Achaemenian kings. A Sasanian rock relief, now destroyed, suggests the presence of Sasanian deposits, and exquisite ceramics of the Islamic era, found now and then by present settlers, are well known to the art museums of the West. No scientific excavations have hitherto been made at Ray, although this has for long been regarded as perhaps the most important ancient site in Persia. We may, therefore, look forward eagerly to the results to be achieved when the joint expedition commences operations early in the coming year.