Ziwiye hoard

The Ziwiye hoard is an archaeological assemblage discovered in the mid-20th century near the village of Ziwiye in Iran’s Kurdistan province, consisting of gold, silver and metalwork along with carved ivory and other objects. It is regarded as a significant Iron Age hoard that illustrates contacts between local Iranian polities and neighboring cultures.

Highlights of the hoard include finely worked metal ornaments and decorated plates and figures that have been attributed stylistically to local and steppe-influenced workshops. The hoard is important for studying material culture and artistic exchange in the 1st millennium BCE, but many pieces were dispersed after discovery and are now held by multiple museums and collections.

The assemblage was uncovered in the 20th century during local excavations and surface finds; subsequent scholarship has debated exact attributions and chronology, but most specialists place the objects in the Iron Age period for the Zagros region.

The site of Ziwiye lies in Iran’s Kurdistan province in the northwest of the country, within a landscape of foothills and valleys that saw dense cultural interactions in antiquity.

• Dispersed finds: Many objects from the hoard are dispersed across museums and private collections, so individual items are seen in several institutions rather than in a single display.
• Cultural significance: The assemblage is associated with Iron Age art of the region and shows wide cultural influences across the Near East and Eurasian steppe.