Darian Dam Archaeological Salvage Program

The Darian Dam Archeological Salvage Program (DDASP) was planned by the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research before flooding the reservoir.

[1] This archaeological program, under the general direction of Fereidoun Biglari, has conducted several seasons of archaeological surveys and excavations within the area of the reservoir that led to the discovery of many important Paleolithic and more later sites.

[2] The Main excavated sites were Darai Rockshelter (Middle Paleolithic), Kenacheh Cave (Upper Paleolithic), Ruwār tomb (Iron Age),[3] Sar Cham (Chalcolithic and Iron Age), and Barda Mār (19th century).

The results of these salvage excavations were presented at the First National Congress on Archaeology of Hawraman: Archaeological Salvage Excavations at the Darian Dam Reservoir in May 2018 at Kurdistan University.

[4] Some of the results of the research conducted in the area of the Darian Dam were presented at a special seminar hosted by the Iranology Foundation in December 2021 [5] Publications