Iran Bastan Museum

Persepolis’s first excavator, Ernst Herzfeld (wearing a dark suit and distinctive hat in the center of the group photo), and his architect, Friedrich Krefter (wearing a light coat and standing to Herzfeld’s immediate left), reconstructed the so-called Harem of Xerxes to serve as the expedition’s living quarters and workrooms. This group photo, one of a series of photos taken in the Harem’s northern portico on October 18, 1933 (the day the Reza Shah visited Persepolis), is the only one to survive.

The others in the group photo are (from left to right) the German archaeologist Alexander Langsdorff and his wife; Joseph Upton, Herzfeld’s American assistant, who later excavated the Iranian site of Nishapur; Charlotte Bradford (Herzfeld’s sister) and her son, Charles. To the right of Krefter are Hans Kÿhler, an expedition technician; Mohammad-Taqi Mostafavi, who later became the head of the General Office of the Archaeology Service of Iran; and André Godard, the French archaeologist and architect who served as the first director of the Iran Bastan Museum.