Soiling and blackening in archaeological sites and monuments of Iranian cultural heritage

During the Gulf War, the environment in Kuwait and neighbouring countries suffered damage from oil well fires that burned for months. Iranian authorities claimed that cultural heritage was severely damaged as a consequence of the smoke produced by the fires. The United Nations issued its final report on awards of compensation for damages resulting from Iraq’s 1990-91 invasion and occupation of Kuwait on June 30, 2005. No compensation for Iran’s claim was awarded due to insufficient evidence regarding nature and extent of damage. The present paper focuses on the analitycal data obtained from the investigation on the soiling affecting surface monuments and reliefs of important Iranian archaeological sites. The results indicates that the black deposits on the Iranian monuments investigated are mainly microbiotic crusts produced by cyanobacterial growth while evidence of the deposition of particulate matter (smoke) produced during the Gulf War was not found.