Haft Tappeh was first found and visited by Jean-Jacques de Morgan, contemporary head of French expedition at Susa, in the late nineteenth century. Afterwards, Robert McCormick Adams, from the University of Chicago, investigated the site and spotted it on a map as KS 98.
During early 1960s, with the advent of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Industry Company, land leveling projects started to run. Once, while land leveling, a bulldozer hit the arch of an Elamite tomb made of baked brick. Therefore, as the result of the officials’ timely decision, land leveling was stopped and Dr. Ezatollah Negahban was sent to the place from the Iranian Archaeology Center. After a visit to the site, archaeological excavations began at Haft Tappeh in 1964 under Dr. Negahban and continued till 1979 in collaboration with the University of Tehran. The excavations, which were conducted every year for three months during winter, demonstrate a proper and efficient example of collaboration between the General Directorate of Archeology and the university. This strongly contributed to training Iranian students and archaeologists as well as yielding archeological Elamite documents and finds for research purposes. Over the course of these excavations, about 150 trenches measuring 10×10 meters were dug. During early seasons, excavations were more focused on the northwest of the site where the bulldozer had exposed parts of the ruins for the first time. That said, excavations developed to the southeast in the ensuing seasons.