The quiddity of the materials used in the constructions of Dūr Untaš (Tchogha Zanbil) and Kabnak (Haft Tappeh) shows the necessity of periodic preservations with regular gaps in between. Preservation and restoration measures taken at these two sites are divided into three time periods: the time of excavation, the hiatus between the end of excavations and the establishment of Haft Tappeh and Tchogha Zanbil World Heritage Base, and the time from base inception to the present. In the process of restorations done during the second time period, i.e. 1980-2000, none of restoration principles such as minimum intrusion, sustaining form and material authenticity, or restoration reversibility were observed.
After initiating the research center and the building preservation and restoration committee, considerable attention was paid to items like preventive preservation, documentation, cooperation and collaboration with different specialized groups, sustaining authenticity, and minimum intrusion except in emergency cases. Since there were no comprehensive precise documents elaborating methods and principles of restoring clay ruins and artifacts, conducting more researches by this committee for setting preservation and restoration ground rules assumed necessary.
The committee has always taken controlling and conserving the developing environmental conditions, manual and digital monitoring for detecting harmful agents, and controlling environmental parameters for preventing more damage and destruction into account.
The committee’s vision for the architectural remnants of Haft Tappeh and Tchogha Zanbil in the near future is presenting the entire complex as a unique middle-Elamite example of Iranian architecture which could introduce new standards of recognition studies, qualitative and quantitative damage assessment (digital monitoring), geotechnique surveys, restoration monitoring, and archaeological preservation. Also, employing accurate scientific methods approved of by different building restoration societies, the committee has made possible identifying original elements of the constructions and their restoration at the two aforementioned sites.After the formation of the study center and the formation of the conservation and restoration working group, attention was paid to things such as preventive conservation, documentation, cooperation and consensus of different expert groups, preserving the originality of the work and minimal interventions except in very urgent cases. The absence of any complete and specific document that deals with the proper method and principles of restoration of Glynn’s works has made it necessary to carry out more research by this working group than in the past in the field of compiling the theoretical foundations of conservation and restoration in the two mentioned sites.
The discussion of control and protection of growing and developing environmental conditions, the discussion of monitoring in both manual and digital forms to identify complications and harmful positions, as well as the control of environmental parameters to prevent further damage and destruction are always considered by the conservation and restoration working group. This is the base.
The vision of this working group for the existing architectural structures in the two ancient sites of Chaghazanbil and Haftpeh as unique examples of Iranian architecture in the Middle Elam era, luxurious and protected collections in the near future, where new standards of cognitive studies, qualitative and quantitative pathology ( computerized monitoring and monitoring), geotechnical investigations and bed monitoring and archaeological restoration and protection plan. Also, by using the precise scientific methods approved by the restoration societies in the protection of the building, it will cause the original and historical lines of the building to be reread and the architectural and structural restoration of the existing structures in the two areas.