Behbahan Museum

Behbahan Museum was established in 1384 SH in two sections of archaeology and ethnography. This museum includes three large halls and three small halls. The large ones dedicated to the section of ethnography where parts of life, culture, rituals and traditional occupations are displayed using some sculptures among which the traditional coffee-house, Aba weaving and ceremonies like weddings are interesting.

In the section of archaeology some manuscripts, discovered coins from different periods of time and objects related to Elamite civilization are kept. Elam is the name of a civilization spreading over a large area of the southwest of Iran approximately five thousand of years ago. Elamite people considered their country to be the land of God. One of the most important materials discovered in this region that is somehow considered, today, to be the symbol of Behbahan is a ring known as the power ring of Arrajn.

A wonderful ancient item was suddenly discovered in 1361 SH in the middle of a construction project of a dam along the Marun river, 10 kilometers southeast of Bahbahan. The discovered object was, in fact, a grave with a bronze coffin in and many golden, bronze, silver and pottery objects. Inside the monument, a person named Hutran, Kourlush’s son (from Elam dynasty) had been buried in a bronze coffin. The evidence shows that there is an imprinted golden ring in his left hand and a dagger on the waist-worn a cloth decorated in golden buttons all indicating the religious beliefs of the deceased. In other words, the belief in the afterlife is the reason of the existence of these kinds of ancient materials inside his grave. The golden ring of Kidin-Hutran is 257 gram, according to the archaeologists. The phrase of “Kidin-Hutran, Kourlush’s son” is carved on the ring.

The antiquity of this ring is supposed to be the eighth century BC and based upon the archaeologists, in no other historical excavations a similar ring has been discovered to date. This ring is somehow the national-religious sign of Elamite kings and it is today kept in the Museum of Ancient Iran.