Rasht Museum of Gilan E-Ticket

Although the Rasht Museum is small, it should not be overlooked when traveling to the beautiful city of Rasht.

Its mannequin displays illustrate the Gilaki lifestyle, amid a selection of 3000-year-old terracotta riton drinking horns in the shape of bulls, rams and deer. It was believed that supping from such vessels endowed the drinker with the powers and skills of the animal depicted.

The first floor holds the anthropology display and showcases items such as furniture, personal grooming tools, medical instruments, bathing tools, smoking implements, lamps, leather workshop, utensils, pottery workshop, tea drying machines, local kilims and historical carpets. Contracts and deeds from the Qajar era (1785-1925) are also on display in this part.

The anthropology section of the museum also showcases Gilan’s traditional outfits, handicrafts and musical instruments.

The archeology section of the museum is on the basement level and includes 40 displays that hold pre-Islamic archeological finds from Gilan and other parts of the country.

Some of the items on display include ceramic vessels in the shape of bulls, rams and birds, bronze utensils (chalices, ladles and pateras), jewelry and decorative ornaments items made of stone, glass, bone (bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces and hairpins), Persian helmets (Kulah Khud), bronze mirrors dating back to the first millennium BC, bronze weapons (daggers, swords, knives and arrowheads), casks for storing liquids and food, small and large perfume holders from the Sassanid era (226-651 CE) to the early Islamic period, a stone stele from Rudkhan Castle, Achaemenid (550-330 BC) clay tablets, clay canteens with geometrical shapes, historical and Islamic coins, white marble tombstones with Naskh calligraphic engravings.

The oldest items housed at the museum are arrowheads from the third millennium BC found in illegal excavations in Pir Kouh region.