IN SEARCH OF THE LOST MEDIAN ART BY Shahrokh RAZMJOU (The National Museum of Iran, Tehran) Since the beginning of archaeological excavations in the Iranian plateau during which thousands of objects and artifacts belonging to different peri- ods of history have been recovered, one question has always existed: Which objects can be recognized or identified as Median or as being related to the Medes? There has never been a clear answer to this ques- tion. Items found during excavations have helped to determine styles char- acteristic of each period, but Median artifacts and their artistic styles still remain ambiguous and obscure. The lack of inscriptions, which could show a connection with the Medes, is particularly problematic. Therefore much doubt has been expressed about the existence of “Median Art”. In particular, recent scholars are more skeptical about this topic than ever before and prefer to deny the existence of any artistic works made by the Medes. In other words, some scholars believe that we still have nothing that can be identified as Median (see Muscarella, 1987). Speaking out about the existence of Median art can be a dangerous topic and means risking ridicule from the skeptics. Not speaking out about the problems associated with the identification of Median artifacts is even more risky because silence prevents us from shedding some light on the possibility of its existence. This author has chosen to discuss the possibil- ity of Median art. There are two issues to discuss. The first addresses the existence of art among the Medes. The second is the criteria by which we determine whether or not we can classify an artifact as Median. The present paper argues that Median art does exist, suggests that our current perspectives for identifying Median art should be changed, and proposes a new framework for recognizing Median art. Unfortunately pre- conceived ideas exist about the appearance of Median art, so we have never really considered what it should actually look like. Iranica Antiqua, vol. XL, 2005