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Ziwiye hoard has been the subject of many studies since its discovery in 1947 because of its remarkable works of art of various styles. Among these objects there are some metal plates, mainly made of gold. With some considerations, these plates could be attributed as belt fragments. Present study is on four fragmented belts of this group, including three gold belts and one bronze belt. The results show that along with their identical characteristics such as their rectangular forms and perforated borders, we can distinguish a variety of figurative styles on them executed either in repoussé or chased techniques. Base on the scenes depicted on these belts and their iconographical features, they could be studied in three groups: the first group, which chronologically stands earliest, is composed of the belts with scenes depicting ritual ceremonies composed of team or group of offering bearers. This group's ichnographical characteristics represent local Iranian features; the second, with the frieze of long passant animals (horned bulls) has distinctive ichnographical difference among the Ziwiye belts, these features recall figures (horned bulls) decorating Urartian bronze armors; the last group with animal figures represented with in a network pattern are the best example of mixture of Scythian and western Asiatic elements found in Ziwiye.

In archaeological survey of Iron Age of North and Northwest of Iran, the study of metal objects is of great importance because of their technical values. Based on archaeological findings of the first millennium BC, the use of metals in the plateau of Iran and other neighboring areas was spread dramatically. As in the Iron Age, a new phase in manufacturing of metal objects was emerged, recognizing the production methods are the important issues in the archaeology of this period. In fact, this Age is associated with the advancement of metal melting furnaces and the manufacturing of metal objects with fairly sophisticated methods. In the sites of Iron Age of Northwest of Iran, the metallurgy was carried out at an advanced level; while the development of the metallurgy tradition Age can be seen in different part of Iran. This diversity is based on metal objects and metal melting molds from the Iron Age sites of Northwest of Iran, especially from Hasanlu and Ziwiyeh, where most of them have high motifs and manufacturing technology, and also based on the metal objects in the Iron Age sites of Mazandaran region, where most of them have a simple shape and no decoration. It can be said that there is more complexity and diversity in the methods of making metal objects in the Iron Age sites of Northwest of Iran compared to that of the North regions of Iran. This research was done based on the analytical methods as well as the field and laboratory studies. The metal objects used in this research were collected from the archaeological excavation, kept in the store of national museum of Iran. After sampling for metallurgical testing, the samples were sent to the metallurgy and materials laboratory of Sharif University of Technology, where they have been studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) In this study, seven samples of metal objects were selected for metallography testing, which five of them were related to the Northwest of Iran and two others were related to the North region of Iran. The criterion that has been considered for the selection of the samples was that the discovered samples from the Northwest of Iran as well as metal mine and fuel recourses have been geographically close to each other. Based on the results obtained by metallographic testing and images taken by SEM, it was found that they have been manufactured mainly with two methods. Warm hammering and casting were the main methods of production of metal objects in the Iron Age sites in North and Northwest of Iran. On the hammered production method, a mechanical work such as forging has been done after casting. Therefore, their microstructure was different under the microscope. The metal objects discovered from the Iron Age of Mazandaran region compared to that of the Northwest of Iran sites, have a simple shape and manufacturing technology. This could be probably due to the existence of the most powerful empires such as Urartu and Manna in the vicinity of the Northwest region, and therefore more skilled metallurgist, artists and technologists in this ...

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