In 1965, a very important discovery took place in Najafabad village in Asadabad district, located in western Iran: the find of a monumental stele of Sargon II dating to his campaign into the central Zagros in 716 B.C. This article examines the questions of where the stele was exactly found and where it had been originally erected. It shows that the stele was made of local limestone and that the mound at Najafabad contained an Iron Age settlement. Mount Alvand is identified with the Orontes/Oroandes of Greek and Roman sources and also with Urattus, the last place Sargon visited during the campaign.

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More than eight decades have passed since Edmonds's introduction to the rock-cut Tomb of Qizqapan, yet there are still ambiguities and questions regarding a number of aspects, specifically its dating. Different dates from the Median, Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian periods have been proposed for this monument. However, out of all the proposed eras, none has been fully accepted by the majority of archaeologists, and disagreements regarding the date still continue. This article reviews and analyses previous proposals and discusses and evaluates other elements which affect the dating of this monument. The results show that by taking into account several factors, the most probable date for this tomb is the fourth century B.C., contemporaneous with the late Achaemenid and the early Seleucid period. The conclusion is that Qizqapan does have a Median identity but not a Median period date.

The eastward expansion of Assyria, richly narrated in official inscriptions and supported by corollary materials such as letters from the royal correspondence and oracular enquiries, remains in archaeological terms hugely under-explored. Over the past few years, however, this has begun to change and a succession of recent discoveries is starting to give us an increasingly more detailed picture of the imprint of Assyrian rule in this sector of the Empire. The two fragments of a monumental stele of Sargon II published here, excavated at the site of Quwakh Tapeh in the Mahidasht Plain, are an example of just the sort of find that is ushering in a new era in our understanding of the Assyrian presence in western Iran.