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Temple of Verjuy or Mehr Temple is one of the particular monuments in the type of regional architecture, in the slope of Sahand volcano; has been located in Verjuy village in the suburbs of the Maragheh city, East Azerbaijan province, Iran. The Verjuy researchers believe that this building belongs to the Mithraism religion which is an Iranian ancient religion (248 BCE-224 CE). But, new excavation around the temple demonstrated that this building is a part of underground rocky architecture with an unclear date and history. Underground Verjuy temple has seven spaces with a number of holes which are connected to each other. According to the literature, the temple was a worshiping place before Islam, but since then, the evidence show that it was used as a mosque. The architectural decorations of the temple have not been taken into consideration and in general, a lot of references, repeat the first information related to the history, usage and stone carving of this temple. As the specific architectural decorations of this monument have not yet been scientifically studied, the exploring variety of architectural decorations as well as the characterization of materials used for making the decorations of this building would be one of the main objectives of this research. Based on the results obtained, the main decorations of temple are including: carving of Islamic Arabesque and Quranic inscriptions as well as Moqarnas decoration inside the dome of the main space of the building. The results also showed the application of mortar on architectural decoration as a plaster inside the building and also on the surface of Moqarnas as a very thin layer in Islamic era. Moreover, the field work (redrawing the plan of temple and describe of architectural spaces as a documentation of architectural decorations with photography) and sampling of plaster along with XRPD, XRF and thin section petrography analysis were done. The results of this research show that, except for stone decoration, there is another decoration with lime base mortar in cover of Muqarnas work and some other places of the building, that this new finding is reported for the first time. This finding showed the application of the building during different periods and it is possible to attribute the earliest works and shreds of evidence of the use of the original dome in its new use in the Islamic era, to the Ilkhanid period.

Gypsum mortar in mausoleum of Seyed Shams al-Din in Yazd, shows incomparable reliefs and molded ornaments. A notable instance of these is the partially damaged gypsum inscription that adorns the iwan of the mausoleum and extends over three sides of it. Apposite conservation of this valuable inscription would call for a structural and technological analysis before its structure-related damages and erosion process could be precisely and systematically examined and documented. Samples were obtained from both the surface and deeper layers of the inscription in question as well as the molded gypsum ornament and the fine coat underlying the latter. The samples were then evaluated using XRD, XRF, and SEM-EDS analyses before the mortars were compared. The results revealed that the interior and surface of this inscription vary structurally, which is partly related to the processing of the mortar and executing the inscription and is partly a function of the mortar erosion process. Erosion and structural alterations in the inner inscription are far more extensive than in the surface, leading to the reduced strength, a main reason for it being the permeation of moisture and soluble salts from the retaining wall to the deeper layers of the gypsum inscription.

In archeometry studies, one of the hidden angles that can be the great help in the field of accurate understanding of ancient materials is the study of ancient texts and finding the equivalence of them with modern ones. Before an Iranian archaeologist wants to study a historical sample, it must be determined what information is available in ancient Persian texts about that sample .The first step in identifying and obtaining this information is to understand the vocabularies and words relevant to that science. But sometimes words from the Persian language are outdated and alternatives from another languages are nowadays designated for that word, which are well known and used in scientific societies and Their Persian form is unknown, so the obscurity of today's obsolete equivalents makes some of the information relevant to it still ambiguous in interpreting ancient texts and remains unknown. by finding the ancient name of the words and their equivalence with the well-known words of today, valuable information can be obtain in a wide range of studies. Khomāhan is one of these ancient and obsolete Persian words that has been defined only in the historical books of medicine and minerals, dictionaries and in Persian poems and these definitions only emphasizes that it is an iron ore. In these books two types of male and female are mentioned for it. It is said that female khomāhan is a reddish-black stone that, when sinking in water, red color will be appeared and It has been used as a red pigment like a vermillion, and the male khoamāhan is a black stone and when sinking it in water yellow color will be appeared, it has been used as a yellow pigment like an orpiment. In Persian poetry also is mentioned about magnetic or black khomāhan. Black khomāhan is also a kind of a very black colored stone and is considered to be the best kind of khomāhan. Thus, the word khomāhan is referred to three stone but it is not known precisely which word or equivalent is known today. In this regard, female khomāhan that has been used in ancient medicine in Iran is found from perfumery and experiments have been carried out in order to prove what is said in ancient texts about female khomāhan. This research shows that female khomāhan is the equivalent of the Latin word hematite. According to researches,

The pastiglia technique has been widely used as the preparation layer for gilding decoration in Iran during the Safavid period. Generally, the purpose of pastiglia is to create a prominent surface for the gilding array. The main research issue is the lack of technical and structural knowledge of the layered arrays of the two churches under study. Lack of sufficient research and resources on the technical and structural knowledge of Pastiglia and gilding decorations in the Armenian churches of Julfa, and also the existence of technical ambiguities and lack of clarity on the origin of art of Isfahan Armenians, such as architectural decorations and especially Pastiglia art, are the necessities of doing this research. The present study provides a technological overview towards the pastiglia employed in the gilding decoration at the Bethlehem Church and Vank Cathedral, as two important Armenian monuments from the Safavid era at New Julfa in Isfahan, using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX). GC/MS and Py-GC-MS used for the characterization of organic materials of samples and XRD and SEM-EDX used for the characterization of inorganic materials of samples. The analytical data show that animal glue was used as a binding medium of pastiglia while linseed oil was probably employed as the mordant agent in the gilding decorations; furthermore, linseed oil was used as a varnish layer on the gilding decorations of Vank cathedral. Also, the inorganic part of the pastiglia substrate showed to have been composed of gypsum and an iron-rich clay. These results are discussed in the larger context of the pastiglia technique in other contemporary historical monuments in Isfahan. It can be said that this present research is looking for structural and technical differences and affinities of these decorations in Isfahan Armenian and Islamic buildings at Safavid era.