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James Morler was a traveller and writer, was the first to conduct a minor dig on the site
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Interest grew in 1892 when George N. Curzon published 'Persia and the Persian Question' with many of the observations of travellers
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The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago to sponsor a full-scale program excavation. They were impressed by the work of Ernst Herzfeld in 1928
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Ernst Herzfeld began excavation of Persepolis in 1931
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Herzfeld was succeeded in 1934 by Erich Schmidt. who directed the excavations. He carried out a more organised, large-scale excavation of the site and its environs.
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Due to the outbreak of WWII, excavations were halted
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After the war the Archaeological Service of Iran took responsibility for the site under the Iranian archaeologist, Ali Sami
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In the years prior to 1960 the Protective Antiquities Law was not properly enforced. Little effort was made to prevent the secret digging or so-called commercial excavations, in which half of the finds were automatically given to the person paying for the excavation
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Persepolis was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List
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Between 1979 and the visit of President of Iran in 1991, archaeological work came to a virtual standstill
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Archaeologists working at Persepolis made a film called Persepolis Recreated. It used a mixture of real-life and computer images to give an impression of the site as it was in the past as well as the activities that took place there