Paleoparasitology in Iran: A Review

Paleoparasitology was created to trace and recover the natural development of parasites as well as the origin of infectious diseases. Paleoparasitology is defined as the study of parasites in ancient material and their interactions with hosts and vectors. Advances in the field have helped to open up new prospects for anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists and medical scientists. In recent years, Iranian parasitologists and biologists have developed immense interest in this field. One of the first human settlements on earth was established in Iran and there is extensive evidence of early human life in this ancient land. Therefore, the aim of the review was to assess paleoparasitological research conducted in Iran in order to facilitate the discovery of the origin of infectious diseases in the region. English and Persian electronic databases including Web of Science, Sciencedirect, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Iran Doc, SID, Iran Medex and Magiran were employed as search engines (up to 2017) using the keywords: Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Parasitology, Parasites and Archaeology. According to the current review, the results of the parasitological study revealed the incidence of human and animal parasitic infection in Iran dating back to 8100 BC.