Abstract Karst aquifers are some of the most important and well-used sources of water worldwide. The tapping of karst waters for use as drinking water has been important in the historical and economic development of many karst regions. Recent studies have found that karstified rocks and aquifer systems cover c. 15% of the Earth’s ice-free land. The greatest area of karst outcrops (>1 × 10 6 km 2 ) is in Russia, the USA, China and Canada. In the Mediterranean basin, groundwater is generally more abundant in karst than in other aquifers and has been extensively exploited. Karst groundwater is also widely used in the Middle East, China, North America, and northern and eastern Africa and is of crucial importance for the sustainable development of tourism and the economy. Karst aquifers currently supply c. 10% of the global population with drinking water and, in some zones, they are the only water resource available. However, the share of karst aquifers in the global supply of water will decrease with the predicted increase in population, concentrated in urban areas, and improvements in treatment technologies for water from other sources.

ABSTRACT This is an in-depth review and analysis of the long and untold history of development of earth science, geological thinking, research, and exploration on the Iranian Plateau within its historical, political, and socioeconomic context. Widespread mineral resources and ancient civilization helped in exploration, excavation, smelting, and usage of different metals, precious stones, and minerals since the Neolithic Period. Extant ancient Avestan and Middle Iranian Pahlavi Zoroastrian texts, as well as the classic Greek and Roman scholars, clearly demonstrate the Iranian geological activity through the Median (ca. 615 BCE), Achaemenid (550–330 BCE), Parthian (250 BCE–224 CE), and Sassanid (224–642 CE) Dynasties, interrupted by disrupting periods of socioeconomic and political problems, followed by foreign invasions and devastation in 330 BCE–250 CE and 637–652 CE, when the Iranians could no longer make scientific advancements. Long after the invasion of Alexander III of Macedon (330 BCE), scientific activity culminated in the establishment of the academies of Gundishāpur, Ctesiphon, and Resaina, the three higher educational centers of the Sassanid Dynasty that focused on comprehensive observation, painstaking research, and advanced education during the sixth and seventh centuries CE. Careful observation, research, and experiment by brilliant and genius scholars such as Karaji, Biruni, and Avicenna took place during a period of great activity and growth in science, engineering, medicine, literature, art, architecture, and philosophy in the tenth and eleventh centuries CE in Iran. This Iranian two-century “intermezzo intellectual zenith,” with a stable state and economic prosperity, was nurtured by the vast heritage of the ancient Iranian, Mesopotamian, Indian, and Egyptian civilizations and elements of the ancient Avestan, Sanskrit, and Pahlavi writings since ca. 1200 BCE. Social, economic, and political conflicts followed by invasions by Central Asian nomadic tribe warlords and their accompanying hordes in 1000–1040 CE (Saljuqs), 1218–1231 CE, and 1256 CE (Mongols), and 1370 CE (Timurids), and their occupation caused the process of irreversible decay, retrogression, and general intellectual decadence until the Safavids (1491–1772 CE). During this relatively long dark period, there was a drastic decline in interest in geological research and writing, though some old mining efforts were active. Throughout the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, foreign travelers made some contributions to the geology and mineral resources of Iran. It was during the second half of the twentieth century when once again earth science research blossomed in Iran with the help of European geologists. This ushered in a new period of modern geologic studies of Iran by native geologists. In memory of Emil Tietze (1845–1931), Alexander von Stahl (b. 1850), Setrāk Ābdāliān ( 1894–1963), Eugène Rieben (1899–1972), Heinrich Martin Huber (1917–1992), Jovan Stöcklin ( 1921–2008), Ricardo Assereto (1939–1976), and all pioneers in the past, who enthusiastically and rigorously intruded ever deeper into virtually unexplored territories in difficult and uncomfortable circumstances, extremely devoted to scientific pursuits, and shaped our understanding of the geology, tectonics, mineral resources, earthquakes, and seismotectonics of the Iranian Plateau .

Early vitreous materials include homogeneous glass, glassy faience, faience and glazed stones. These materials evolved slowly into more specialized substances such as enamels, engobes, lustres, or even modern metallic glass. The nature and properties of vitreous materials are summarized briefly, with an eye to the historical evolution of glass production in the Mediterranean world. Focus is on the evolution of European, Egyptian, and Near East materials. Notes on Chinese and Indian glass are reported for comparison. The most common techniques of mineralogical and chemical characterization of vitreous materials are described, highlighting the information derived for the purposes of archaeometric analysis and conservation.