Ali Akbar Sarfaraz (Persian: علیاکبر سرافراز; 1927 – 9 February 2024) was an Iranian archaeologist.[1]
Sarfaraz was once a member of the Archaeological Service of Iran.[2]
In 1962, Sarfaraz was a member of a team that excavated an Iron Age site in Yanik Tepe.[3] The excavation uncovered an artifact made of bone and resembling a pair of spectacles buried with the body of a girl.[3] If, as Sarfaraz hypothesized, this artifact once held lenses, they would represent the earliest known use of corrective lenses.[3]
From 1976 to 1977, Sarfaraz led a "rescue excavation" at Khatunban after artifacts plundered from the site were confiscated.[4] In 1999, Sarfaraz directed the excavation of Charkhab Palace of Cyrus the Great.[5]
Sarfaraz died on 9 February 2024, at the age of 96.[6]