Iran, among the largest nations in the Middle East with one of the youngest populations, is home to a plethora of archaeological sites that reach back more than 60,000 years. Archaeological research is thriving as are preservation and stabilization efforts of archaeological sites and monuments. At the same time, as one can imagine, there is a very lively debate on how best to preserve the Iran’s rich artistic and cultural heritage with multiple stakeholders entangled with aspects of economic growth and development. There is now a significant bibliography and theoretical literature on the history, politics, and efforts of the preservation of archives and sites in the Middle East that includes the archaeology of more recent historic sites and living memories. At the same time, as recent research into ongoing digitization projects and international standardization efforts have shown, the digitization of archival documents and objects on sites, in museums and other institutions is not uncontested. Often, these digitization processes are faced with multiple challenges. Seen from a philosophical standpoint, archives and their future can become contested in their own methods and preferences of classification and organization and standardization. In recent years, cultural heritage debates have undergone rapid changes due to the impact of the new technologies, and archives have played a vital role in these changes. Photographs and glass plate negatives, letters, notebooks, squeezes, movie-stills, architectural and artifact drawings and other records created during the first three years of excavations at Persepolis between 1931 and 1934 are kept today in various archives, mainly outside Iran. Following the rapid spread of the vast numbers of documents and archives produced during excavations by a German-American team at Persepolis, I argue that we can identify patterns in this spread and we can learn from these past experiences with the dispersal of materials and archives from the site thereby focusing our future efforts on effective ways of archival record keeping and digitization and disseminating. In the end, my contribution will throw light on aspects of the historiography of archival materials from one of the most important cultural heritage sites in the Middle East.