Please join the Pourdavoud Center for the first talk of our 2018-2019 Lecture Series, featuring the research of Dr. Mark Garrison of Trinity University. Deities and Ritual at Persepolis: The Evidence from the Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Archives The texts and seals preserved as impressions from two large archives of administrative tablets at Persepolis reveal...

Please join the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World for the continuation of the 2018-2019 Lecture Series.  This first talk of Winter Quarter 2019 will feature the research of Dr. Matthew Canepa, Professor of Art History and Archaeology at the University of California, Irvine.  Dr. Canepa is also a 2018-2019 Getty Scholar....

Contextualizing the Achaemenid-Persian Empire: What Does Empire Mean in the 1st Millennium BCE? Looking at historical handbooks of the Ancient Near East, there appears to be a general agreement on structuring the outline of political history of the first millennium BCE. The epoch is conceptualized as a succession of three clearly defined empires. The first,...

The Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World announces the lecture of Dr. Margaret Root as part of the 2018-2019 Lecture Series.  Dr. Root is Professor and Curator Emerita of Near Eastern and Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a 2018-2019 Getty Scholar. Kingship for a New...

Dr. Stefan Hauser will present his research as part of the Pourdavoud Center 2018-2019 Lecture Series. Dr. Hauser is Professor of Archaeology and Ancient Mediterranean Culture at the Universität Konstanz, Germany. He is also a Getty Scholar for the 2018-2019 academic year. Charax Spasinou Research on the Capital of Mesene and the Arsacid Center of...

Please join the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World for a lecture by Dr. Mehrnoush Soroush of Harvard University as part of the 2018-2019 Lecture Series. The Lords of Canals: Re-Examining the Sasanian Hydraulic Landscapes and Their Heritage in the Islamic Period Sasanian kings are known as builders of impressive hydraulic projects...

  Motivations in the Ancient Middle East: Rome, Parthia, and Realpolitik The Roman and Parthian Empires enjoyed no shortage of wars. From the 50s BCE through the 200s CE, they frequently clashed. Why? The dominant explanation is realpolitik. In the zero-sum game of international relations, each state, out for its own interests, sought the aggressive...

Please join the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World for a lecture by Dr. Pollet Samvelian as part of the 2018-2019 Lecture Series. Word Order Variation and Change in the Languages of Western Asia Western Asia is an area of linguistic diversity and longstanding contact between languages of different families (Indo-European, Semitic,...