Please join us on Tuesday, March 30, at 12 pm for our series New Research on Ancient Iran, which highlights new scholarship in the field of the art and archaeology of ancient Iran. This month's lecture, Documenting Cultural Heritage Online: The Archaeological Gazetteer of Iran, will be presented by Ali Mousavi, Adjunct Professor of Iranian Archaeology at UCLA.

Iran is estimated to have over 300,000 archaeological sites, dating from the Old Stone Age to medieval times. These sites range from prehistoric caves, shelters, and campsites to highly complex monuments and cities. In spite of several attempts to create an inventory of these archaeological sites, given their sheer number, there has never been a complete, updated record of Iran’s archaeological remains. In this lecture, Dr. Ali Mousavi will present the Archaeological Gazetteer of Iran, a UCLA project that plans to offer a site-based encyclopedia in which archaeological sites are catalogued and plotted on an interactive map. The digital platform incorporates, digitizes, and presents rare and less accessible publications and reports—particularly those in Persian—but is intended to cover all Iranian archaeological sites regardless, including a number of important places that are now outside the present-day political borders of the country. Dr. Mousavi will discuss how the Archaeological Gazetteer of Iran is a research tool for scholars in all branches of the humanities—including anthropology, art history, and history—but is more specifically for those working on the archaeology of Iran and the ancient Near East. 


Ali Mousavi studied in Lyon, France, and received his BA in art history and his MA in archaeology from the University of Lyon, France. He obtained his PhD in Near Eastern archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley. He has excavated in France, Turkey, and Iran and has contributed to the nomination of a number of archaeological sites and monuments to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. He is the author of Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder and is coeditor of Ancient Iran from the Air and Excavating an Empire: Achaemenid Persia in Longue Duree. He has published on various aspects of Iranian art and archaeology and holds a particular interest in the archaeology of Iranian empires, from the Achaemenids to the Sasanians, and the history of archaeology in Iran and the Near East. He worked as a curator of ancient Near Eastern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2006 to 2013. He teaches art and archaeology of ancient Iran at UCLA.

New Research on Ancient Iran is generously supported by The Tina and Hamid Moghadam Fund.