A workshop commemorating Prof. A. Hakemi's work at Shahdad and 40 years of excavations in southeast Iran

Prehistoric Shahdad was a major Bronze Age centre discovered at the edge of the Dasht-e-Lut in 1968. From that point up until the early 1970s, the late professor ALI HAKEMI of the Archaeological Institute of Iran supervised intensive excavations at Shahdad over seven consecutive seasons, revealing extensive evidence for a sophisticated civilization using a range of elite artefacts, elaborate metalwork technology, complex burial practices and archaic pictographs. In many ways, the late 1960s and 1970s were a truly pioneering period for the archaeology of southeast Iran, and work at sites like Shahdad, Tal-e Iblis, and Tepe Yahya revolutionized our understanding of Iran in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Since the publication of the monumental volume “SHAHDAD - Archaeological Excavations of a Bronze Age Center in Iran” by ISMEO in 1997, there have been several major books published on the archaeology of southeast Iran, and extensive new excavations at several mound sites, including Konar Sandal at Jiroft in the Halil Rud plain.

It has been 40 years since work commenced at Shahdad, and it is now the perfect opportunity to put Shahdad into the broader context of our growing understanding of the archaeology of southeastern Iran in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. This two-day workshop will include lectures and presentations by prominent archaeologists and linguists of international standing that will investigate Shahdad and the other major prehistoric centres that are now known to exist in southeast Iran. It will both commemorate Prof. Hakemi's work at Shahdad, and help identify the critical research questions for southeast Iranian archaeology in the future.

There is no registration fee for this event, but those wishing to attend should please email Dr. Cameron Petrie at cap59@cam.ac.uk.