Organised by Iran Heritage Foundation Date
Wednesday 3rd October, 18.30 Venue
Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP Description
Cyrus the Great chose Pasargadae as his capital at the beginning
of his reign, and introduced there the architectural techniques and artistic
forms of the kingdoms and provinces that he conquered before the defeat of
Babylon in 539 CE. The visible remains at Pasargadae were carefully studied by a
British team and published in a seminal volume by David Stronach in 1978. Since
then the site has been left undisturbed, awaiting further excavation. However,
aware that much remains to be discovered and understood, Iranian authorities
and archaeologists restarted a research programme in 1999. Their first results
contributed to the inscription of Pasargadae on the UNESCO World Heritage List
in 2004. Several projects are now in progress, including a series of soundings,
but most are non-destructive surveys. In this way, it has been possible to
explore a site covering several hundred hectares without disturbing the visible
remains. Today, the famous Royal Garden of Pasargadae is part of a large
well-watered park, the Persian "paradise" which includes well-known
monuments such as the tomb of Cyrus, the hypostyle halls, and the Zendan-e
Solaiman tower. On one side, a 250m long platform with stone embankments forms
the boundary between the Royal Park and ordinary buildings. The town where the
workers and the population lived, however, remains to be found. The exploration
of the slopes of the platform is gradually revealing not only Achaemenid
housing but also unexpected evidence of later occupation of the site during the
Sasanian and Early Islamic periods. Biography
Dr Rémy Boucharlat is a Senior Researcher Emeritus at CNRS (Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique) in Lyon 2 University. He obtained his
PhD from Sorbonne University, Paris in 1978 and is interested in the history
and archaeology of the Great Empires, from the Achaemenids to the Sasanians. He
excavated in Iran in the 1970s and has directed field projects in the Persian
Gulf countries (1980-92), and Central Asia (1991-93). He has conducted survey
and rescue excavations in Pasargadae and the Persepolis plain (1999-2009) and
he has also taken part in excavations in Southern Turkmenistan (2001-04, 2011).
He directed the French Institute of Research in Tehran (IFRI) in the 1990s and
was the director of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at CNRS Lyon 2
University in 2007-10. Dr Boucharlat is the co-editor of Studia Iranica and Abstracta
Iranica, has co-authored several books and written over 120 papers.
Tickets & Info
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