On September 10, Dr. Ali Mousavi, Lecturer in Iranian Archaeology at UCLA, will present “Persepolis: the Life and Afterlife of a World Wonder.” The ruins at Takht-e Jamshid, known as Persepolis, are among the most formidable monuments that have gained a measure of symbolic status. The site has been the object of years of exploration from the nineteenth century to the present. Built by artists and workers of the four quarters of the civilized world in the late years of the sixth century BC, Persepolis became the richest city under the sun and was the epitome of the Persian Empire. The burning of the city in 330 BC both marked the end of the empire and the beginning of a new era: Persepolis’ afterlife. After its first destruction, the ruined city of the Persians attracted local dynasts who performed rituals and ceremonies at the site and who saw the ruins as the enigmatic deeds of their glorious ancestors. From one life to another, the site has continued to fascinate generations of kings and princes, travellers and adventurers, explorers and archaeologists. This lecture attempts to examine the history of the site as a whole from the time of its foundation down to the present day.
On September 17, David Stronach, Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at UC Berkeley, will speak about “Recollections of Archaeology in Iran.” Against a background of the close cooperation that existed between all the archaeologists who were working in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s, this lecture attempts to describe the activities of various of the British archaeologists who were working in different parts of Iran at this time. Sites of Iron Age to Achaemenid date will be given particular attention. The lecture will be followed by a short film on the work at Tepe Nush-e Jan that was taken in the field by Ruth Stronach. Filmed at intervals between the first season in 1967 and the fifth and last season in 1977, the film includes detailed views of the steps that were taken to reveal the monumental mud-brick architecture that was encountered at this unusually well-preserved Median site, located 60 km south of Hamadan.