The Iranian Highlands: Resiliences and Integration in Premodern Societies

Human Movement and Mobility in HighLandScape Environments
2022-04-27 - 2022-04-29 | online
Workshop: Human Movement and Mobility in HighLandScape Environments, online, April 27 – April 29 2022.
Here you can see the programme of the workshop.
for further information and to access our workshop webpage:
HMMH 2022 Program

Organisers:
Dr. Sepideh Maziar (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Dr. Saman Heydari-Guran (Neanderthal Museum Mettmann)
Prof. Dr. Barbara Hellwing (Vorderasiatisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin)

Institutional Landscapes
2022-07-04 - 2022-07-07 | Istanbul, Turkey
“Institutional Landscape and Empires in Ancient Iran” workshop in Istanbul, Türkyie, July 4 – July 7 2022.
Proceedings are being edited; expected print dates: Q1 and Q4 2023.
Sessions:

Appropriation
Conceptualization / Perception
Transformation
Impact of Empire

Here you can find the list of speakers and the title of their presentations.
Organisers:
Dr. Wouter Henkelman (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris; Freie Universität Berlin)
Prof. Dr. Stefan R. Hauser (University of Konstanz)

A somewhat different Archaeology of Knowledge (VI)
2022-07-22 12:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Berlin)
Online event. Timezone: CEST

This is the sixth session of the workshop series “A somewhat different Archaeology of Knowledge”.
Organiser: Dr. Yahya Kouroshi (Ruhr-University Bochum)
Guest: Omid Azadibougar (Professor of Comparative Literature. Hunan Normal University)
The Workshop will be held in German.
Sign-up and contact: andere.archaeologie.wissen@gmail.com
Workshop Flyer (German)

66. Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale
2022-07-25 - 2022-07-29
More information and contact details: 66. Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale

Archaeometric Research in Iran and its Neighbouring Regions: Recent Activities and Future Perspective | Part 3 Pigments and Colourful Materials
2022-07-27 15:00 - 16:30 | online
SPP-DFG 2176
Online-Series
Archaeometric Research in Iran and its Neighbouring Regions: Recent Activities and Future Perspective
We kindly invite you to our third session of our online-series ‘Archaeometric Research in Iran and Neighbouring Regions’ with lectures from and discussions among experts.The topic is on: Pigments and Colourful Materials
27/07/2022 – 3:00 to 4:30 pm CEST (5:30 – 7:00 pm Iranian Time)

Dr. Eline M.J. Schotsmans, Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Australia
Social differentiation and commemoration of the dead through pigment use. The example of Neolithic Çatalhöyük (7100-5950 cal BC) in Anatolia (Turkiye)

Dr. Alexander Nagel, State University of New York (SUNY), USA
Pigment to Stone: Scientific Investigations and the Realities of Surface Painting and Polychromies at Persepolis, Naqsh-e Rustam, Susa and Pasargadae

Dr. Moujan Matin, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto; Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Deep blue: Cobalt pigment from Kashan, and trade across the Silk Roads

Invited Experts (Discussion Panel):
Dr. Omid Oudbashi, Art University of Isfahan, Iran

Please register and obtain your link for this workshop session
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5ckdOisrTMjGtHLnmNUwjLUY9AXvW-JBWVO
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

General Information on this online workshop series:
According to archaeological studies, the Iranian Plateau can be considered as an important region in the ancient Near East. Furthermore, the study of archaeological materials from the Iranian Plateau using cutting edge technology has brought new insight during the last decades. Archaeometric studies identified significant characteristics in the relationship between human and nature for a wide range of periods of the Iranian Plateau’s history. However, many archaeological questions concerning, for example, life, trade and technology still need to be answered using different kinds of methods and tools.
During each session we present two lectures with focus on one specific topic on Iran and its neighbouring regions discussed via archaeometric studies. The lectures are followed by a discussion that is chaired by invited experts. Topics include, for example, archaeometallurgy, ceramic analysis, stone and natural inorganic materials, building materials and masonry, pigments, and bioarchaeology and organic materials. Each session will last approximately 60 – 90 min.
The aim of this online series is to exhibit an overview of archaeometric research performed on Iranian cultural materials and in relation to neighbouring regions. We intend to not only discuss the results but also to identify advantages, challenges and new potentials in the study of ancient material culture. In summary, we aim to develop a forum for the discourse on archaeometric studies and its future in Iran and the neighbouring regions among researchers.
The online-series is established and performed within the SPP-DFG 2176 programme: ‘The Iranian Highlands: Resiliences and Integration of Premodern Societies’. We also welcome interested scholars to participate presenting a lecture. If you are interested to participate with a lecture please write to dfg.spp@gmail.com.

Organisers
Dr. Omid Oudbashi, Art University of Isfahan (Coordinator) in collaboration with the
German Archaeological Institute
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum
Freie Universität Berlin
Scientific Committee
Dr. Omid Oudbashi, Art University of Isfahan
Dr. Kristina A. Franke, Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum
Dr. Nima Nezafati, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum
Prof. Dr. Thomas Stöllner, Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum
Executive Committee
Dr. Kristina A. Franke, Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum
Nicolas Schimerl (MA), Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum
Sepehr Bahadori (MSc), Art University of Isfahan

Contact:
dfg.spp@gmail.com
All announcements will be published online via https://iranhighlands.com/ (DFG-SPP2176) and https://en.aui.ac.ir/ (Art University of Isfahan).

ResourceScapes in the Iranian Highlands
2022-09-12 - 2022-09-13 | Bochum, Germany
ResourceScapes in the Iranian Highlands – Water, Wind and Minerals as Factors of Appropriation and Integration, Bochum / September 12th and 13th, 2022
The Iranian central plateau, just as the entire Iranian highlands, has been shaped by very specific resource conditions in some cases. This affects different weather phenomena (e.g. the so-called wind of 120 days: bad-e sad-e-bist ruz) as well as the degree of aridisation or the varying degrees of available mineral raw materials. These conditions have favoured the development of different but also specific practices with and knowledge-complexes about individual resources within past societies. Everyday practices of resource acquisition and use can thus be understood as culturally integrating latent factors, which in turn have to be examined diachronically in regards to their particular appearance, their temporal representation as well as their effect on subsistence and exchange systems.
Therefore, the workshop will start with lectures on environmental conditions during the Holocene, discussing diachronic change in living conditions and resource availabilities in the arid zones of the Central Plateau. They possibly have favoured the development of specific technologies, but conversely, they also highlight tipping points that led to the emergence of approving or crisis-ridden perceptions in societies. In particular, the interdependence on water supply, specific forms of herd use and nomadism, wind use, and the appropriation of raw materials are to be discussed in individual sections of the conference each with three to five lectures.
Sessions:

Fundamentals of a specific environment: climate, vegetation, soils and land-use potentials
Water use and hydraulic engineering systems
Practices in wind use
Appropriation of landscape by (traditional) subsistence systems
Appropriation of raw materials and mining in premodern Iran

Here you can find the programme of the workshop.
Here you can find the abstract reader of the workshop.

Organisers:
DFG-Priority-Programme (SPP) 2176: The Iranian Highland: Resiliences and Integration in Premodern Societies

In particular:
Professor Dr. Thomas Stöllner (Ruhr-Universität Bochum and German Mining Museum),
Dr Kristina A. Franke (Ruhr-Universität Bochum and German Mining Museum)
PD Dr. Martin Kehl (Universität zu Köln)
Dr. Nima Nezafati (German Mining Museum)
Dr. Moslem Mishmastnehi (Universität Bamberg)

For further information on the Iranian Highlands DFG-Priority-Programme 2176:

https://iranhighlands.com/

or visit our current online exhibition ‘Death by Salt’ with the DFG-SPP2176 presented on the (virtual) 2nd floor:

https://death-by-salt.com/index.php/

20th Annual Symposium on the Iranian Archaeology
2023-02-26 - 2023-02-28 | National Museum of Iran, No.1, Henri Rolin St., Siy-e Tir St., Emam Khomeini Ave,, Tehran, 11369, Iran, Islamic Republic of
TimeTable 20Th ICAR

Analysis of Design Principals in Weapons; an Approach to Study Female Weaponry in Marlik, Iran.
2023-12-07 12:00 - 13:00 | online

Workshop: Crises in Ancient Highland Societies
2024-03-07 - 2024-03-09 | Private: Koblenz University
Crises seem to be ubiquitous today, yet oddly, while some archaeologists have studied collapse, few have focused explicitly on the topic of crisis. Crises entail a recognition of uncertainty as well as a capacity to anticipate troubles of all kinds in order to prevent disaster. Confronting crises involves comparison between a familiar world and an inkling of an unknown one that has the potential to spiral out of balance.
In this workshop, we seek to examine the varied aspects of crises in highland societies in premodern times.

Workshop: Prehistoric Tin between East and West
2024-07-18 - 2024-07-19
For virtual participation please register here: reform@ressourcencampus-bochum.de

Workshop: Roads and Travellers in the Iranian Highlands
2025-03-06 - 2025-03-07
Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg
This workshop will explore the theme of roads and travellers in ancient Iran, particularly in
highland regions. The focus will be traveller-oriented, paying full attention to the experience
of journeying, from biographical, social, cultural, economic, and administrative perspectives.
We encourage papers that offer new insights into the various usage of these roads, as well as
the purposes and lives of those who travelled along them.

Link: Click here to see the programme for this workshop

Workshop: “Ritual and Society in the Parthian and Sasanian Periods”
2025-06-27 11:15 - 14:00
On Friday the 27th of June 2025 there will be a short workshop on “Ritual and Society in the Parthian and Sasanian Periods”
More detailed information can be found in the flyer below.
Workshop Sasanian_flyer

SPP 2176 Gender Equality Measures: Academic Writing Workshop (online)
2025-07-24 - 2025-07-25
Academic Writing Workshop:
The SPP 2176 is organising an online workshop on academic writing on the 24th and 25th of July, from 9am to 1pm CET.
The workshop is especially designed to support female researchers within the SPP 2176 by strengthening academic writing skills and contributing to professional development, in line with the GEM (Gender Equality Measures) goals of promoting gender equity and career advancement in academia.
If you are interested in participating please contact us at: fellows@iranhighlands.com

External: Workshop Series: QGIS
2025-07-24 18:00 - 20:00
The AG for digitalisation of the Dachverbands Archäologischer Studierendenvertretungen e.V. (DASV e.V.) is offering a series of workshops on QGIS in german.
The meetings are organised by two students. The first meeting was on 31.01.2025. The second meeting is held by Kai-Christian Bruhn von NFDI4Objects. This meeting will be on 24.07.2025 at 18:00 CEST.
The first meeting is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tsUYVU_zEF8 (only in german)
Zoom-Link
Meeting-ID: 648 6455 3473
Password: [REDACTED]

Workshop: Dynamic Interplay in the Iranian Highlands: In Searching for Anthropogenic Landscapes
2025-12-16 10:00 - 2025-12-18 13:00
Organised by researchers of the SPP 2176, this workshop explores how people have shaped, modified, and inhabited the landscapes of the Iranian Highlands over the course of millennia, focusing on Landscape Archaeology and Anthropogenic Landscapes.
More information, including the Conference Booklet and contact details of the organisers, can be found here.

Artificial Intelligence Tools: Responsible Use and Applications in Research and Academia for Female Researchers
2026-02-17 - 2026-02-18
In this workshop, we will explore the applications and ethical considerations of various AI-based tools. The workshop will include practical sessions, so please ensure you have access to at least one generative AI tool, such as your institution’s chatbot, DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Mistral Le Chat, Academic Cloud, Qwen, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini or others.
