Kamyar Abdi ( fa, کامیار عبدی; born 1969) is an Iranian
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
. He is the editor of the Iranian ''Journal of Archaeology and History'', a research associate at the Iranian Center for Research on Humanities and Cultural Studies, and professor at Department of Archaeology at
Shiraz University
Shiraz University ( fa, دانشگاه شیراز ''Dāneshgāh-e-Shirāz'', formerly known as Pahlavi University دانشگاه پهلوی ''Dāneshgāh-e Pahlavi'') is a public university located in Shiraz, Fars, Iran, established in 1946. ...
. He was the deputy director of the
National Museum of Iran
The National Museum of Iran ( fa, موزهٔ ملی ایران ) is located in Tehran, Iran. It is an institution formed of two complexes; the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of Islamic Archaeology and Art of Iran, which were opened in 1937 ...
in 2011.
Biography
Kamyar Abdi was born in 1969 in
Tabriz
Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
, Iran.
[Touraj Daryaee]
The Iranian Plateau from Paleolithic Times to the Rise of the Achaemenid Empire
''Osfordhandbooks.com'', February 2012 Abdi received his M.A. degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
(1997). He continued his studied and received his Ph.D. from
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
(2002), his advisor was
Henry T. Wright
Henry Tutwiler Wright (born 1943) is an American archeologist and educator. Wright has had significant contributions to the field of archaeology through his fieldwork, publications, and teaching. He serves as the Albert Clanton Spaulding Distingui ...
and his dissertation was titled "Strategies of herding: Pastoralism in the middle
Chalcolithic
The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
period of the West Central Zagros Mountains". From 2002 until 2008, he was an
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...
in the Department of Anthropology,
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
.
His research interests include
sedentism
In cultural anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In Sociocultural evolution, evolutio ...
, food production (agriculture and pastoralism), and political developments in the ancient Near East, especially Iran. He has directed archaeological projects at
Malyan (ancient
Anshan
Anshan () is an inland prefecture-level city in central-southeast Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, about south of the provincial capital Shenyang. As of the 2020 census, it was Liaoning's third most populous city with a population ...
), Arjan, Sorkh Dom Lori, and
Ziviyeh.
In the late 1990s he led the Islamabad Archeological Research Project which discovered an ancient
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
tooth which has been extensively studied, and as of 2019, it has confirmed the existence of Neanderthals in Iran roaming in the
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوههای زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgro ...
as far back as 40 to 70 thousand years ago.
He also formerly was a visiting professor at Department of Archaeology in
Tarbiat Modarres University
Tarbiat Modares University ( fa, دانشگاه تربیت مدرس: ''Dāneshgāh-e Tarbiyat Modares'', lit. "Professor Training University") is an exclusively graduate university with its main campus in Tehran, Iran. It was founded in 1982 a ...
in Tehran. In 2017 he joined
Shiraz University
Shiraz University ( fa, دانشگاه شیراز ''Dāneshgāh-e-Shirāz'', formerly known as Pahlavi University دانشگاه پهلوی ''Dāneshgāh-e Pahlavi'') is a public university located in Shiraz, Fars, Iran, established in 1946. ...
as a
Full Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
.
At present, he teaches at the
Shahid Beheshti University
Shahid Behesti University ( fa, دانشگاه شهید بهشتی , Dāneshgāh-e Shahid Beheshti) (formerly known as the National University of Iran) is a public research university in Tehran, Iran. The university offers many programs at Bache ...
Published work
*Abdi, K. (2001) Nationalism, Politics, and the Development of Archaeology in Iran,
American Journal of Archaeology
The ''American Journal of Archaeology'' (AJA), the peer-reviewed journal of the Archaeological Institute of America, has been published since 1897 (continuing the ''American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts'' founded by t ...
105/1: 51-76.
*Abdi, K. (2003) The Early Development of Pastoralism in the Central Zagros Mountains, Journal of World Prehistory, Vol. 17, No. 4: 395-448.
*Abdi, K. (2007) The Name Game: Persian Gulf, Archaeologists, and Politics of Arab-Iranian Relations. In Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts. Philip Kohl, Mara Kozelsky, and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, eds. pp. 206–243. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
*Abdi, K. (2008) From Pan-Arabism to Saddam Husayn's Cult of Personality: Ancient Mesopotamia and Iraqi Nationalism. Journal of Social Archaeology 8/1: 3–34.
*Abdi, K. (2012) The Iranian Plateau from Paleolithic Period to the Rise of the Achaemenid Empire. In Oxford Handbook on Iranian History. Edited by Touraj Daryaee. pp. 13–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Abdi, K. (2013) Theory and Method in Archaeology: How Can We Integrate the Two to Arrive at a Better Understanding of the Past and Apply Archaeology to Present and Future Problems More Efficiently. Payām-e Bāstānshenās 17: 17–30.
*Abdi, K. (2014) The Pre-Imperial Persians at the Land of Anshan: Some Preliminary Observations. In Excavating an Empire: Achaemenid Persia in Longue Durée, edited by T. Daryaee, A. Mousavi and Kh. Rezakhani. pp. 73–87. Costa Mesa CA: Mazda Publishers.
*Naomi F. Miller and Kamyar Abdi (eds.) (2003) Yeki Bud, Yeki Nabud: Essays on Iranian Archaeology in Honor of William M. Sumner. Philadelphia and Los Angeles: Costen Institute of Archaeology of the UCLA and American Institute of Iranian Studies.
*Susan Pollock, Reinhard Bernbeck and Kamyar Abdi (eds.) (2010) Toll-e Bashi: A Neolithic Village in Kur River Basin, Iran. Berlin: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut-Eurasien Abteilung.
See also
*
Kor River
Kor River (also Kur River; fa, رود کر) is located in the Fars Province of Iran. The sources of the river are mostly in the Zagros Mountains near Mount Dena. It flows into the Bakhtegan Lake, which is a salt lake. The increased salinity leve ...
References
External links
Dartmouth faculty webpage
{{Authority control
Iranian archaeologists
Living people
Iranian emigrants to the United States
Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies alumni
University of Chicago alumni
1969 births
Dartmouth College faculty
American people of Iranian descent
Iranian academics
American academics