Research Forum Ērān, Tūrān, and Hrōm: West and Central and Asia in the First Millennium CE
University of Lille (France), 15-19 July 2024
Convenors: Ekaterina Nechaeva (Lille) & Khodadad Rezakhani (Leiden)
Programme Schematic (PDF)
| Day | Keynote (9:00-10:30) | Seminar (11:00-13:00) | Workshop (14:00-17:30) | Poster Session (17:30-17:40/17:50) | Event |
| 1 (15 July 2024) | Touraj Daryaee | Khodadad Rezakhani Alison Vacca | Strong Cecchetti Đurđević | Ethington Martin | 18.00 – 19.00 Welcome Reception 🍷 |
| 2 (16 July 2024) | Arash Zeini | Charles Häberl Stephen Rapp | Assefi Bernard Pambakian | Sepidkar Saadat | 19:45 Dinner |
| 3 (17 July 2024) | Albert de Jong | Simcha Gross Charles Häberl | Mousavi Furman Shulz | Roshan Zamir Rasoulipour | |
| 4 (18 July 2024 | Eberhard Sauer | Eve MacDonald Judith Lerner | Mahzounzadeh Poinsot Rossi | Schumann Parsa | |
| 5 (19 July 2024) | Judith Lerner | Nikolaus Schindel Khodadad Rezakhani | Bruno Ziaii-Bigdeli Chologauri | Nils Purwins |
Programme Details
Day 1 (15 July): HISTORIOGRAPHY
08.00 – 08.30 Morning coffee ☕🥐
08.00 – 08.30 Welcome and registration
08.30 – 09.00 Opening events: welcome by E. Nechaeva and K. Rezakhani: introducing EX PATRIA and A City of Many Cities projects.
09.00 – 10.30 Keynote lecture 1: Touraj Daryaee (University of California, Irvine): “The Eyes of the King in the Sasanian Empire”
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee-break ☕🥐
Morning Seminar
11.00 – 12.00 Khodadad Rezakhani (Leiden): “Sasanian Historiography: between the East and the West”
12.00 – 13.00 Alison Vacca (Columbia University) “Sasanians in Early Islamic Sources”
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch 🍽️ + ☕
Afternoon Workshop
N.B. all papers will be circulated in advance.
Session Format: 15 minutes presentation + 45 minutes discussion
14.00 – 15.00 Sean Strong (Cardiff University): “Bahram Chobin’s Revolt: A Sasanian Asset and Ally of East Rome in the Late Sixth Century?”
15.00 – 16.00 Matteo Cecchetti (University of Pisa): “Historiographical Narrative and Memory Shaping in Early Islamic Historiography: The Nihāyat al-Arab and the Arab-Islamic Conquest of Iran”
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee-break ☕🥐
16.30 – 17.30 Goran Đurđević (Beijing Foreign Studies University): “Reflections of Power: a Comparative Study of Reflection and Reflective Surfaces in Ancient China, Persia, India and the Greco-Roman World”
Poster Session I
All posters will be exposed in the main Research Forum space. Poster Session Format: 10 minutes presentation to facilitate further discussions around posters
17.30 – 17.40 Christopher Lillington Martin (Coventry University): “Procopius’ Belisarius and Roman-Sasanian borderland topographies, and archaeology: ὃ πρὸς αὐτοῖς ἐστι τοῖς Περσῶν ὁρίοις”
17.40 – 17:50 Michael David Ethington (University of Padua): “The ‘Peaceful Crown’ and the ‘Assyrian’: shifting views on Khosrow II Parvēz in an East Syriac hagiography”
18.00 – 19.00 Welcome Reception 🍷
Day 2 (16 July): LANGUAGES
08.30 – 09.00 Morning coffee ☕🥐
09.00 – 10.30 Keynote lecture 2: Lili Varahram (University of Tehran): Two Different Narrative Methods in Middle Persian Historical Texts
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee-break ☕🥐
Morning seminar
11.00 – 12.00 Charles Häberl (Rutgers University): “The Non-Iranian Languages of Ērānšahr: The Case of Semitic”
12.00 – 13.00 Stephen Rapp (Sam Houston State University): “Caucasian Sources for Sasanian History (and What They Reveal about the Iranian World): An Introduction”
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch 🍽️ + ☕
Afternoon workshop
N.B. all papers will be circulated in advance.
Session Format: 15 minutes presentation + 45 minutes discussion
14.00 – 15.00 Nima Asefi (IHSC Tehran/A City of Many Cities Project): “Dangers in Central Iran in the 7th Century (Study of two Middle Persian Documents from the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijan)”
15.00 – 16.00 Alberto Bernard (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris): “The Puzzle of <mgwh>. New readings from the Ṭabarestān Archive and the Mādayān ī hazār dādestān”
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee-break ☕🥐
16.30 – 17.30 Stephanie Pambakian (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice): “Anania Širakac‘i’s Treatise on the Universe (7th c.): an Armenian cosmology between the East and West”
Poster Session II
All posters will be exposed in the main Research Forum space. Poster Session Format: 10 minutes presentation to facilitate further discussions around posters
17.30 – 17.40 Nooshin Sepidkar (SOAS-University of London): “Exploring the Evolution and Transmission of Zoroastrian Texts: The Pahlavi Yasna and Sogdian Ashem Vohu in Historical Context”
Yusef Saadat (Ruhr University Bochum/A City of Many Cities Project): “The way Činwad Bridge gets reshaped: a possible reflection of a bridge technology in Sasanian era”
19:45: Dinner at ARCHIMÈDE
Day 3 (17 July): RELIGIONS AND CULTURES
08.30 – 09.00 Morning coffee ☕🥐
09.00 – 10.30 Keynote lecture 3: Albert de Jong (Leiden University) “The Religious History of the Sasanian Empire”
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee-break ☕🥐
Morning seminar
11.00 – 12.00 Charles Häberl (Rutgers University): “When did Mandaeans Become a People of the Book? Learning from the Colophons”
12.00 – 13.00 Simcha Gross (University of Pennsylvania): “Minority Religious Groups in the Sasanian World and Beyond: New Directions”
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch 🍽️ + ☕
Afternoon workshop
N.B. all papers will be circulated in advance.
Session Format: 15 minutes presentation + 45 minutes discussion
14.00 – 15.00 Hamta Mousavi (SOAS-University of London) “Melothesia: Unveiling the Interconnectedness of Microcosm, Macrocosm, Mēnōy, Gētīy, and the Four Elements in Sasanian Zoroastrian Thought”
15.00 – 16.00 Yulia Furman (Free University, Berlin): “The Genre of Universal History in the Syriac Tradition”
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee-break ☕🥐
16.30 – 17.30 Robert Schulz (Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies): “Is there a God PHARRO? About Syncretism and Local Interpretations in Gandhara”
Poster Session III
All posters will be exposed in the main Research Forum space. Poster Session Format: 10 minutes presentation to facilitate further discussions around posters
17.30 – 17.40 Bahram Roshan Zamir (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris): “Persian Martyr Acts’ Portrait of the Zoroastrians under the Sasanians”
17:40-17:50 Mohammad Rasoulipour (Eranshahr Project): “Portrait of a Shahanshah. Imagining the Likenesses of the Sasanian Nobility Based on Material Culture”
Day 4 (18 July): MATERIAL AND VISUAL CULTURE
08.30 – 09.00 Morning coffee ☕🥐
09.00 – 10.30 Keynote lecture: Eberhard Sauer (University of Edinburgh) “The Archaeology of the Sasanian Frontiers”
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee-break ☕🥐
Morning seminar
11.00 – 12.00 Eve MacDonald (Cardiff University): “Sasanian Archaeology: Past Present and Future “
12.00 – 13.00 Judith Lerner (ISAW, NYU): “Non1archaeological Aspects of Sasanian Material & Visual Culture”
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch 🍽️ + ☕
Afternoon workshop
N.B. all papers will be circulated in advance.
Session Format: 15 minutes presentation + 45 minutes discussion
14.00 – 15.00 Naghmeh Mahzounzadeh (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice): “Diverging Trajectories: Arrowheads, Slingshots, and the Cultural Dynamics of Weaponry in First Millennium Iranian Plateau and Adjacent Region”
15.00 – 16.00 Delphine Poinsot (Collège de France): “The Notion of Nemesis for Late Antique Iranian Art History”
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee-break ☕🥐
16.30 – 17.30 Domiziana Rossi (Cardiff University): “Soundscapes of Eranshahr”
Poster Session IV
17.30 – 17.40 Maral Schumann (Johann-Gutenberg-University, Mainz): “Funerary Practices in the Sasanian Period”
17.40 – 18.00 Sarvenaz Parsa (Free University, Berlin): “Architecture and Landscape of Chahartaq Structures in Fars Region of Iran.”
Day 5 (19 July): MATERIAL CULTURE & ECONOMY
08.30 – 09.00 Morning coffee ☕🥐
09.00 – 10.30 Keynote lecture: Judith Lerner (ISAW, NYU), “Sasanian Glyptics: What Seals, Sealings and Bullae Tell Us about Sasanian Material and Visual Culture”
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee-break ☕🥐
Morning seminar
11.00 – 12.00 Nikolaus Schindel (Austrian Academy): “Sasanian Numismatics”
12.00 – 13.00 Khodadad Rezakhani (Leiden University): “Can We Study the Sasanian Economy?”
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch 🍽️ + ☕
Afternoon workshop
N.B. all papers will be circulated in advance.
Session Format: 15 minutes presentation + 45 minutes discussion
14.00 – 15.00 Jacopo Bruno (Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences): ““A Tale of Pots and People,” an Unwritten Material History of Everyday Life in the Bukhara Oasis During the Long First Millennium”
15.00 – 16.00 Layah Ziaii-Bigdeli (University of California, Irvine): “Shaping Vessels in Shifting Economies: Unraveling Material Transformations of Tableware from Post-Yazdgerd to Samanid Times”
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee-break ☕🥐
16.30 – 17.30 Lana Chologauri (Tbilisi State University): “Sasanian Silverware from Georgia and Its Political Significance”
Poster Session V
All posters will be exposed in the main Research Forum space. Poster Session Format: 10 minutes presentation to facilitate further discussions around posters
17.30 – 17.40 Nils Purwins (Free University, Berlin): “The Structure of the Sasanian Empire – Administrations and Governments”
Ērān Tūrān Hrōm Network 