The UW Persian & Iranian Studies Program and the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilization has launched a brand new website with digital resources on Ancient Iran.
Created over a three-year period, Ancient Iran: A Digital Platform offers a thematic introduction to the history and archaeology of Ancient Iran from ca. 3000 BC to the early Islamic era. Inspired by the success of Ancient Iran Day —a public humanities event that brought more than five hundred participants to the UW campus on December 1, 2018 —the website invites visitors to explore the richness and diversity of Ancient Iran. The project foregrounds Iran's cultural complexity, exploring how the major civilizations of Ancient Iran, from the Elamites to the Sasanians, drew upon and integrated diverse cultural traditions.
Key features include educational resources, such as downloadable posters that integrate art and textual sources, an extensive photo gallery of artifacts and archaeological sites, and classroom activities that make the material dimensions of Ancient Iran tangible. Topics range from the Achaemenid army to Zoroastrian views of the afterlife, providing ample room to explore. The website also includes a survey for feedback, suggestions, and corrections.
This three-year project was directed by History Professor Joel Walker and History Ph.D. student Jeff Haines as well as Ryan Robinson (Anthropology) and Stephanie Selover (Near Eastern Languages and Civilization). The site also features a sizable selection of History Professor Emeritus Dan Waugh's photographs of archaeological sites in Iran and Central Asia and the art of Ancient Iran in the museums of Western Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.