Iran To Admit Archaeology Team

Iran will open its borders this May to a team of Harvard archaeologists who plan to dig deep into the region’s past—marking the first time Iran has extended an invitation to American scholars in more than 25 years.

Phillips Professor of Archeology and Ethnology C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky is leading a team made up of Harvard graduate students, along with colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, Pakistan, and Spain, which will excavate an area near the Turkmenistan border.

Lamberg-Karlovsky has led excavations in Iran from 1967 until 1977, when all international archaeologists were forced out preceding the Iranian revolution.

The Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization (ICHO)—which was formed in 2001 to promote international collaboration in the study of Iran’s artifacts and history—invited the team, along with a group from the University of Chicago. German and Italian teams are already at work in the country.

Lamberg-Karlovsky, however, warned that the new relationship is tenuous at best as a result of the internal conflict between conservatives and liberals in Iran.

He further described the situation as “dicey,” citing an instance in which the ICHO invited him and another American to a conference in Iran­—only to turn them away upon arrival without an explanation.

“It is difficult to work in Iran because of [U.S.] sanctions,” he said, noting that there are heavy restrictions on the transfer of information and that as a consequence, researchers cannot even bring computers to document their work.

“It’s a risk, but it’s a risk worth taking,” Lamberg-Karlovsky said of the new agreement. “I think the world is always enhanced by the open nature of collaboration.”

Lamberg-Karlovsky’s colleague, Alfred Mederos, a visiting scholar from Madrid, also spoke about the importance of the excavation and the area.

“Science, astronomy, mathematics... everything is coming from the Near East,” Mederos said.

Sitting in an office filled with books on archaeology and photos documenting more than 30 years’ worth of expeditions, Lamberg-Karlovsky discussed his interest in the “commercial and political relations that connected the earliest urban centers,” a passion fueled by the discovery of the rapid spread of written language in the region and the manufacture of carved stone vessels which were used for international trade.

The proposed excavation area, which is located near the Caspian Sea, is “optimal in environment and climate and has a very rich potential for Bronze Age artifacts,” according to Lamberg-Karlovsky.

Despite the continuing uncertainty of the new collaboration, Lamberg-Karlovsky said, “archaeologists continue to play in their sandboxes, and Iran is an excellent one.”