Roman Ghirshman

Born Oct. 3, 1895, in Kharkov. French archaeologist and historian of the Near and Middle East; member of the Académie Française and holder of an honorary doctorate from the University of Tehran.

Ghirshman began his archaeological research in 1930 on the excavations at Telloh (Iraq). In subsequent years he headed the French expedition to Iran, which investigated Giyan, Sialk, and other monuments. In 1935, Ghirshman supervised the unearthing of the Sassanid city Shapur. Beginning in 1936 he worked in Afghanistan, where he was the head of the French archaeological delegation in 1941. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Ghirshman investigated Neolithic caves in the Bakhtiari Mountains in western Iran, settlements near Susa from Achaemenian and pre-Achaemenian times, and the Elamite monuments at Tchoga Zembil.