First post--so much to say, so little time.

Dear Friends,

First a little background...I am a PHD student at the University of California. I am writing my dissertation in Near Eastern Archaeology, with a focus on Iranian civilization and culture.

For those of you who may not know, "the Near East" means "the Middle East" before the modern era. Therefore, if you "do" Near Eastern Studies, your interests are in antiquity (from paleolithic hunter/gatherer societies to the fall of the Achaemenid Persian dynasty when Alexander of Macedon invaded c. 330 BC) or in late antiquity, roughly coterminus with the Roman and Byzantine Empires (the Hellenistic, Parthian and Sassanian dynasties). Late Antiquity ends with the coming of Islam in the 6th century of the common era (CE=AD), and then...Near Eastern Scholars kind of lose interest. But, thankfully, not all of us do. If you concentrate on Islamic art, archaeology, history or culture, you kind of walk a thin line between disciplines: with one foot in Near Eastern Studies and the other in Middle Eastern Studies.

Why is it so? Perhaps because of the history of the western academy and its bias toward preserving European (Christian) traditions.

In any case, I have a great respect for the history of and manifold cultures under the "Islamic" rubric.
As I said, my main focus is Iranian civilization and culture, and as such, I tend more toward using anthropologic frames to my research. My undergraduate honors thesis and master's thesis were studies of the uses, regional significance and chronology of Sasanian sealstones, sealings and bullae. I have also extensively studied Achaemenian history and Islamic culture and history in Iran.

My PHD dissertation is a study of the rise and organization of transcontinental trade in the third millennium BCE (3000-2000 BCE) and its cultural implications.

The difficulties in being a scholar of Iranian Studies in the US are HUGE!!

My colleagues and I have tried for the last three years to conduct a project in Iran. Our problems began with the release of US funds for the project: anyone remember the US trade embargo with Iran? It seems that if you want to conduct any scientific or humanistic research with Iran, it has to be approved by a government office (OFAC) and you get a license telling you what equipment you can bring, and how your money is to be spent. Can anyone imagine trying to run an archaeological expedition without computers? The "OFAC delay" translated into our losing a window of opportunity before the elections in Iran.

Why don't they tell you these things when you are an undergraduate?? So that you can run, run away fast, and get that job making huge sums of money in any other field??

Our second series of problems (all related) began with the new elections in Iran, when Ahmedinejad was elected. Seemingly, none of the Iranian government offices wanted to make any move to get an American/British project pushed through the bureaucracy until things settled down. And now that they have, our file has been shuffled between bureaus, lost, resubmitted, on and on and on.

All of my Iranian colleagues tell me that the Iranians are hopeful, and pleasantly grateful, for our sincere goodwill and desire to collaborate on projects of mutual interest. Let's hope that translates into actions soon.

Until then, I hope to at least get a visa to visit Iran. There are several conferences taking place in Iran in 2007.

My colleagues and I joke that it might be easier to study North Korea. Our other joke is that there won't be any money to study Iranian culture until the US invades...has anyone noted the irony in the NEH grants for "Recovering Afghanistan" or recent US grant initiatives for digital archives of Iraqi archaeological material? I am sure I am not the only one (noting the irony that is). What a mess.