Well, I'd like to welcome everybody out there on the internet back to our Unsilencing the Archives series. I'm Aaron Brody, Director of the Bade Museum, and I also teach at Pacific School of Religion, one of the many hosts for this series along with the Palestine Exploration Fund and the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley. And before I get into my more formal introductions of today's speaker, I'd like to hand the floor over to our curator, Melissa Craddick, who will be kicking off today's talk with a land acknowledgement and a B-colonization statement. Melissa. Thank you, Aaron. We would like to begin by acknowledging that Berkeley, California is on the territory of the Hutu, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chicheno Olodi. We respect the land and the people who have stewarded it throughout many generations and we honor their elders, both past and present. We're living in a moment that warrants deep reflection on our past, where even our most venerated figures deserve reasonable scrutiny. During his time directing the Archaeological Excavations at Tela Nals Bay, WF Bade participated in harmful stereotyping of local populations that was common among white Americans and Europeans conducting fieldwork in British Mandate Palestine. Some of these attitudes appear in print in his popular 1934 book, A Manual of Excavation in the Near East. Museums are also scrutinizing their collections, including evaluating the legal status and the ethics with which they were acquired. As stewards of the legacy of the Bade Museum and its holdings, it is our responsibility to faithfully evaluate the process by which the collections were acquired within this context of our contemporary moment. One approach is to ask me questions of archival materials in order to examine critically the manner and impact of archeological work on indigenous communities and to investigate the colonial conditions in which it played a part. The Bade Museum recognizes that its location and collection are part of ongoing and painful colonial legacies that contributed to historical inequalities. These legacies have directly and indirectly impacted populations locally and abroad in Palestine where excavations were conducted under the authority of the British Mandate government of Palestine. In an effort to bring light to these issues, to serve a broader public audience online and to connect to the local community that it serves, the museum is taking action to have a more inclusive, welcoming and equitable institution that practices the philosophy of radical inclusion adopted by its parent institution, Pacific School of Religion. One of these steps is the creation of open access web exhibitions and public programming like this lecture series which highlight decolonizing themes. We invite you to participate in these programs that together we can listen, learn and work toward creating a more inclusive museum community. Thank you for joining us today. And Felicity, would you like to provide the audience with the PEF statement today? Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Melissa. The PEF fully endorses the Bade Museum statement on decolonization and supports their efforts in this regard. As a funding organization, we were very pleased to support the Bade Museum's project to create an online exhibition to highlight the lives and work of the Arab workforce at the Tel Anas Bay excavations. And these online lectures exploring the contribution of the local population to the archeology of Palestine. As another Western colonial era organization, our own history shares many of the same characteristics which have just been described. And we are keen to play our part in this process both as co-hosts of these lectures and with our own initiatives. Thank you so much. And it's really great to have great partners in all of this work. So it is my distinct pleasure to introduce today's speaker, Dr. Kirsten Newman. She is interim chief curator at the Oriental Institute Museum as well as an OI research associate and lecturer on Near Eastern Art and Archeology in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. Kirsten received her PhD from the University of California Berkeley and was awarded the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq, Donnie George, Yuhana dissertation prize for the best US doctoral dissertation on ancient Iraq. She is co-editor of the Rutledge Handbook of Senses in the ancient Near East, just in print in 2022 and has published numerous articles on sensory experience, ritualized practice, and material culture of the first millennium BCE, as well as museum practice, collections, and the reception of Assyrian and Achaemenid art. Kirsten has conducted archeological fieldwork in Turkey and Greece. And in 2016, she helped host the OI's Ancient Land of Persia travel program in Iran. Kirsten curated the OI Museum's 2015 special exhibition, Persepolis, Images of an Empire, and is the curator of the current exhibition, which I encourage you all to visit, Joseph Lyndon Smith, The Persepolis Paintings. So I'm very pleased to welcome Dr. Kirsten Newman to this lecture series and to hand the floor over to her. Thank you very much, Erin. So I'll take a minute to share my screen. You can see it beautifully. Thank you. So I want to start by thanking the Archeological Research Facility, the Bada Museum, the Palestine Exploration Fund, and especially Erin and Melissa for the invitation to be part of this wonderful series, which I know is inspired by the exhibition using the Bada Museum archival material to which I have a very personal connection having worked with it for many years. So thank you again for the invitation. Correspondents in the 1930s between the director of the Oriental Institute, first James Henry Breasted and then John A. Wilson, and the director of the OI Expedition at Persepolis, first Ernst Hertzfeld and then Eric Schmidt, uniquely captures the dynamic character of such a large scale expedition in southwestern Iran. Breasted in the New York Times referred to Persepolis as the Versailles of ancient Persia. Hertzfeld stated that it was a type of national sanctuary and today the site is counted among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The OI's expedition was at its core colonial enterprise driven by the ambitions and pocketbooks of a burgeoning American institution whose aim was to gain knowledge of the civilizations, quote, of which modern Western cultures grew, end quote. It was also a project brought about through the ambitions of Hertzfeld, a German scholar with a longstanding love of Iran and its history, yet who had also emerged from European culture. And it was a project dedicated to rediscovering one of the most celebrated sites of Iranian history, a city imbued with deep meaning and connections for people across Iran, from the Shah seeking to protect and conserve the site and perpetuity to the traveler passing through the surrounding valley, the farmer who's heard wandered the fields nearby, the children who played among the runes, and then the 1930s, the team of skilled and passionate workers from near and far who were part of the OI expedition from clothes, some for close to a decade. The tactful Western centric narrative of the official communications, publications, and media reports on the OI's Persepolis expedition presented the rediscovery of the city as a towering success for the recently formed American institution. Archival documents associated with the expedition reveal similar sentiments, being the product of the expedition staff members and therefore telling of Western colonial culture of the first half of the 20th century. Yet also within their midst is documentation that supports decolonizing pursuits that seek to reconstruct less traditional narratives and experiences, ones that could be complimented and enriched by additional sources and the memories and histories of local communities and individuals. In his article, Indigenous Memory, Forgetting the Archives, or sorry, Forgetting and the Archives, Martin Makata makes an appeal for ensuring the archives are not just storehouses, rather that they serve as access points. What is more, archives are not neutral spaces, making them ripe for increase of the nature taken up in this Unsilencing the Archives series. In what time I have today, I will engage with the OI's archives as a kind of access point, as imputous for exploring varying perspectives of the Persepolis expedition. I'll begin with a discussion of what I'm considering global and colonial perspectives before moving to the local. Yet important to note is this is not intended to be a complete picture, but is part of ongoing work and decisively engages with the research and considerations of colleagues, similarly exploring the history of Persepolis, both ancient and modern. So part one, global. The ancient and cremated city of Persepolis in today's farce province has long fascinated the minds and memories of visitors to the site. Whether foreign dignitaries receiving, being received by the king in antiquity, early modern explorers, local communities living in the environs, travelers, artists and archeologists of recent centuries, or students on field trips from nearby schools. The impression of the monumental terrace, grand column talls, masterful sculptural program and studying surrounding mountainous landscape evokes triggers and elicits connections, histories, memories, emotions and perspectives unique to each person. This experience is not restricted to the physical boundaries of the city. However, rather oral reports entails historical renderings, images and accounts of traveled great lengths carrying the story and significance of Persepolis to a global audience, resulting in a multifaceted engagement with and social history for the site since its inception. The city was founded by the Kemenid ruler Darius I around 515 BC. Persepolis is the site's Greek name meaning Persia, the city. Parza in old Persian was used for both the site and the region and a new Persian the platform is called Takte Jamshid, meaning throne of Jamshid. The city was one of the principal centers of the Abbas, a Kemenid empire, which held control over the region from around 550 to 330 BC. Darius states in an inscription that he quote, built a fortress where there was none before. Specifically, the king constructed a monumental platform to support buildings that served important political, administrative and ceremonial functions at a crucial crossroads of the empire. His successors also left their mark in monumental passion atop the platform, including Xerxes, Arta Xerxes I and Arta Xerxes III. Yet this was all brought to an end in 330 BC when Alexander III of Macedon and his men famously sacked and destroyed the site. These photographs from my visit in 2016 show what is conspicuously unique about Persepolis, its state of preservation. Parishable architectural elements such as wooden roofs and rubric walls understandably have not been preserved in their entirety. Yet standing strong in the landscape for the past 2,500 years are the monumental features that were carved of stone, including door jams and lintels, columns and their capitals and staircases decorated with relief sculpture. The distinct attributes and artistic qualities of these elements make up what we now understand thanks to the seminal work of Margaret Cool Root as quintessential characteristics of the Akemena court style. The destruction of the city by the Macedonians resulted in much of this material being buried and thus protected. And while subsequent mutilation and defacement of sculptures and monuments did impact what remained visible over the millennia, the terrace was never reoccupied to an extent comparable to the Akemena period, resulting in a unique level of preservation that helped give rise to Persepolis becoming a place of fascination, fantasy and folklore across the globe. While post-Akemena period references for Persepolis are present in the works of classical historians such as Diodorus Siculus writing in the first century BC, Quintus, Curdius Rufus and Plutarch writing in the first century and Arian in the late first to early second century CE, none of these writers ever visited the site themselves. And it was not long before Persepolis as the Akemena origins and history became obscured. The site's majesty and iconicity lending itself beautifully to legends of heroic past, myth-making and symbolic significance. And the first millennium CE, for example, the construction of the terrace became attributed to one or the other of two founders, Jamsheed, the legendary king hero of early Iran and Solomon, biblical prophet. The first lent itself to the name of Taktej Jamsheed or Throne of Jamsheed for the Citadel platform. Persepolis also became conflated with the nearby Sassanian city of Astakur. And here I'm showing a drawing of the Stakur published in 1905 with a caption that reads runes of a Stakur harem of Jamsheed. Additional names attributed to the site reference its many stone columns, including sad sotun, which means hundred columns and dates back to the Sassanian period. And as recorded on this map from 1697, Shelmanar meaning 40 columns. Despite a disconnect with its Akemena origins, Persepolis remained a place of symbolic value for rulers of Iran for centuries and across generations. Persepolis was also richly documented with visual media through drawings, paintings and photography. And this increased with European visitors to the site in the last 300 years. Such ambitious travelers, missionaries and diplomats brought with them varied narratives and accounts of the site's history. Some made the connection to its Akemena origins. The first to do so in publication was the Spanish ambassador Don Garcia de Silva Figueroa who traveled to Persia in the early 17th century familiar with Diodorus Siculus's writings. He also produced the earliest visual representations of Persepolis based on personal viewing that are preserved to date. Additional noteworthy early modern visual records include the work of Dutch painter and traveler, Cornelius de Bruyne. The German explorer Karsten Niebuhr who produced detailed descriptions of the runes and the first accurate copies of several inscriptions to reach Europe, which made fundamental contribution to the decipherment of Cuneiform script. French artists and explorers Eugène Flanet and Pascal Costes. And this majestic reconstruction by Briton Riviere. It is also in the 19th century with the rise and demand of European national museums that sculptured fragments began to be removed from the terrorists. Most notably by members of a British diplomatic mission led by Sir Gore Ousley, the dog of the Persepolis and use colonial infrastructure to ship fragments to England by way of Navy ships. Thanks here to Lindsay Allen for her rigorous and ongoing work of mapping the diaspora of Persepolitan fragments outside of Iran. Interest was not all from Europe however. Imputus and efforts to record the site also came from within Iran. The work of a number of scholars including Asadullah Suran, Malikian Shavani, Karl Nylander, Vladimir Menorsky and Muhammad Taki Mostafavi strives to decolonize Western scholarship on Persepolis, giving prominence to publish work in Persian and Iranian archival material and exploring Iranian perspectives. Ali Musavi attributes early Iranian engagement and interest in excavating Persepolis as having, quote, the effect of catalyzing national interest in archeological activity throughout Iran, end quote. Here I will only make reference to a few endeavors. In the mid 19th century, as example, Nasser al-Din Shah, the Qajar king was looking for someone to photograph Persepolis, a task that eventually was carried out by the Italian colonel, Luigi Peche who presented them in an album to the Shah in 1858. Many subsequent photographic ventures followed suit of Persepolis under the Qajar dynasty. One included a series by the son of the crown prince, Farhad Mazar Motamed al-Dula who himself was responsible for some of the earliest excavations of Persepolis in the 1870s. Another was by Antoine Severeguin, an Iranian Armenian photographer commissioned in 1902 by the German art historian Friedrich Zahra to photograph a number of Iranian rock reliefs for the forthcoming publication. Zahra was co-authoring the volume with Ernst Hertzfeld who at the time was a known architect, archeologist and historian of Islamic and pre-Islamic studies. The volume was published in 1910 with many of Severeguin's photographs yet lacking a acknowledgement of him by name. Something of a hint at the increasing Western colonial leaning of scholarly and archeological activities in the Middle East at the time. Endeavors within which Ernst Hertzfeld would come to play an impactful role. Part two, colonial. This millennia old global folklore, wonder and wonderlust generated by Persepolis fed into the growing ambitions of scholars and archeologists of the early 20th century era of big archeology. A disciplinary shift that paved the way towards a more scientific refinement of archeology later in the century. With the end of the first world war, Western colonial powers were buying to secure the next monumental field project that would elicit history altering discoveries. And with that earn international headlines and formidable contributions to the understanding of early civilizations of the exotic and unfamiliar, quote unquote, orient. However, it was not just European institutions forging ahead in this pursuit as before the war. Now American institutions were equally throwing their hat into the ring. In 1919 at the University of Chicago, James Henry Breasted, Egyptologist and then faculty member founded the Oriental Institute hereafter, the OI, with funding provided by John D. Rockefeller Jr. Its purpose was to serve as an interdisciplinary research center to study the rise of humankind and the complex civilizations in the ancient Middle East. Marking the entry to the Institute's new building of 1931 was and still is today a relief sculpture occupying the tympanum over the entrance that depicts representative rulers and individuals, architecture and animals of East and West. To quote Breasted, this is intended to suggest the transition of civilization from the ancient orient to the West. Breasted's particular interest at first was civilizations in the region he coined the fertile Creston, but in time his interest expanded to include the Highland Zone in the North, likely in response to changing political circumstances that made Turkey and Iran accessible for field projects. By 1935 and taking advantage of the interwar period, the OI had 12 large scale expeditions and other scientific projects underway. The one to the Eastern end of the Highland Zone is that of Persepolis, which we will return to shortly. In addition to scientific and historical insight into the earliest civilizations of the ancient Middle East, over time the OI's field projects also made meaningful contributions to the collections of the OI Museum, which opened its doors in 1931. This was made possible through a legal system of partage or the division of finds that occurred at the end of fieldwork seasons between the OI and the relevant departments of antiquities. In a break with 19th century and some early 20th century field expeditions that were essentially collecting oriented, noteworthy is an excerpt from a press release of the year preceding the museum's opening. Quote, Dr. Brester pointed out that expeditions of the Institute are not primarily concerned in discovering and carrying away to America the relics of older civilizations. The purpose of the work is to discover and preserve the evidence of older civilizations and the relics found are mostly in national museums of the countries now controlling the territory. The Cairo, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Angra museums are repositories under national government control for such material, but a fair share has been acquired by the Institute for study and display since these exhibits will be open to the public. End quote. Today the museum object collection consists of around 350,000 objects, the majority of which were excavated by OI archeologists during these expeditions and a selection of which are exhibited in the permanent galleries. The museum also houses an archives collection of immeasurable value consisting primarily of materials that document the activities of these expeditions. The dreams and ambitions, successes and failures of archeologists and field work in the first half of the 20th century. One of these monumental field projects was the expedition at Persepolis that formed part of the larger Persian expedition later called the Iranian expedition with field seasons active at Persepolis from 1931 to 1939. Ernst Hertzfeld was the first director followed by Eric Schmidt. The OI expedition marked the first scientifically controlled archeological excavation of the Achaemenid site focused on clearing, restoring and preserving in particular the architecture and decorative program at Takteh Shamshi and eventually also archeological explorations within a surrounding 10 kilometer radius. It was Hertzfeld who was the initial mastermind behind this enterprise. Ernst Aimeel Hertzfeld first visited Persepolis in 1905 in preparation for his future publication of Iranian reliefs on a return trip from Achaemen present day Northern Iraq where he was assisting in the German expedition directed by Walter Andre. Being immediately captivated at one point just arriving Persepolis is the glory of the Persian world. He returned in 1923 to 24. He spent six weeks on the terrace documenting and photographing the runes and the photo on the lower left you can see tents set up amidst the palace of Darius also called the Takara. And here are additional photographs with members of the local community as well as a ground plan. Concurrently, Hertzfeld was also engaged by the Khazhar prince and governor of Farz province Faruz Mirza to create a report on the site. This was published in 1929 in the archeological Mitalungin Aus Ivan volume one accompanied by a detailed plan and over 50 photographs. Discussions had ensued between Hertzfeld and Faruz Mirza about possible excavations that never came to pass. The Khazhar dynasty coming to an end in 1925 followed by the establishment of the Paflavi dynasty by Reza Shah. Hertzfeld maintained respectable relationships with important political leaders in Iran and now also members of the Paflavi dynasty and the newly founded society for national heritage in Iran. And in 1928, he was permitted to carry out a four-week excavation season at the Accommodated site of Pasargade located 50 kilometers northeast of Persepolis. This is also the location of King Cyrus' tomb. Hertzfeld was assisted by German architect Friedrich Kräfter and received funding from the Naughtgemeinschaft of Dorchen-Diesenschaft. Shortly thereafter, Hertzfeld was enlisted to act as the archeological advisor to the government working alongside the French architect André Godard who was serving as the director of the newly founded General Department of Archeology in Iran in drafting the Act for the Antiquities of Iran, commonly called the Antiquities Law. The law was presented to the court minister on October 10th, 1929 and was approved on November 3rd, 1930. Here I'm showing images of a French version of that act in the OI Museum archives. Also retained is an English translation of the act that was sent to the Secretary of State in Washington, D.C. on in November 1930 and the December 12th edition of the Messager de Tehan that printed the act in full, including all 20 articles. With his unparalleled connections in Iran and keen interest in Persepolis, Hertzfeld sought institutional support for an expedition at the site. He had been in conversation with institutions in Germany and America, including the University Museum of Pennsylvania and the OI seeking support. With the passing of the law, he reached out to Breasted with whom he was already collegial and received a positive response. Ultimately, Reza Shah, who had previously expressed concern about the state of the ruins of Persepolis and security of the site and a unanimous vote of the Persian parliament authorized Hertzfeld's request, granting him and the OI the concession to Persepolis on December 16th, 1930. This truly marked the end of the monopoly on archeology excavations in Iran, which had been held by the French delegation since 1885, yet was abolished in 1927. The OI's expedition began in the spring of 1931. Funding was provided by Ada Smallmore, more commonly known as Mrs. William H. Moore, a wealthy American art collector and patron interested in archeological activities in Iran. At the time, she chose to remain anonymous. Work at the site continued through 1939 with the change of directorship between 1934 and 35 and the solicitation and securing of co-sponsorships from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania Museum beginning in April, 1937, and which continued until the completion of the expedition. The traditional telling in the early 20th century of the OI's Persepolis expedition is a predominantly Western-centric narrative shamed by a host of public lectures and announcements, a 1934 promotional video called the Human Adventure, Publications and News Features, replete with captivating photographs. To quote Matthew Stolper from the OI's recent Centennial publication, the discoveries of Persepolis, like those of the other great interwar archeological projects in Mesopotamia and Egypt, were international news, reported in the Illustrated London News, The Times of London, The New York Times, Time Magazine and the Assigned Pacific American and newspapers in Chicago and Berlin. The site became a destination for a new class of European travelers for whom the modern automobile made the Middle East accessible. Persepolis was glamorous as John A. Wilson, breasted successor as director of the OI put it, a public relation man's dream, end quote. Forefronted were such discoveries as sculptured panels and staircases, coins and noteworthy vessels, as well as cuneiform tablets and inscribed stone and metal foundation documents, the same material culture often prioritized by the media and scholarship through to the present day. The framing and presentation of the expedition's work was also informed by the overall goals of the OI, that is to say of uncovering the unfolding of the life of man, to quote the title of breasted speech from the opening of the new building in 1931. An institute to quote the then associate director of the New York Times that was, a tabernacle where people may get their bearings on the universe. The New York Times announcement of the OI's receipt of the concession for Persepolis continues this trend with wording that is more revealing of the Western historical and racial biases inherent in breasted's narrative of uncovering early civilizations, quote, situated at the eastern extremity of the highland zone, running between Anatolia and Persepolis, the archeologists expect to unearth a few feet below the surface, records in the form of golden tablets, earthenware and other artifacts, which will reveal pertinent data bearing on the Indo-European and ancientry of the American people, Dr. Breasted said, end quote. This dominant narrative of the OI's Persepolis expedition was also influenced by the Western media's bias towards the importance of European and American institutions in the quote unquote, rediscovery of historical sites in the Middle East and scholarships insistence on establishing a universal knowledge of the past, end quote, a unified picture of the rise of human civilization, end quote, that's from the New York Times. An interesting storyline of the Persepolis expedition that may be said to blur the boundary between colonial and local considerations, however, and which is given weight in both official publications and private correspondence from the archives is the reconstruction of one of the Achaemenite buildings, the so-called harem. To reconstruct a modern building on top of and incorporating millennial old runes is an extraordinary act from a present day viewpoint, yet perspectives were different at the time and Hertzfeld had proposed this well before the expedition started, though at first his sites were set on the palace of Darius. Ultimately, the harem was chosen for a number of logistical reasons, in addition to quote Hertzfeld, not wanting to spoil the harmony of the runes, end quote. Work began in the first season and was completed in 1932 under the supervision of Crafter, who had been brought on as the expedition's architect and field director. The reconstructed buildings served at the expedition's living quarters, workshops, offices, and a museum devoted to the rich history of Persepolis. Discussion of the reconstruction of the harem and the correspondence between Hertzfeld and Brusted connects this project with their vision of the expedition's work of Persepolis in revealing and celebrating Persian history and heritage, locally, nationally, and globally, a commendable endeavor, yet one that can't be entirely divorced from their Western-oriented ambitions. Already in a letter, dated just prior to the beginning of the first season, so a year earlier, Brusted wrote to Hertzfeld of the restoration of the harem, here including his hopes of acquiring objects as well for Chicago, so as to also educate and excite people across the globe in Persian history. Quote, my purpose in selecting Persepolis as the first point of attack was to show the Persian people that we are interested in their ancient history and to undertake at once the restoration of what is to me one of the most attractive ancient ruins in the whole wide world. If we undertake the financial responsibility for clearing and restoring a palace, here meaning the harem, of such sentimental interest to educated Persians, it seems to me that they ought some permit us to bring back to America a share of the fines, which I understand is in accordance with antiquity's law, and thus to enable us to do what is very important, not only to ourselves, but also to the Persians. I mean inciting a more general interest on the part of Western peoples and the ancient history of Persia. And this can be done if an interesting and valuable series of works of Persian art should come to America as a result of this Persepolis excavation. End quote. In a return letter, Hertzfeld echoes Brested's language, quote, the Persians consider Persepolis a kind of national sanctuary. The following year in a letter dated March 11th, Brested speaks to their mutual desire to one day expand the OIs work beyond Persepolis. Yet being cognizant of funding, he expresses a concern for ensuring the proper completion of the harem, quote, in the first place regarding Persepolis, I am in a full agreement with you that we have not only a scientific responsibility, but also largely a largely moral and to an extent sentimental obligation. The feeling of intelligent Persians that Persepolis is a national sanctuary is one which is I'm sure, shared also by all educated and intelligent people outside of Persia. It would be great. Oh, it would create a very unfortunate impression if we left the task to Persepolis without completing it. I agree with you for the more that it would be unfortunate to turn over the restored harem palace to the Persians at a point so premature that the Persians would not be in a position to provide protection of the place. You may rest assured that I shall bring all these motives to bear if we find that if the available funds are insufficient to complete the work of Persepolis. And I believe they are motives so strong that they would prove successful in securing additional funds, end quote. In the forward to Hertzfeld's 1932 publication of an inscription of Xerxes that was uncovered of Persepolis, Brested states, quote, the clearance of the palace terrace of Persepolis is yielding an important harvest in new historical documents. It is the hope of the Institute to install all this newly salvaged evidence in the royal apartment occupying the front of the harem palace of Darius and Xerxes, which is being restored by the Institute to serve as a museum of the rescued monuments of Persepolis. This magnificent royal residence of ancient Persia may thus in a very real sense become a national sanctuary in which the citizens of modern Persia may find enshrined in honor the surviving memorials of their greatest ancestors, end quote. Noteworthy is the formal visit of Reza Shah to the site the following year. Upon concluding the tour of the archeological site, including the restored harem, Reza Shah expressed to Hertzfeld, quote, you are doing the work of civilization here and I thank you, end quote. Reza Shah would visit yet again in 1937 during the directorship of Schmidt. On the Pavloufi dynasty's engagement with Persepolis, I highly recommend the work of Tali Gregor. When the expedition ended in 1939, then-O.I. director, John A. Wilson, composed a letter to his Excellency Ismail Meratt, Jehan of the Ministry of Education, that spoke to the future of the restored harem building, quote, the Persepolis expedition is happy to leave at the disposition of the imperial Iranian government, the palatial harem of Xerxes, which the expedition has restored on the understanding that it become the Persepolis Museum for safeguarding the treasures found in that rich site, end quote. The restored harem continues to serve as the onsite museum for Persepolis, in addition to housing the technical office of the conservation and restoration group at the site. This leads nicely into consideration of local perspectives. That is to say, the less told stories of people intimately connected with and their experience of the O.I. expedition. So part three, local. The bulk of the O.I. museum archives for the years of Hertzfeld directorship is the correspondence between him and James Henry Brusted, as well as some with the latter son, Charles Brusted. These letters, written both in English and German, and dated between 1931 and 34, focus on the progress of the clearing and restoration on the terrace, budgets and funding, visitors and requests from press and future work and expansions to the concession. However, by 1934, tensions and strain relations had grown to such an extent between Hertzfeld colleagues and local administrative and governing bodies that the O.I., acting out a request from the Persian government, asked Hertzfeld to resign as director of the expedition. As a result, the greater part of Hertzfeld's documents related to the Persian expedition are found outside of the O.I. museum collection in institutions across America, Europe and Iran. Yet even so, it can be said that he was not a meticulous record keeper with respect to the day-to-day operations and less well-represented are records that speak to community engagement and the indigenous experience and social history of the expedition. Here I will touch on a few points of interest for this period. The Persian expedition staff members whom the O.I. employed and who worked at Persepolis during Hertzfeld's time were principally German and some were individuals with whom he had already a working relationship, including Crafter, discussed above, Karl Bergner, who served as second architect and draftsman, and Hans Wicker von Busse, the photographer. Of note for inquiries of local engagement is a letter from Hertzfeld to Brested in April, 1931, in which he mentions two men, Crafter and Joseph Upton, as possible hires for the expedition's architect and scientific assistant, respectively. Here Hertzfeld notes their strength of our reign knowing the conditions of work in Persia and their ability to speak English, German, French and some Persia, which Hertzfeld remarks as being great advantages, almost necessities. And what of the rest of the team? The foreman and hundreds of workers whose participation made the expedition possible. Hertzfeld's first letter to Brested after his arrival to Persepolis dated April 27th, 1931, starts by saying something of the reception he received in the area. Quote, the fourth, I was in Shiraz, calling at all the various civil and military authorities and received everywhere thanks to some official and private letters with great and apparently genuine kindness, end quote. He goes on to speak to the hiring of the workers, quote. It was not difficult to find 140 workmen and one could have three times as many, but as a part of them will probably be compelled to harvest their crops in about a fortnight, I'm trying to replace them by others that have no agricultural occupation. I got four foremen from Hila who have always been working with me since almost 25 years, end quote. Hila is the city in central Iraq near the ancient city of Babylon and the Islamic site of Samara. Prior to Iran, Hertzfeld had worked at Samara where he would have established such a longstanding relationship with these Arab workers. That Hertzfeld then brought them to Persepolis where each was a foreman with his own team assigned to specific areas on the terrace is a testament to their exceptional skills. These foremen are also referred to in sources outside of the OI Museum archives, including Crafter's unpublished diary and a publication by Mostafavi, representative of the Persian government. The former has been transcribed and generously shared by his son, Heiko Crafter. And excerpts from the latter have been translated and published by Ali Musavi in his 2012 volume on Persepolis. Entries in Crafter's diary related to the discovery of some 30,000 Achaemenid administrative records on clay tablets and fragments in the North Eastern fortifications in 1933 named three of the Arab foremen, Suleiman, Jawad and Kazim. With respect to packing the tablets we get the following entries over a series of days. Packing tablets with the Arabs, tablets dug up and packed, the abundance is becoming unstealable and the Arabs are busy digging up and packing tablets. The original labels for the tablet boxes interestingly are written in French, as shown in these photographs of examples from the OI's Persepolis Fortification Archives project. The same Arab foreman carried out the excavations that uncovered pairs of gold and silver foundation tablets that have been deposited in the North Eastern and South Eastern corners of the main hall of the Apidana later that same year. Crafter, taking advantage of a lull in work during an absence of Hertzfeld from the site was responsible for directing the foremen to dig at the locations they did leading to the discovery of the tablets. Musavi who was present for this discovery recorded the following of the event, quote, in September of that year when Professor Hertzfeld was absent and the excavations of Persepolis had been frozen because of financial difficulties. There were a few Arab foremen from Samara employed full time by the expedition that had to pay them whether or not there was work to do. Crafter took advantage of such an opportunity to find out what had been intriguing him for a long time. On the order of Professor Crafter the above mentioned foremen began to dig at one and a half meters trench at that spot. Since they were very skillful they soon realized that what they were digging was a mudrick wall which should not be destroyed, end quote. After being informed of this Crafter instructed them to keep digging and eventually they uncovered a stone slab underneath which was a stone box containing a pair of metal tablets. This photo shows Musavi outside the trench on the far left with two of the foremen in front of him inside the trench. Crafter is at the far right also in the trench. A few days later Crafter records in his diary, quote, Arabs at 100 column tall wrote their own reports seeming to denote that the foremen were also responsible at times for writing their own excavation reports. Also noteworthy are some lines from a letter sent by Von Busse, the expedition photographer to his father telling of the discovery of the tablets and its timing, quote, we wanted to avoid prematurely letting the cat out of the bag so the timing of the European trip of the leader of the expedition during the excavation activities in general where interrupted was particularly well suited. Along with that naturally, such an important project is best carried out when it is calm rather than if workers are swarming about. Every day each one of us is confronted with far too many demands of the most varied nature. End quote. This last, in addition to confirming the timing relay something of the ambiance and experience of the site during peak excavation season. Words that match well with images such as this that suggest a similar cacophony and environment of bustling activity. Returning to the OI Museum archives, we gain some insight to funds and compensation for Hertzfeld's years. A letter dated early in the second season which has started in October, 1931 includes a line item for the average payment for 20 days to 200 met of $760. For reference, the expedition was allocated to some of $30,000 for the year of 1931 to cover salaries, travel for staff, cost of equipment and all fieldwork expenses. The majority of the expenses for this year went towards construction, specifically the reconstruction of the harem. Now we'll jump ahead to 1935 and the directorship of Schmidt, Hertzfeld's assessor which lasted until 1931. With respect to record keeping and administrative duties, Schmidt was notably meticulous resulting in numerous archival boxes of regular memos for Persepolis staff, financial records, itemized lists, even his own travel documents and permits among the archives as well as an abundance of photographs and correspondence with an OI director, Johnny Wilson. As such, this collection is less silent on the local experience of the expedition. In addition to the expedition team, Schmidt employed among the technical staff, draftsmen for recording finds, a mechanic and electrician, a foreman of the labor crew, a digging crew that fluctuated from 200 to 500 men and a camp superintendent. The staff regularly also included a chauffeur, a mason who tended to both the expedition's building and the ancient structures, restores for the delicate stonework and for broken antiquities and a carpenter whose workload included creating crates for shipping artifacts. Last but not least were the garage hands, a gardener, electrician and carpenter's helpers, terrace guards, night patrols, a cook and additional servants. Telling of the scale of the digging crew is a letter from Schmidt to Ali Ashgar Haqmat, Minister of Public Instruction of May 20th, 1937 in which Schmidt speaks to the expedition's dedication to the restoration of the site. This was said in response to a letter from Ali Ashgar Haqmat in which the sender raised concerns about the lack of restoration work that was taking place, reminding Schmidt that the work he is directing at Persepolis is in principle conservation work. Quote, certainly I understand that the Oriental Institute is above all desirous of new discoveries but I ask you to consider that the Iranian government considers it also necessary and certainly more urgent to work on the safeguarding of monuments already known. End quote. Schmidt's response includes the following, quote, may I direct the attention of your excellency to the fact that the work of replacing and restoring and of preserving has been continuing during the entire period of my work at Persepolis and it will continue in the future. Further, I'm excavating at present with a maximal crew of laborers not following the request of the Oriental Institute but the desire of his Imperial Majesty to speed up the clearing of the Persepolis terrace. About 250 men are engaged solely clearing the refuse in front of the audience halls in order to give them a more dignified appearance. I'm not expecting any particular fines at these points. End quote. Each season Schmidt also employed 10 to 30 laborers from Damgan located east of Tehran. Having worked for Schmidt at the prehistoric site of Tepehissar in northeastern Iran, as well as at the Islamic city of Ray, south of Tehran. These men were, to quote Schmidt, season diggers of many years who served as animal drivers during the March, excavators during the stops and camp guards at night, end quote. This page lists some of the workmen from the 1934 season at Ray. Each person is listed starting with a number in their full name, home, specialty and rate per day. Damgan is listed for many as their home. Others include Malaya, a city in Hamiddam province and Sultanabad, the modern city of Iraq, both to the west. Specialties include pick, pick on walls, mason, pick and railroad and pick walls skeletons, for example. The Damgan crew that Schmidt brought to Persepolis often appear in the archival documents for the site, including one of Schmidt's earliest memos for Persepolis staff. Dated to June, 1935, here Schmidt notes that they have to be asked what their wage was at Ray, where they recently completed an expedition season in order to determine their wages and that they should work every day, including Sundays. Another from July 25th, names a few Damgan workers when discussing their wages, names that are also included at the top of the Ray list. Quote, they should be raised half a rail, except Hussein Hashim, who will be told that he will be sent back if he does not become more industrious. The old Ibrahim may be raised one rail, Akbar will remain on his wages, so will Dubenski's assistant, end quote. Happily in a memo dated August 22nd, we learned that Hussein received his raise of half rail per day. Another memo later that summer states that the Damgan workers should be kept on longer than the rest of the crew since they are needed for detailed work. And another letter comparably references the work they're carrying out at a stalker, a nearby site that also came to be included in the OI concession, where their skill set was being utilized in clearing out pits that may produce nice Islamic bulls. The Damgan laborers also assisted in recruiting the hundreds of men to form the digging crew each season. Additional references that single out individuals for their skill set include the following, a line in a memo from May 25th, 1937 that reads, quote, on the terrace remains a special crew of some selected pick men and their shovelers. And from another memo of earlier that same month, we have something of a backhanded compliment, quote, the foreman is a pearl, though he has to be told at times that he is a worthless pebble. A crew of more than 500 men keeps him busy, end quote. On the topic of restoration, it continues, quote, and Ray, there are also two excellent restorers with their helpers. I shall need both at Persepolis. Formally, I thought that we ourselves had a few good laborers could manage the restoring. But after I saw the expert restorers at work, I had to admit that our former method was rather amateurish. Furthermore, at Ray, I have an efficient camp superintendent, a young Armenian by the name of Nora Balasanyan, who was trained in the American College in Tehran. I think of taking him also to Persepolis to take charge of the household, end quote. This last speaks further to the frequent movement of workmen of all ranks between the various sites overseen by Schmidt. A memo dated August 4th, 1937 affirms Balasanyan's arrival and also provides significant details as to his responsibility as camp superintendent, quote, Balasanyan will arrive about August 15th to 20th. He will be the camp superintendent and the servants have to be advised to support him and not to work against him. He will take care of the household purchases and of such technical supplies, which do not need an expert. He will unpack the ration men, all technical equipment to be incorporated and Persepolis equipment. Balasanyan will take over all those technical duties which he is able to fill. For example, typing of catalog cards, sorting objects and keeping them in order, keeping the storerooms, checking up on the work of the carboners, masons, et cetera, assisting CHS chain men, if required, et cetera. He will live in the room now occupied by Balasanyan. The letter will move to the Damgani house or Tobaba's house, according to McCowen's judgment, end quote. These and other archival documents also tells something of the living situation for workers at Persepolis. Materials dated to Schmidt's directorship attest that once restored, a section of the harem served as the living quarters for not only the German and American expedition staff, but also the technical staff, including draftsmen and restores and at times their guests. In the area to the west of the terrace were additional houses for staff and servants. A letter from 1937 refers specifically to the house of Babakan who served as expedition foreman for numerous years and another for the Damgani laborers. The house of the gendarme was located on top of the terrace. Attested with frequency among Schmidt's papers or doctor's notes, composed by the way expedition staff, primarily Schmidt, these letters speak to the care and attention the men received while employed by the expedition. Many not only name the individual but also note their position. For example, February 22nd, 1936, I want you to have a look at our draftsman George Abadian and see if you can suggest something to help the stomach. He probably doesn't get enough exercise to be normal for he is inside drawing all the time. And August 18th, 1936, will you please look after this man, Gulam Reza Khan, our pop restorer. He came down sick yesterday morning with apparently stomach trouble. July 14th, 1936, yesterday I must have eaten something bad for I've come down with an attack of digestional diarrhea. Would you be so good as to send out some bismuth so I can get over this without the usual prolonged porridge diet, which is our customary treatment here. I also want to ask a few questions about the stay of Gulam Reza Khan in Shiraz which is really necessary for him. Was it really necessary for him to spend a week in Shiraz while his boils were treated or was he just taking a vacation while he was away? I'm also sending in our carpenter, Ustead Hassan, who is having a bad spell of malaria and would be glad to have him fixed up. And on the expedition Foreman, March 23rd, 1936, our Foreman has come down with a severe cold in his chest, a sort of bronchitis. Would you please give the medicine to hair cooler or chauffeur and charge this to the expedition account. And later that year, September 18th, 1936, I'm sending you Baba Khan, our Foreman who is an Assyrian Christian. Will you please treat him in the same way that Abidyan was treated since he has no one to cook for him, et cetera. He needs the attention of the hospital that we cannot give him here. Here we have Dr. Martin's response, quote, your fellow has bronchitis. We will look after him as we did Mr. George. In follow-up Schmidt writes, thanks for your note telling of the condition of Baba Khan. I hope he is coming along all right. I am sending in one of our servants, Gorgie, who is suffering from rheumatism. Also telling for names and position of workers or letters of recommendation, comparable in frequency in the archives, they'd similarly communicate the air of respect and appreciation of Schmidt for these individuals and their contribution to the work of Persepolis. Here I start with an individual we have already met, September 13th, 1936. This is to recommend Gulam Reza Khan who has worked at Taht-e-Jamshid for two years. He is an expert restorer of pottery and other archeological finds and completed the work of restoring fragments to the large stairways discovered by the expedition. He can be recommended as very good at his job and as a conscientious workman. He received 50 tomans per month and is keyed from the expedition. A letter dated to June 24th, 1936, speaks to some of the generation spans at the expedition. This is to state that Ivan Hornboek and his two sons Pavel and Gregory have been employed in the excavations at Taht-e-Jamshid for the past two months. They have shown themselves to be good workmen. I can't help but wonder how old his sons were, being that photographs of the excavations such as this capture several children helping out in the trenches. Yet another individual we've already met, Baba Khan, who also peers under the name Baba Gorgos, September 13th, 1936, Baba Gorgos, foreman of the expeditions at Persepolis as well as at Ray, has been employed for six years by the expeditions and the capacity as head of the crew. He is efficient, conscientious, and able. I recommend him highly for any similar work. Interestingly, we also have a letter predating the Persepolis expedition when Baba Khan was in the employ of Schmidt at other sites, November 7th, 1934. I'm sending you the expedition foreman, Baba Gorgos, as a reliable, able, and energetic labor supervisor who has worked with the expedition for several seasons in Iraq and in Persia. I am anxious to find employment for him since the expedition staff will leave the country after a short time. And since the excavations will be interrupted during this winter, I should greatly appreciate if you could employ Baba Gorgos, whom I sincerely recommend. This letter was addressed to company Kamsaks, a Danish engineering and construction company that had built railways in Denmark and Turkey and signed a contract with the Shah to build a trans-Iranian railway from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, which it completed between 1933 and 1938. With respect to Baba Khan, he is named most often in Schmidt's documentation, with several letters of recommendation and references in the mehos, including one that states that the expedition was to keep him on during the off season if he wasn't able to find other work. And many that speak of his duties, including, for example, preservation of the excavated walls, by lining the top with baked bricks and removing old dump piles using the field railroad. Overall, these few excerpts from the documentation start to build a picture of the experience as well as the grouping and individuals that constituted the expedition team. To conclude, I want to touch on the story of one family with long standing connections to Persepolis and the OI expedition. It tested through publications, OI documentation and the family members themselves. That is to say, Mr. Hassan Rassas and his daughter, Mrs. Maryam Rassas. I'm indebted to both for the invaluable information they have shared with me. And I will speak of them both again shortly, but first let's jump back to 1923. This story starts with Hertzfeld, six weeks stay at Persepolis when he produced the comprehensive survey of the site that was published in 1929, 30 volume of Al-Qa'al al-Lukish, Mithailoening, Aus Iran. The photographs accompanying that publication includes several with people alongside the rooms. The three I'm showing here include the same young boy, one taken on the stairs leading up to the terrace, another in front of a colossal column base to the south of the terrace, and one at the southernmost point of the mountain behind Persepolis in front of the unfinished tomb cut into the rock face. A fourth photo is found in Hertzfeld's papers in the Smithsonian collection. This was the first time these two met, the boy, Geron Rassas, age 16, and Hertzfeld. In the time between these photos, when these photos were taken, Geron Rassas had been assisting Hertzfeld in collecting pottery pieces from across the site. When Hertzfeld returned to Persepolis in 1931 to begin the OI expedition, Geron Rassas had moved with his family to Zargon, a city 25 kilometers from Persepolis en route to Shiraz. Hertzfeld located Geron Rassas and the latter returned to Persepolis. Geron Rassas worked for the OI expedition until his completion in 1939, assisting at first with the excavation and reconstruction of the harem, and thereafter the electrical, technical, and mechanical systems of the complex. As noted in this letter of recommendation written by Richard Haynes, expedition architect from 1937 to 39, quote, Geron has given very satisfactory service in taking care of the entire electric installation of the Persepolis expedition house. He has kept the motors in good running order as well as taking care of the batteries and the wiring. He has been in the employ of the Persepolis expedition of the University of Chicago since 1930. In addition to his mechanical ability, he is conscientious workman and very reliable, end quote. Each morning, Geron Rassas would charge the complex's batteries to ensure there would be lighting throughout the night. He also assisted the truck driver and helped with cleaning objects of precious metal and the organizing of objects that have been excavated. This information and this document were shared with me by Hassan Rassas. This was Hassan's father. He also shared with me documentation and stories of his uncle Habib Mirza Akbar. Similar to Geron Rassas, Habib Mirza Akbar worked for the OI expedition from 1931 to 39 with a brief hiatus in which he served in the army. These letters tell of his positions as guardian, Pikmin, and the personal assistant of Karl Bergner, who was Hertzfeld's architectural draftsman, yet stayed on under Schmidt, in which capacity he assisted with measuring and surveying. A second letter of recommendation dated 1939 and written by Richard Haynes, states that Habib Mirza Akbar continued as a Pikmin and was also in charge of the storerooms of the excavation tools, as well as serving as a night guard. Hassan Rassas shared with me a story of his uncle about how the expedition engaged with the local community. When Habib Mirza Akbar and Karl Bergner were leaving Persepolis to carry out mapping nearby, Bergner told him that they ought to take medicine with them to treat the local community in that area. I found two memos that included notes on Habib Mirza Akbar in the OI museum archives. Specifically, they detail the types of work he was to assist with on site. One mentions that he was not to work under cooler, a staff member with whom he had a fight and who I've learned from other documentation had tension with several people. The memo then states of Habib Mirza Akbar that he is a good boy. As I mentioned earlier, it was Hassan Rassas who identified for me the boy in the photo as his father, Giram Rassas. He also shared the details of when his father first met Hertzfeld and of his employment with the OI expedition, as well as that of his uncle, Habib Mirza Akbar. The photo on the right shows Giram Rassas and Hassan Rassas together on the stairs leading up to the terrace at Persepolis. Hassan Rassas was born at Takte Jamshid and following in his father's footsteps first worked as a Restorer of Persepolis from 1964 to 75, assisting and training under the Italian Restoration Program directed by Giuseppe Tillia, Restorer of Stone Monuments. From 1975 to 78, Hassan received training in restoration and preservation of historical monuments in Italy. He then returned to take up the post of technical manager of the restoration and preservation of the stone monuments at Persepolis. He held this position until 2008. And here I'm showing photographs of Hassan while providing explanations and advice on conservation and restoration to the Italian restorers working at the site in 2019. And the story continues with Hassan's daughter, Mrs. Mariam Rassas. Today, Mariam is involved in the Persepolis Conservation and Restoration activities and the documentation and archiving center at the site. Moreover, Mariam holds a master's degree in restoration. When I asked Hassan Rassas if his father had shared with him how the oil expedition was received by the local community during its time, he wrote that the presence of the Oriental Institute of Chicago and the excavation work led to the use of local indigenous workers which was certainly welcomed by local communities who received salaries and the benefits of this employment. And when I asked something of the reception today of the project, Hassan shared that the impact of the group's excavation on the global and local community has been unparalleled. Experts and archeologists continue to engage with the publications and information from the OI expedition which has made possible the protection and restoration of the monuments that continue through today. Working with the archives in preparation for today's talk, I assembled a spreadsheet with the names of over 50 workers mentioned in the documents. Challenges come with the varied spelling of some of these names from document to document. And for this expedition in particular, there's the break and record keeping between the two directors. Yet I hope to be able to recover similar stories for some of these names, maybe even connect some of to the faces we see in photographs such as these images I'm showing here including the staff photo at the top from one of Schmidt's seasons. In conclusion, I have scanned, brows sorted and read the OI's archival material from Persepolis expedition more times than I can count, searching for precise dates when buildings were excavated, when objects were discovered, details of preservation and restoration with hopes of information on polychromy and placement of architectural features of anything that might offer greater insight into reconstructing the craftsmanship, ideology and grandiosity of this accommodated city. I've also read with great fervor the correspondence between OI directors and expedition directors, moments of excitement and new discoveries, periods of anxiety over funding, frustrations with shipping equipment internationally, concerns with timing of field seasons, ruminations over the division of fines and museum displays in Chicago, approaches for maintaining good relations with the Persian government and the ministry of education and growing concerns with international activities with the approach of World War II. Amongless plethora of almost central documents of letters, cables, spreadsheets, photographs, passports and visas, are snapshots and insights into the experience and stories of the staff, workers and local community that I've today flipped past to hastily. The wealth of knowledge and discovery that resulted from the OI's Persepolis expedition was made possible because of the skilled, dedicated and equally impassioned efforts of its entire team, a team that stretched far beyond the small group of international experts enumerated among the expedition staff and whose perspectives are equally worthy of inquiry and attention. Though not a complete picture, the archive suit served as a great point of departure and here I've presented just a drop in the bucket of the perspectives and stories of the social history of the OI's Persepolis expedition. And as a final concluding point, I express a heartfelt thanks to everyone who shared with me insights and support in preparing for today's talk especially those individuals listed here in alphabetical order, Lindsay Allen and Flannery, Dr. Hankelman, Emma Matin, Hassan Rassaz and Mariam Rassaz and Matthew Stoper. And thanks again to the invitation to speak today and all of those who spoke earlier in the series whose presentations I've very much enjoyed and built upon. Thank you. Kirsten, thank you so much for an incredibly rich and fascinating talk that covered so much ground. I would like to invite our YouTube audience, the live audience to submit any questions that you might have and I'll go ahead and start with a few of my own and I'll start at the global scale as did your talk. I noticed as you were going through towards the beginning of your presentation some of Hertzfeld's photographs and that they were attributed to the Freer Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian. And I'm wondering if you could discuss the global nature of the Persepolis archive and its journey. We know that there's an extensive amount at the OI. Apparently there's some at the Smithsonian. Where else did you end up? Did any end up at the Penn Museum or the MFA which also supported this project? Yeah, so there's quite a diverse collection as you said, the some of the OI, the ones at the Smithsonian. If I recall correctly, he gifted to the Smithsonian in the 1940s. And then I believe there's also a collection at the Metropolitan Museum. There's been a lot of work done using the archival material and others publications can document more accurately where those have ended up. For example, Ali Musavi's publication makes use of a lot of that archival material as well as Lindsay Allen's work. But owing to that split of Hertzfeld with the OI expedition after 1934, there was friction in attaining the archival documents. There was also challenges with Schmidt in publishing the materials for the OI expedition at Persepolis and attaining those records from Hertzfeld. So there is quite a diaspora of that material today. Yeah, and thankfully the ones at the Smithsonian Institute, they have a wonderful online accessibility to Hertzfeld's papers that is really exceptional. There isn't a lot in the way of journals or writing, but the photographs as you mentioned are a sense of collection as well as his sketchbooks and plans and drawings and everything are also all available online to view. Okay, great, thank you. Felicity, did you wanna jump into the question? Yeah, thank you so much, Kirsten, for a really fascinating talk and with amazing photographs. I mean, just stunning, stunning photographs. I particularly liked the one on the last slide with the team with all their pet dogs. I have to say there's a wonderful photo as well of one of those small dogs. There was a few iterations of the dog called Snowy under Schmidt and there's an image of the dog in rambles and branches with a small kitten at the top. So, yeah, you can find a wide variety of themes throughout the photographs. Fantastic, well, I think really what your lecture showed was just how when an archive is good, how really, really good it can be, the level of detail about the people who are involved on the dig and what their roles were, how much they were being paid, what kind of terms and conditions they were working under, so on and so forth is really in depth. And this is a massive resource for coming to grips and understanding better the kind of interrelationships between the international teams and the local workforces. So thank you for revealing that to us. One thing that occurred to me, particularly with the earlier work was this idea of this kind of cultural inheritance, this lineage from the great ancient minds of the ancient world to Western civilization. And it seems very similar in a way to the kind of claims of inheritance made by people who were interested in biblical archeology, that Christian Western civilization was somehow an inheritor of and were the new chosen people, bizarrely. And it's a kind of, I suppose, kind of uber-colonial position that was common in the late 19th and early 20th century. So thanks for highlighting that. Yeah, I think that was just the two things that I really, I found notable, but thank you so much for a fantastic presentation. Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, no, that is a very good point. And because we have so much early writing, I mean, the New York Times online resources were quite interesting to go through those articles, which I haven't looked at in depth, but it was just the statements of Breastad's ambitions for the Institute. And he would say that civilization didn't begin in Greece and Rome, but to look to the early civilizations of the ancient Middle East. So yeah, it's very interesting to see that perspective. And then as you say, how it is connected to the Western world. Yeah. I mean, in a way, he's right, but it's the way it's presented is kind of, you know, a bit taking a bit too much credit, perhaps. Yeah, so this is some slightly paternalistic language and one of the letters from Breastad that you shared about how the intelligent and educated Iranians and other global citizens would understand and recognize the significance of Persepolis. Yeah, that's where it's kind of, I situated in this blurring of colonial and local, like this concern with the Persian history and educating the people in West to this history, but yeah, there is certainly still that tone throughout it. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, well, I have a related question, actually speaking of education. This detail really, so now to me, you mentioned that some of the excavation reports under Herzgaub's directorship were written by the Arab workman that he had trained at Samara. And I'd like to know, if you know, if there are any remaining copies of those reports and if so, are they written in French like the packing labels that were also treated to the workers? Yeah, so that's something I was trying to tease out. I'm just starting to uncover and that one line about writing the reports, I really only found attestation of that in Friedrich Kräfter's diary. It was just that one line. I mean, it would be incredible to find another reference to that, whether it was in Herzfeld's documentation or even in Schmitz, if this was something that continued during his directorship as well. But that was kind of the one little piece to that, but I would love to be able to find out more. So maybe I will in ongoing pursuits, but yeah, that was really interesting. And then as you mentioned, you tried the French labels of the tablet. So in talking with, but Matthew Stolper about to hunk them in above them and trying to tease out why they would be in French. Yeah, that could also be an explanation there, yeah. Yeah, it's sometimes just those little details and I'm so glad that you included them that can be so illuminating and surprising as well. Sometimes brings up more questions than answers. Yeah, of course. And then you realize what the archive is maybe missing. Yeah. Another question about, at this time about labor networks. So the OI project or Persepolis employed Americans as well as many of those workers from Iraq who are given by the higher status jobs because they'd worked at Samara, right? So they were the foreman. Sounds like they were more or less equivalent to the Egyptian Gufti and that type of system. And then there were also the local laborers, primarily agricultural workers. I'm wondering if there were any requirements by the Iranian government who granted this concession to the OI on how many local community members they were required to hire or if that wasn't a legal requirement imposed on them. Yeah, great question. I am not aware of any requirements specifically of that nature, but yeah, that's something I'd like to keep in mind and look for, yeah. So we have a question from an audience member. So thanks for this fascinating talk. I'm always intrigued by evidence of showing respect for the local people's knowledge and expertise as you showed for Schmidt versus treating the locals nicely and seem to be more aimed at maintaining good relationships with the locals, hoping for help and collaboration. So this is more of a comment about the relationship in this case between Schmidt and the local workers. Anything else to add to that discussion that you didn't have time to share? It's something that I think is, it's hinted at here in the archival material, but it's something that I would love to explore with connecting with people who are descendants of people who participate in excavations, for example. Like I think that's such a rich resource that remains to be tapped in more depth because as I mentioned at the beginning, when you think about the archives and their intended role, it wasn't necessarily to capture all of that information. It is material being sent back for bookkeeping and recordkeeping and memos and future publications. So that's something also that I think we hopefully in time will be able to say much more about it. But yeah. Thank you. I'm also wondering if there were any women who were involved in this project, whether on the OI side or local women who were supporting either the camp or the excavations? There are women who were part of the servants' crew, especially in the harem complex. There was a large kitchen in there as well as in a garden. There's one letter that talks extensively about plans for the garden one season and what was to be grown and at what time of the year. So there were some women not, I haven't come across any pictures personally in the archives yet, but something to look into in more detail as well. Yeah, this is a good parallel to the Naswe archives because women do appear in photographs there, but not so much in the written material. And so I guess it's really the opposite kind of situation, but they're sort of these ghostly figures that are intriguing and I wanna know more about them. Yeah, that's something I'm also looking into with power set of archives at the body. Another question for you, thinking back earlier in this lecture series to Jack Green's talk on public health and Olga Tufnel's work as a midwife and treating eye diseases, you mentioned some of the health concerns that were raised in the letters that seem to be primarily, at least in the excerpt we shared, primarily gastrointestinal issues, malaria and chest infections. And one of the, I think one of the patterns that Jack Green brought out was how common eye diseases were. And I'm wondering if you saw any of that if it was as prevalent in the Iranian population as it was in the Palestinian population. Yeah, that wasn't something that stood out to me. I don't recall seeing a lot on ailments in particular. There was also a few that talk about sprains and that kind of, so not all gastrointestinal of that nature, there were sprains and other ailments of that type. Yeah, but it is such an interesting collection of letters and especially having them both to the doctor and back from the doctor discussions of how long someone is staying there when they can return. And quite often statements like ensuring that the expenses are charged to that expedition was really interesting to see. Les, do you have any other questions from you? Yeah, I think that the kind of the health aspect is a really, really interesting one. I wonder why that is about the eye diseases, particularly why in Palestine it's such an issue. We always say, well, it's dust, there's a lot of dust but there's gonna be dusted to site like Persepolis as well, isn't there? So in an environment like that as well. So it's an interesting one. The issue of women workers is also in the PEF archives. We have some very interesting, if I can put it that way, accounts of how Duncan McKenzie when he was working at Ein Shemsbeth Shemesh decided that he, the difficulties with employing women because they couldn't work in teams that weren't made up of family members. And so it became logistically difficult. So he decided to replace them with wheelbarrow, instead. Just like that. But other people like Bliss, working a little bit earlier in the 1900s actually prefers women workers. So I think that there's a lot of variety in the archives. He says that, first of all, they were a bit shy but actually in the end, they ended up employing more women than men in his digs at Tel-Asafi and Sanderhana and so on. So I think that we need to, there's a lot of nuance going on and different people have different approaches, certainly in terms of gender and how they deal with people and how they interact with the local communities. Yeah. I wonder too if there are economic considerations since some archives from these periods demonstrate that women were paid less, women and children were paid less than men, so something else to consider there. Yeah, I really wanted to find more about all the young children that are in the pictures. Yeah, there's a lot that they seem very smiling, happy, carrying boxes on their heads. But I didn't really come across anything in the written material about that, other than the one recommendation letter where it mentions the two sons. But yeah, that would be interesting to know more about as well. Yeah, absolutely. So I think I'll wrap it up with one concluding question that gives you a chance to put in any plugs for some of the public-facing work at the OI. Could you discuss just briefly some of the motivations for your research into this Persepolis archive and any related exhibition or other public-facing programming that has been produced out of the OI's collections related to this? Yeah, I mean, I think there's just a lot of material and information and knowledge that remains to be explored through the collection. Erin mentioned the beginning, even the current exhibit of Joseph Linda Smith's paintings. Those have been in the collection since 1935 when he painted them and the two largest ones haven't been on display since 1939, so they basically haven't been seen in color since then. So there's parts of this collection that really deserve much more attention and going through the material for the Joseph Linda Smith exhibit too, he wrote on his experience of Persepolis. He has a chapter in his book about when he was in Persia. And it's just fascinating to understand more about the engagement with the site rather than just looking at the archeological material and having traveled to the site myself and just the impression that you feel when you're there is so different than just looking at it through the photographs and certainly accessing the personal relationships and engagement with the site. We do here in Chicago have a large Iranian and Zoroastrian community that we do a lot of programming with, especially we celebrate in our rooms every year at the museum. And it's always just so fascinating to speak with them about their connections with the material and the project and the history. So yeah, I think it's just that there's so many avenues to access this material that are still worthy of exploration. Hey, thank you so much. Aaron, I think you have a conclusion to read. Not to read, but I just wanna, first of all, of course, thank our speaker today, Dr. Newman, that was a wonderful presentation as we shifted away from the Levant and looked a little bit further east and to encourage our viewers to tune in next week. So next Thursday, Helen Dixon will be presenting looking at an expedition at Carthage. So we'll be moving to the West then in the Western Mediterranean. So again, thank you to our speaker. Thank you to our audience and thank you to all of our partners involved for making this series such a success. And we look forward to our final two presentations, but again, Helen Dixon will be on Thursday, the 19th of this month. So thank you all.