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Art of the Empire:

Monumental Cities of Ancient Persia

GETTY VILLA - Auditorium

Sunday, April 24, 2022, at 2 pm

Free | Advance ticket required

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The founders of the Achaemenid Persian Empire conceived dynamic monumental architecture and sculpture to convey their mastery of the ancient world. This new Persian art achieved its highest expression in powerful cities such as Pasargadae, Persepolis, and Susa. Join archaeologist Ali Mousavi of UCLA for a closer look at these ancient cities that served as hubs of multicultural and artistic interaction with other civilizations spanning Egypt to the Mediterranean.

This program complements the exhibition Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World on view through August 8, 2022.

About Ali Mousavi

Ali Mousavi is a Pourdavoud Research Scholar and adjunct assistant professor of Iranian archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Mousavi obtained his PhD in Near Eastern archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has excavated in France, Turkey, and Iran. He has published on various aspects of Iranian art and archaeology including the book Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder. He holds a particular interest in the archaeology of Iranian Empires, from the Achaemenids to the Sasanians, and the history of archaeology in Iran and the Near East. He is the director of the Archaeological Gazetteer of Iran, a research tool for scholars working on the archaeology of Iran and the ancient Near East.