Ehsan Behbahani-Nia

Ehsan Behbahani-Nia is an incoming PhD student and Project Assistant at the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA. Ehsan has a bachelor’s in architecture from the University of Azad, Tehran, and three master’s degrees related to ancient architecture and archaeology from Strasbourg and Paris, France. His research focuses on ancient building technology, stone-cutting and craftsmanship in the Classical World, as well as in architectural exchanges between Greco-Roman world and Persians, from Archaic through Roman periods. He is most impassioned about using architecture as a material to better understand intercultural relations and connections across ancient Aegean, Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds.

In fieldwork, he is a member of the University of Chicago’s excavation team at Isthmia in Greece and a member of the French-Iranian mission of Pasargadae in Iran, following archaeological missions throughout the Mediterranean from Rome, Delos, Oncehstos and Caričin Grad (Serbia) to several sites in France (Mandeure, Arles,  Argentomagus, etc.). At the age of 24, Ehsan has made a major discovery on the terrace of the Tall-i Takht, a monument in the Persian heartland that is believed to be constructed by Lydian and Ionian masons—his paper entitled “Tall-i Takht: New Details on the Unfinished Terrace of Pasargadae”, will appear in the Journal of Ancient Architecture (Vol. 1, ed. C. Marconi). Ehsan is also working on a paper related to the new evidence of the temple of Demeter at Isthmia. Starting from August 2020, he will be working on publications related to Sardis Expedition, as a PA.

Contact: eh_sun@live.com