Roman Ghirshman (, ''Roman Mikhailovich Girshman''; October 3, 1895 – 5 September 1979) was a Ukrainian-born French

archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeol ...

who specialized in

ancient Persia The history of Iran (also known as Persia) is intertwined with Greater Iran, which is a socio-cultural region encompassing all of the areas that have witnessed significant settlement or influence exerted by the Iranian peoples and the Iranian ...

. Ghirshman spent nearly thirty years excavating ancient Persian archeological sites throughout

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Biography

Roman Ghirshman was born to a wealthy

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

in the

Sloboda Ukraine Sloboda Ukraine, also known locally as ''Slobozhanshchyna'' or ''Slobozhanshchina'', is a historical region in northeastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia. It developed from Belgorod Razriad and flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries on the ...

(present-day

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

) in 1895. Ghirshman moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1917 to study Archeology and Ancient

Language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s. He was mainly interested in the archeological ruins of

, specifically Tepe Giyan, Teppe Sialk,

Bagram Bagram (; Pashto/) is a town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul. It is the site of an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir Valley, near t ...

Bishapur Bishapur (Middle Persian: ''Bay-Šāpūr''; , ''Bishâpûr'') was an ancient city in Sasanid Persia (Iran) on the ancient road between Persis and Elam. The road linked the Sassanid capitals Estakhr (very close to Persepolis) and Ctesiphon. It ...

in Fars, and

Susa Susa ( ) was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh River, Karkheh and Dez River, Dez Rivers in Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital o ...

. In the 1930s, Girshman, together with his wife Tania Ghirshman, was the first to excavate Teppe Sialk. His studies on

Chogha Zanbil Chogha Zanbil (also Tchoga Zanbil and Čoġā Zanbīl) (; Elamite: Al Untas Napirisa then later Dur Untash) is an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran. It is one of the few existing ziggurats outside Mesopotamia. It lies appr ...

have been printed in 4 volumes, and he also led excavation teams at Kharg Island, Iwan-i Karkheh, and the

Parthia Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemeni ...

n platforms in Masjed Soleiman, near

Izeh Izeh () ( Luri : مالمیر) is a city in the Central District of Izeh County, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Izeh has mines of rocks and minerals. It is famous for its dam and ancient ...

Khuzestan Khuzestan province () is one of the 31 Provinces of Iran. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covering an area of . Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's ...

. From 1941 to 1942 he was Director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan. He was also a member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

. With 300 papers and 20 books published, Ghirshman was one of the most prolific and respected experts on ancient Iran. Some of his works on

have not even been published yet, but have served other archeologists such as Jean Perrot and Hermann Gasche in subsequent follow-up studies in the 1960s and 1970s in Iran. He died in Budapest of a stroke on September 5, 1979. The French scholar Jacques Heurgon wrote a eulogy for his death.

Honors

* Charles Lang Freer Medal *

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Roman Ghirshman,

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

encompasses roughly 300+ works in 600+ publications in 12 languages and 6,000+ library holdings. WorldCat Identities Ghirshman, Roman
/ref> * 1935, ''Fouilles du Tepe Giyan,Paris, Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner 12.Rue Vavin(VI) * 1938, ''Fouilles de Sialk, prés de Kashan, 1933, 1934, 1937''. Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris (in two volumes). * 1954, ''Iran: from the earliest times to the Islamic conquest''. Penguin books.(A French version was published in 1951 by Payot, Paris). * 1962, Persian art : Parthian and Sassanian dynasties, 249 B.C.- A.D. 651. * 1963, ''Perse. Proto-iraniens, Mèdes, Achéménides''. Gallimard, Paris. * 1970, ''Le Pazuzu et les fibules du Luristan''. Impr. Catholique, Beirut. * 1971, ''Persia, the immortal kingdom''. (Coauthors: Minorsky, V.F., and Sanghvi, R., Greenwich, Conn., New York Graphic Society. * 1976, ''L'Iran des origines à l'Islam''. Nouv. éd. rev. et mise à jour. Paris. * 1977, ''L'Iran et la migration des Indo-Aryens et des Iraniens''. Leiden. * 1979, ''Tombe princière de Ziwiyé et le début de l'art animalier scythe''. Soc. Iranienne pour la Conservation du Patrimoine, Paris.

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghirshman, Roman 1895 births 1979 deaths Scientists from Kharkiv People from Kharkov Governorate Ukrainian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France French Iranologists Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 20th-century French archaeologists Corresponding fellows of the British Academy