| Kamyar Abdi | |
| Native Name: | Persian: کامیار عبدی |
| Birth Place: | Tabriz, Iran |
| Nationality: | Iranian |
| Fields: | Archeology Anthropology |
| Workplaces: | Iranian Center for Research on Humanities and Cultural Studies Shiraz University |
| Alma Mater: | University of Chicago (1997) University of Michigan (2002) |
Kamyar Abdi (Persian: کامیار عبدی; born 1969 in Tabriz) is an Iranian anthropologist and assistant professor of archaeology at Shahid Beheshti University.He initiated his undergraduate studies in archaeology at the University of Tehran, leading to a master's degree. Subsequently, he joined the Oriental Institute based in the University of Chicago (currently renamed as the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa) to study the near east civilizations and languages. Abdi holds his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, under supervision of Henry T. Wright.Prior to joining the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, he taught and researched in many institutions, namely Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of California, Irvine and British Museum.He used to be a research associate at the Iranian Center for Research on Humanities and Cultural Studies, in addition to many editorial memberships in reputable journals, affiliation with councils and associations, and executive experiences such as leading the American Institute of Iranian Studies. He has carried out numerous extensive archaeological excavations in Iran, financially supported by domestic and international organizations. The outcomes of his research have played a major role in assisting the scientific community with resolving many questions pertinent to Iranian protohistory, calcolithic, Elamites and Achaemenids. Not only has he written several original publications, but also has translated many English books and articles into Persian, and keeps supervising graduate students.
Kamyar Abdi was born in 1969 in Tabriz, Iran.[1] Abdi received his M.A. degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at University of Chicago (1997). He continued his studied and received his Ph.D. from University of Michigan in Anthropology (2002), his advisor was Henry T. Wright and his dissertation was titled "Strategies of herding: Pastoralism in the middle Chalcolithic period of the West Central Zagros Mountains".[2] From 2002 until 2008, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College.
His research interests include sedentism, food production (agriculture and pastoralism), and political developments in the ancient Near East, especially Iran. He has directed archaeological projects at Malyan (ancient Anshan), Arjan, Sorkh Dom Lori, and Ziviyeh.
In the late 1990s he led the Islamabad Archeological Research Project which discovered an ancient Neanderthal tooth which has been extensively studied, and as of 2019, it has confirmed the existence of Neanderthals in Iran roaming in the Zagros Mountains as far back as 40 to 70 thousand years ago.[3]
He also formerly was a visiting professor at Department of Archaeology in Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran. In 2017 he joined Shiraz University as a Full Professor.At present, he teaches at the Shahid Beheshti University