Marlik Tepe — A Lecture in Sacramento, Wednesday September 30
The fifth lecture in the Iranology series comes to the Sacramento Zoroastrian Center on Wednesday, September 30. The subject is Marlik Tepe — a hill in northern Iran that turned out to hold the tombs of rulers, and gold that had been waiting three thousand years.
The fifth lecture in the Iranology series is on Wednesday, September 30, at the Sacramento Zoroastrian Center. The subject is Marlik Tepe.
A Hill That Was Not Just a Hill
Tepe means hill. Readers of this blog will recognise the word — it turns up at Tepe Sarab, Tepe Sang-e Chakhmagh, Tepe Sialk. In each case the hill is not a natural feature of the landscape. It is what a place becomes after people have lived, built, collapsed and rebuilt on the same spot for a very long time.
Marlik, in the green valleys of northern Iran, is one of those hills. What excavation found inside it was not an ordinary village.
It was a burial ground for rulers — and buried with them, worked gold that had been sitting in the dark for roughly three thousand years. Beakers and vessels, decorated with animals and winged creatures, made by people whose names we will never know but whose skill is still sitting right there on the metal.
This lecture is about what was found, who these people were, and what the objects tell us about the society that made them.
The Details
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2026 Time: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM Location: Sacramento Zoroastrian Center, 10528 Armstrong Ave, Mather, CA 95655 Presented by: Foundation for Persian Archaeological Studies Hosted with: HAMGUM Lecturer: Dr. Bahram Ghadiri Khamjani
About the Iranology Series
The Iranology lectures work through the archaeology of the Iranian Plateau one site at a time — the places where farming began, where metal was first worked, where writing came from. They are for anyone curious, not only for specialists.
If you have read the Tiny Time Traveler books with a child, this is the same material for adults: the same sites, the same discoveries, without the Homa bird.
Bring Someone
These lectures are more enjoyable with someone to talk to afterwards. If you know somebody who has ever wondered what was happening on the Iranian Plateau while the pyramids were being built, bring them along.
Find every upcoming appearance on the events page.