Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday

This volume is a tribute to the career of Professor Mirjo Salvini on the occasion his 80th birthday, composed of 62 papers written by his colleagues and students. The majority of contributions deal with research in the fields of Urartian and Hittite Studies, the topics that attracted Prof. Salvini most during his long and fruitful ca

The publication of ‘Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday’ was initiated by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, the International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (Rome, Italy) and the Association for Near Eastern and Caucasian Studies (Yerevan, Armenia) as a tribute to the career of Professor Mirjo Salvini on the occasion his 80th birthday. It is composed of 62 papers written by his colleagues and students from Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Great Britain, Russian Federation, Israel, Turkey, Islamic Republic of Iran, Georgia, United States and Armenia. The contributions presented here cover numerous topics, a wide geographical area and a long chronological period. However, most of the contributions deal with research in the fields of Urartian and Hittite Studies, the topics that attracted Prof. Salvini during his long and fruitful career most.

PAVEL AVETISYAN is a leading archaeologist from Republic of Armenia. Area of his research is Old World archaeology, particularly Neolithic to Iron Age cultures of Armenia and Transcaucasia, problems of their periodisation and chronology. P. Avetisyan led various excavation projects in Armenia (Talin, Agarak, Karashamb, Godedzor, Masis Blur, and others). He received his PhD in 2003 (‘Periodisation and Chronology of the Middle Bronze Age of Armenia’) and Dr Habil. in 2014 (‘Armenian Highland during the 24-9th Centuries BC: The Dynamics of Socio-Cultural Transformations, according to Archaeological Data’). Prof. Avetisyan is currently Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Armenia and Professor at the Yerevan State University. Publications include three monographs and more than 100 articles devoted to the mentioned problems. | ROBERTO DAN is a member of ISMEO – International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies. He is an archaeologist specialised in architecture, history and landscape archaeology of the Near East, focused on the 1st millennium BC (Urartu, Achaemenid Empire). He obtained his PhD from the ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, with a thesis on the archaeological landscape of Urartu. Roberto has conducted fieldwork in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and Iran. He is director of the ISMEO – Archaeological Mission to South Caucasus (AMSC), a project co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic, which involves archaeological activities in Armenia (Kotayk Survey Project since 2013; Vayots Dzor Project since 2015) and Georgia (Samtskhe-Javakheti Project since 2017), with excavations in the Urartian sites of Solak 1 and Yelpin 1. In 2015, he published a book devoted to the analysis of historical and architectural relations between Urartu and the Achaemenid Empire. | YERVAND GREKYAN is a leading researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and Associate Professor at the Armenian State Pedagogical University. He received his PhD in 2002 (‘History of the Mannean Kingdom’) and defended his habilitation thesis on the structure of the Urartian Kingdom at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia in 2016 (‘Biainili-Urartu. State and Society’).Y. Grekyan is the author of more than 70 articles and book chapters devoted to the ancient history and culture of the Near East and especially of the Armenian Highland in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. He is a founding member of the Association for Near Eastern and Caucasian Studies and vice-editor of Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

• Edited by Pavel S. Avetisyan
• Edited by Roberto Dan
• Edited by Yervand H. Grekyan

This Festschrift does an admirable job in outlining Salvini's career, his importance for Urartian studies and the regions beyond, and his accomplishments in leading and reshaping institutions such as the now-named ISMEO (International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies).
— Michael Weiskopf