Biography

field projects including surveys and excavations in Iranian Azerbaijan and his research focuses on the rise of complex societies and empires in Southwest Asia through the lens of landscape archaeology. His forthcoming book Borders from Ancient to Early Modern Times: Population Displacements and Cultural Contrasts (Arc Humanities Press) examines the borderland landscapes and the role of forced migration in the bordering policies of ancient empires. His academic interests include social inequality and complexity; material culture and craft production; archaeology of empires; abandonment and collapse; borders and borderland dynamics; heritage and nationalism; archaeology of Iran and the Caucasus. He incorporates his research with teaching and teaches a variety of courses in the department of anthropology such as the Archaeology of Landscapes, Rise of Complex Civilizations, Rise of Empires, Archeology of Inequality, Theory in Archaeology, Archaeology and Nationalism, GIS in Archaeology, and Archaeology of SW Asia. In his last field project, he directed three seasons of excavations at an Early Bronze Age site, Köhne Shahar, in northwestern Iran (Iranian Azerbaijan). This project investigated the development of social complexity and the rise of complex societies in the highlands of Southwest Asia and the Caucasus region.

Publications

See my personal website for a full list of publications

Alizadeh, Karim, M. Rouhollah Mohammadi, Sepideh Maziar, and Mohmmad Feizkhah, 2021, “Islamic Conquest or Flooding? The Collapse of Late Antique Sasanian Settlements and Irrigation Systems in the Mughan Steppe, Iranian Azerbaijan,” Journal of Field Archaeology 46(5): 316-332 (https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2021.1913314).

Samei, Siavash and Karim Alizadeh, 2020, “The spatial organization of craft production at the Kura-Araxes settlement of Köhne Shahar in northwestern Iran: A zooarchaeological approach,” PLoS One 15(3): e0229339 (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229339).

Alizadeh, Karim, 2019, “Overlapping Social and Political Boundaries: Borders of the Sasanian Empire and the Muslim Caliphate in the Caucasus.” in The Archaeology of Medieval Islamic Frontiers: From the Mediterranean to Nile to Caspian Sea. Asa Eger (Ed.). Pp. 139-167. Louisville, CO: University Press of Colorado (https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607328773).

Samei, Siavash, Karim Alizadeh, and Natalie Munro, 2019, “Animal husbandry and food provisioning at the Kura-Araxes settlement of Köhne Shahar in Northwestern Iran,” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 55: 101065 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2019.05.001).

Alizadeh, Karim, Siavash Samei, Kourosh Mohammadkhani, Reza Heidari, and Robert H. Tykot, 2018, “Craft Production at Köhne Shahar, a Kura-Araxes Settlement in the Iranian Azerbaijan,” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 51: 127–143 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2018.06.006).

Alizadeh, Karim, Sepideh Maziar, and M. Rouhollah Mohammadi, 2018, “The End of the Kura-Araxes Culture as Seen from Nadir Tepesi in Iranian Azerbaijan,” American Journal of Archaeology 122 (3): 463–477 (https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.122.3.0463).

Alizadeh, Karim, Hamed Eghbal, and Siavash Samei, 2015, “Approaches to Social Complexity in Kura-Araxes Culture: A View from Köhne Shahar (Ravaz) in Chaldran, Iranian Azerbaijan.” Paléorient 41(1):37-54 (https://doi.org/10.3406/paleo.2015.5654).

Alizadeh, Karim, 2014, “Borderland Projects of Sasanian Empire: Intersection of Domestic and Foreign Policies,” Journal of Ancient History 2(2): 93-115 (https://doi.org/10.1515/jah-2014-0015).

Ur, Jason and Karim Alizadeh, 2013, “The Sasanian Colonization of the Mughan Steppe, Ardebil Province, Northwestern Iran,” Journal of Iranian Archaeology 4: 98-110.

Alizadeh, Karim and Jason Ur, 2007, “Formation and Destruction of Pastoral and Irrigation Landscape on the Mughan Steppe, North-Western Iran.” Antiquity 81(311): 148-160 (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00094904).

Alizadeh, Karim and Jason Ur, 2005, “Mughan Steppe Archaeological Project, Ardabil Province,” Archaeological Reports (4): 49-56, Tehran: Iranian Center for Archaeological Research (in Farsi with English abstract).