Ancient Bactra and Its Oasis (Afghanistan) During Protohistory: The Work Led by the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan

 Johanna Lhuillier is an archaeologist specialized in the archaeology of Central Asia, working with the CNRS (UMR 5133). She received her PhD in Archaeology from the Panthéon-Sorbonne Paris I University. Her research focused on the cultural and socio-economic aspects of the Iron Age societies (2nd-1st millennia BCE), with a technical specialization centered on excavation and material culture studies. She developed a general reflection on the continuity/discontinuity of the material complexes, the living conditions, the social status, the mortuary practices, and the urban evolutions. She is particularly interested in the cultural interactions between Central Asia, the Indus Valley, Iran and the steppes area during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
Since 2005, she has carried out field and laboratory research at several sites in Turkmenistan (Ulug-depe), in Uzbekistan (Koktepe, Dzharkutan, Yangi-Rabat, Padayatak-tepe, Burgut-Kurgan), in Iran (Tepe Dâmghâni), and in Afghanistan (Bactra Oasis). She was awarded a Fyssen fellowship and an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship for three years of research at the Eurasia Department of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut in Berlin. She taught Near Eastern and Central Asia history and archaeology at Lille 3 University and at Kheops Institut in Paris. She took part in the Inventory Project of the National Museum of Afghanistan and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago at Kabul and she collaborated with the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA). Thanks to the grant awarded by the Shelby White and the Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publication, she will study and prepare the publication of the work done by the DAFA in Bactra Oasis, with a focus on the Protohistoric occupation.