The French-Turkmen Archaeological Mission in Turkmenistan: The Iron Age Occupation at Ulug Depe

Dr. Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento obtained his PhD in Prehistory, Ethnology, and Anthropology at the University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne in 2004. His first researches focused on the funerary archaeology and the biological anthropology of the populations of the Bronze and Iron ages in Kazakhstan. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, he gained extensive experience in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (including Karakalpakstan), Turkmenistan), but also in Iran and the United Arab Emirates, where he worked both as an archaeologist and an anthropologist. Since 2007, he has been the director of the MAFOuz-Protohistory (French Archaeological Mission in Uzbekistan - Protohistory), working at Dzharkutan in Uzbekistan. Since 2009, he has been the co-director of MAFTUR (French Archaeological Mission in Turkmenistan), of which he became director in 2013. His work evolved over the course of his career as a researcher at IFRI (French Research Institute in Iran) from 2005 to 2007; Deputy Director and then director of IFEAC (French Institute for Central Asian Studies) from 2007 to 2009, and Deputy Director and then Director of the DAFA (French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan) in Kabul since 2013. Since 2009, he has also been a researcher at the CNRS.