Emad Matin is (since May 7, 2026) a Fixed-term Researcher in Tenure Track at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Bologna.
Matin, after a BA in Archaeology from the University of Tehran (2008), continued his studies at the University of Bologna where he received his Master’s degree in 2014 (dissertation: Decorated bricks from the Iranian-Italian excavations at Tol-e Ajori (Fars)) and earned his PhD in 2018 (dissertation: Early Achaemenian Architecture and Monumental Art in Fars and the Persian Gulf Region). He has been a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna (Feb. 2019–Feb. 2022) with a research project, funded by the Department of Cultural Heritage and ISMEO, concerning the study of the Tol-e Ajori decorated bricks (Persepolis). At the same institution, he held his second postdoctoral Research Fellowship (Sep. 2022–Feb. 2024), again with the same funding, on the reorganisation of the archive of the IsMEO Persepolis Mission (directed by the late Giuseppe Tilia in 1964–1979); and a third research project (Mar. 2024–Aug. 2025), funded by an Italian National Interest Project “PRIN” 2022 (on climate change in the Persian Gulf area), concerning archaeological sources for the study of human settlements in the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. He obtained research and travel grants from the University of Bologna (2012, 2015), IFRI – Institut Français de Recherche en Iran (2013), MIUR – Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (2018), and The Iranian Highlands Project – German DFG Priority Program (2024) to carry out research periods and participate in academic exchange programmes, and he has been part of different international projects.
Matin has presented at various conferences held in Iran and different European countries, as well as in the United States (remotely). He has organised a number of conferences and seminars, including a workshop (with Julien Cuny from the Louvre Museum) on Ancient Near Eastern decorated bricks (Decorated Bricks of the Achaemenid Period and their Forerunners) within ICAANE 2021 in Bologna. Likewise, he has contributed to numerous archaeological and archaeometric publications in English, Italian, and Persian. He is a member of ISMEO – The International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies and also has been a peer reviewer for The Journal of Iran National Museum, Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, Iranian Studies, and Iranica Antiqua. He is part of the editorial board of the series Visual Culture of Ancient Western and Central Asia, published by Palgrave Macmillan (Springer Nature).
Since 2011, he has been a member of the Iranian-Italian Joint Archaeological Mission in Fars, engaged in the Persepolis area, and since 2015 has been the Iranian deputy director and field director of the same mission. In parallel he has also directed this mission’s project for studying and publishing the decorated bricks from Tol-e Ajori and, since 2019, has been Iranian co-director of the “Land of Persepolis – LOP” project (Italian co-director: Luca Colliva), operating under the same mission. Since 2023, he has been director of the Iranian-Italian mission at Susa, which collaborates with the National Museum of Iran in the study of finds from the Iranian excavations (directed by the late Mir-Abedin Kaboli in the 1990s and 2000s) at the west of the site of Tel Apadana. Additionally, he (co-)directs the projects “Studies and Characterization of Historical Mortars from Khorasan and Fars Region” at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (jointly with Parsa Pahlavan from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad), and “Ricostituzione dell’archivio di Tilia e pubblicazione finale delle attività della missione IsMEO a Persepoli” at ISMEO. Since 2025, Matin has also been a member of the Armenian-Italian archaeological mission in the Lake Sevan area.
Over the years, Matin’s primary research scope has encompassed the understanding of interactions and mutual influences among cultures and traditions of the first millennium BCE, as well as their interplay within the ideological framework and artistic traditions that led to the formation of the Achaemenid Empire. In particular, he has focused on construction techniques, monumental art, and the architecture of royal and official buildings. To this end, he has conducted studies on architectural elements from ancient Western Asia held in the Louvre, the British Museum, the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, Persepolis, and Susa. He has also carried out research on stone masonry in Achaemenid monuments at Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Borazjan, and has collaborated with experts in the field (e.g., Peter Rockwell, Giuseppa Maria Fazio). In addition, he has contributed to archaeometric projects, particularly those concerning glazed materials and polychromy.
