French archaeologist Geneviève Dollfus, who conducted extensive excavations in southwest Iran, has died aged 82.
Died on August 29 in Lyons la Forêt, northwestern France, Dollfus is most famed for conducting archaeological excavations at Tepe Djafarabad, Tepe Djowi, and Bandebal (Khuzestan), according to the National Museum of Iran.
Jebrael Nokandeh, the director of the National Museum of Iran, has offered condolences over the death of the late archaeologist and excavator, saying: “The National Museum of Iran extends sincerest condolences to her family, friends, former students, and colleagues.”
During the early 1940s, after joining the French National Center for Scientific Research, Dollfus began field archeological research in Syria and Levant. Later she joined the Susa Archaeological Expedition in Iran as Jean-Perrot's deputy.
In addition to her numerous field projects in West Asia, Dollfus played an important role in the publication of fifteen volumes of Reports of the French Archaeological Delegation in Iran (DAFI) and was also the editor of the Paléorient journal for a decade.
She came to Iran in the early 1980s to attend the annual conference on Iranian archeology, where she met a new generation of Iranian archaeologists and later in 2005 to participate in the International Seminar on the Halil Rud civilization in Jiroft, according to the National Museum.
She always praised the enthusiasm of the young generation of Iranian archaeologists. Although she continued her archeological fieldwork in Jordan over the 1980s, she still remembered Iran and her Iranian friends and was always generously ready to help Iranian students and archaeologists.
In recent years, unfortunately, she went through very difficult days due to illness and related physical problems that prevented her to communicate with her colleagues and friends all over the world. Her funerals is organized by her family on the 7th of September in Lyons la Forêt (Normandy).
This article has been adapted from its original source.
