Mostafa Dehpahlavan

Biography

Mostafa is currently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran. His major interests lie in the fields of museology, archaeology and history of Seleucid and Parthian periods (Hellenistic era) in ancient cultural Iran.

Mostafa was also Director of Negarestan and Moghadam Museums. Moghadam Museum is an historical home that is also used as a local museum. Negarestan Museum is also an historical palace and old university. Mostafa manages the conservation and restoration of buildings and objects, as well as the archaeological and historical research projects related to the two museums. He has a great interest in archaeological research in museums, as well as educational programmes for children and students.

From 2017-2022, Mostafa was a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the Society of Iranian Archaeologists, Tehran, Iran; and was Head at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Tehran from 2016-2022.

Since 2016 Mostafa has been conducting research for three projects at three museums – National Museum of Iran, Malek Museum, Bojnord Museum – on numismatics and archaeology.

Mostafa has supervised extensive projects and excavations, recently including the excavation expedition of the University of Tehran at Sagzabad site, Qazvin plain (2016-2022); and the project of Qanat networks at Buein Zahra region in the Qazvin plain (2020-2021); and the excavation at the ancient cemetery of Shoghab, Bushehr City.

From 2023-2024, Mostafa was Head at the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT), and Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism of Iran.

At the British Museum
During his time on the International Training Programme in 2014, Mostafa was based in the Coins and Medals Department and his partner placement was spent at Lincoln Museum and Nottingham University Museum.

In 2016, participants were asked to develop a proposal for an Asahi Shimbun Display – a temporary exhibition in Room 3 at the British Museum – based around a single ‘spotlight’ object.  Mostafa’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Royal Archer.

Mostafa’s place on the programme was generously supported by the Altajir Trust.