What's On

What's On at the AIIT

We hold regular public lectures at 5:30pm on Friday evenings during University term in addition to special events, conferences, workshops and occasional exhibitions. We also have an active Friends group. As part of the 'family', Friends are invited to special events, our traditional Summer Garden Party and other social functions, and are always welcome to visit the Trust.

Join the Friends of the AIIT

To be informed of future events, please sign up to our mailing list via our Contact page.

You can also watch some of our past talks on our YouTube Channel

Michaelmas Term 2025

All welcome. Talks begin at 5:30pm. Refreshments are served from 5pm.

For further information about this term's lectures and speakers, click here.

Friday 10 October

Ankur Barua, University of Cambridge

The Love of God and the God of Love: The Language of Longing in Hindu and Indo-Islamic Poetry

Krishna dances in the Raslila with the Gopis, Kronos collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art. c. 1750, India, Punjab Hills, kingdom of Basohli.

Friday 31 October

Naman Ahuja, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Changing Labels, Changing Times: The Role of Social Narratives in Reshaping the Perception of the 'Dancing Girl'

The Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro; 2300-1750 BC; bronze; height: 10.8 cm (41⁄4 in.); National Museum, New Delhi, India.

Friday 28 November

Arash Zeini, University of Oxford

Navigating Zoroastrian Communal Identity in the Early Islamic Era

A building complex in Pīr-e Nāraki, Yazd provice, Iran. © Arash Zeini.

Friday 12 December, 5:30pm

Harold Bailey Memorial Lecture

Almut Hintze, SOAS University of London; Ancient India & Iran Trust

The Magic of the Chariot Race: A Zoroastrian Metaphor for Perfecting the World

Further details and abstract

Booking is required: to reserve your place, please email info@indiran.org

(please note that this lecture will be followed by a reception. Refreshments will not be served before the lecture on this occasion)

Fragment of an Attic black-figured cauldron (dinos) showing a chariot race and spectators, 6th cent. BCE. Hellenic National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Photographic Archive. Photo: Giannis Patrikianos. © Hellenic Ministry of Culture – Hellenic Organization of Cultural Resources Development (HOCRED).

Available to watch on our YouTube channel

Cameron Petrie, University of Cambridge; Ancient India & Iran Trust

How Do You Map the Archaeological Heritage of South Asia? The Whys and Wherefores of Large-Scale Mapping and Surveying of Archaeological Sites in the Indus River Basin

Past Events

13.6.25: The Sasanian Royal Garden at Qasr-e Shirin: an expression of political authority and imperial ideology |More
23.5.25: Reimagining Mahābodhi: tracing the sacred landscape beyond the temple |Watch
9.5.25: The students of the School of Doctrines: the many lives of a 17th-century encyclopedia of religions |More
2.5.25: Revisiting the ex-'Unknown Script' of Hellenistic Bactria |More
21.3.25: New epigraphic discoveries from ancient Bactria |More
7.3.25: The commemorative vase designed for Sir M.M. Bhonagree |More
21.2.25: The Romantic appropriation of India |More
24.1.25: Barrington's Afghan octet |More
6.12.24: Curating A Silk Road Oasis at the British Library: bringing Ancient Dunhuang to life |More
29.11.24: 1970s Afghanistan – an archaeological travelogue |More
8.11.24: Amarāvatī: Art and Buddhism in ancient India |More
18.10.24: The Vanishing Zoroastrian Presence in Ahvaz: historical evolution, migration and the threat to cultural heritage |More
7.6.24: Editing early modern Persian poetry from Iran and India: global perspectives and local identities |More
3.5.24: A scene of fire worship from the late Umayyad palace at Sanjar-Shah and the Sogdian cult in the 8th century |More
26.4.24: Of worldly deeds and sacred souls: the trust and Parsi muktad ceremonies |More
21.3.24: How do you map the archaeological heritage of South Asia? The whys and wherefores of large-scale mapping and surveying of archaeological sites in the Indus River Basin |Watch
15.3.24: New observations on the Achaemenid presence in the Persian Gulf |More
1.3.24: Music for a Royal Ceremony, Kathmandu 1664 CE |More
9.2.24: East of the wardrobe: Islam and Iran in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia |More
26.1.24: Music and musicians in late Mughal India: histories of the ephemeral, 1748–1858 |More
15.12.23: The Oxus Treasure: fact or fiction? |More
01.12.23: The Mongol conquest and urban abandonments at the city of Otrar, Kazakhstan |More
10.11.23: Tarikh-i Alfi: The Mughals’ world history |More
20.10.23: Extraordinary Endeavours: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1823–2023 |More
9.6.23: Snake men: Azhdahа̄ in the Persian epic tradition |More
26.5.23: Intermedial effects around 1400: scribal knowledge and ornament between the Deccan and the Indian Ocean world |More
5.5.23: The Pahlavi inscription on the ‘Persian Cross’ of Mylapore in South India, and its implications for the religious identity of the Syrian Christians of Kerala |More
28.4.23: Lived Zoroastrianism: women's religious practices in the American diaspora |More
17.3.23: Money is power: a metaphorical and numismatic approach |More
24.2.23: The Protestant Mission to the Buryats, 1818-1840 |More
17.2.23: Mapping Archaeological Heritage in the Cholistan Desert, Pakistan: from screen to field and back again |More
27.1.23: Magnifying the monumental value of South Punjab, Pakistan: a case study of Bahawalpur state |Watch

View All Past Events

Allchin Symposium on South Asian Archaeology