ERC Advanced Grant for Persia study

Eberhard Sauer, the University’s Professor of Roman Archaeology, has been awarded a very generous ERC Advanced Grant.

These long-term grants are awarded to highly ambitious and pioneering projects, led by distinguished researchers.

Archaeological secrets

The award was made for a collaborative project on ‘Persia and its Neighbours: the Archaeology of the Late Antique Imperial Power in Iran’.

This interdisciplinary project will explore the Sasanian Empire, one of the largest empires of antiquity, stretching for modern Iraq to Pakistan.

Its large-scale military infrastructure, urban foundations and agricultural surplus production promise to shed new light on the reasons for its dominance and longevity in the 3rd to 7th centuries.

Professor Sauer was part of a British-Iranian team that succeeded in dating the 195km-long Great Wall of Gorgan - the most elaborate ancient installation of its kind between central Europe and China in the 5th and 6th century.

HSS year-to-date

This grant was one of 21 awards made to the College of Humanities & Social Sciences in April, new KPI figures from ERI reveal.

So far, in this academic year 2011/2012, the College has received awards worth more than £13 million, a significant increase on the value of awards made to the College for the same period in the previous year.

Strong results

The other Colleges are also performing well.

Medicine & Veterinary Medicine earned 71 awards in April, approaching three times the number secured during April 2011.

Also during April, Science & Engineering secured nearly double the value of awards received in the same month last year.