Education

2020 – 2024
MA: Études Asiatiques, École Pratique des Hautes Études (France)

2019 – 2020
BA: Archéologie orientale, Art et Archéologie de l’Inde et des pays indianisés de l’Asie, École du Louvre (France)

2011 – 2015
BA: History, French, Cornell University (USA)

Experience

2024
Speaker, “Quantification and the Persepolis Fortification Archive” workshop, University of St. Andrews (UK)

2023
Collaborating Historian, Sino-Uzbek archaeological mission to Baysun, Surkhadarya (Uzbekistan)

2021 – 2022
Intern, Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités orientales (France)

Birds and travelers: the role of domestic birds in the cross-cultural contacts between the Achaemenid and the Indian worlds (ca. 600-300 BCE)

I study the history of tamed and domesticated birds in Southwest Asia, in order to explore the economic and cultural connections between Mesopotamia, Iran, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent during the Achaemenid period (ca. 600-300 BCE). These pre-conditions would prelude the future inter-Asian connections known as the “Silk Roads”. Traces of birds in Antiquity are preserved in various texts, images, and zooarchaeological remains. This array of sources will allow me to examine the ancients’ naturalist knowledge about birds, as well as their economic and symbolic value resulting from the natural aspects. First-hand study of texts and images remains central to my project. Besides the etymological, visual, and symbolic dimensions, I also incorporate a biological dimension of birds. Through the ancient and modern knowledge about these birds, I aim to analyze the role of birds in the exchange networks of the ancient world and to trace the circulation and dissemination of knowledge across Eurasia.

This dissertation is carried out as a co-tutelle together with the École Pratique des Hautes Études Paris (EPHE-PSL).