
'I Have Always Been Fascinated by Deciphering: Reading Texts That No One in the Modern World Had Ever Read Before'
The deciphering of a recently discovered inscription at the Iraqi archaeological site of Tell Dehaila has led to a major breakthrough: the settlement was inhabited during the New Babylonian period, from the eighth to the sixth centuries BC, extending its known lifespan by more than a thousand years compared to earlier estimates. Ilya Arkhipov, Deputy Director and Associate Professor at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies of the HSE Faculty of Humanities, spoke to the HSE News Service about the Russian–Iraqi expedition, his passion for antiquity, and the teaching of ancient languages and Oriental history at HSE University.

