Dr. Oscar White Muscarella, a Senior Research Fellow from the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York lectured on the ancient culture of Hasanlu in Iran at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) during its endowed Dothan lecture series in Jerusalem to an audience of more than two hundred Israeli, Palestinian and foreign archaeologists. Dr. Muscarella described the high state of Urartian culture at the ancient site of Hasanlu during the 9th – 7th centuries BCE and its relationship to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the first classical empire in history. This was one of three lectures which Dr. Muscarella gave, dealing with the art and archaeology of Iran and ancient Turkey presented on behalf of Al-Quds University, the Hebrew University and the Albright Institute.