Acknowledgments
First, I would like to thank the former president director of the Louvre Museum, Henri Loyrette, and the present president director, Jean-Luc Martinez, for having endorsed the archaeological mission in the Bukhara Oasis, and for having endorsed and formally validated the archaeological activity in the Louvre Museum. I would also like to thank Yannick Lintz, director of the Islamic Department of the Louvre Museum, for having supported the archaeological activities in this department, Frédéric Le Gallou, Séverine Le Feunteun, Marin Zlatkov, Julia Blonce, François Chevrollier et Lida Khatib. I express my heartfelt appreciation to Rachel de Souza. I also would like to thank Benoît de Saint Chamas, Alberto Vial, Florence Masson, Lucie Masson, the architects of the Louvre, the Administrative Management Division, the Juridical and Financial Department of the Museum.
This program would have been impossible without the generous support of the Louvre Museum, of Alexandre Garèse, as an individual sponsor of the Louvre Museum devoted to this project during three years. I have also appreciated the trust and support of the Commission pour la recherche archéologique from our Foreign Affairs Minister.
My gratitude goes to the Uzbek authorities. They gave the authorizations and visas that demonstrated to me their trust in this French program. I thank the director of the Archaeological Institute of Samarkand, Amridin Berdimuradov, who followed the development of the mission.
Let me also thank my scientific partner and friend, Djamal Mirzaakhmedov, with whom I have shared ten years and many missions in total harmony and benevolence. My thanks also go to our close collaborators, Shukrat Adilov and Abdisabur Raimkulov. I would especially like to thank two members of this mission, who formed a strong nucleus within the team: the topographer-drawer Danilo Rosati and the archaeologist Fabrizio Crusco. Particular thanks must also go to Florian Schwarz, director of the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Vienna, with whom I shared essential information about the history of the oasis, and who has contributed greatly to the advancement of activities in the field. Let me also thank the Laboratoire d’Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en Méditerranée (umr 7298) and Tim William of the University College of London for having signed an agreement of collaboration.
My thanks obviously go also to all the specialists and students who have collaborated on this ten-year mission, both in the field and in France.
I am grateful to Corinne Debaine-Francfort, who accompanied me through the parcours for Tenure and I am also grateful to Henri-Paul Francfort, who kindly supported the activities on which I have based this book, between one “depart” and another.
Rocco Rante