The encouragement of basic research in the languages and literatures of Asia has always been central in its tradition. This tradition has come to include such subjects as philology, literary criticism, textual criticism, paleography, epigraphy, linguistics, biography, archaeology, and the history of the intellectual and imaginative aspects of Oriental civilizations, especially of philosophy, religion, folklore and art. The American Schools of Oriental Research's U.S. based coordination center, its publications program and its affiliated overseas centers in the Middle East have been in the forefront of American research efforts and publications related to these efforts since 1900. The main object of Schools is to enable properly qualified persons to pursue biblical, linguistic, archaeological, historical, and other kindred studies and researches under more favorable conditions than can be secured at a distance from the Holy Land. It is intended to provide a medium for discussion among scholars and students actively engaged in research and study of this broad field.
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The AEB is published by the International Association of Egyptologists in cooperation with the Netherlands Institute for the Near East. The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery are the two national museums of Asian art at the Smithsonian Institution. The high mountains of the Bakhtiari country were largely left out of the archeological equation despite their proximity to the heartland of Mesopotamian and Elamite civilization. Work in the region indicated the long settlement history of these mountains. The region experienced a unique Neolithic experience, exemplified by finds at Qal'e Rostam and other Neolithic sites in the region.