The Kani Shaie Archaeological Project was set up as an international collaboration between André Tomé and Ricardo Cabral of the University of Coimbra and Steve Renette of the University of Pennsylvania.  The project aims to provide new data and an understanding of interregional interaction, the development of socio-political complexity, and technological developments in the ancient Near East, from the Bronze Age to Classical Antiquity. The region of Kani Shaie has always been a part of major communication and trade routes that connected east and west, such as the Silk Road.