Safar Ashurov received his B.A. from Naxçıvan State Pedagogical Institute and his Ph.D. from the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS). He is currently the scientific secretary for the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at ANAS. He has published extensively on the Early Bronze Age in Azerbaijan, and in the south Caucasus more generally. He currently directs excavations at Maxta and codirects projects at Oğlanqala and Ovçulartepesi.