Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Ottoman period. First series: Lebanon & Jordan
As part of the webinar series Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Ottoman period, the Ifpo is pleased to announce the first series of meetings that will focus on Lebanon and Jordan and will take place every two weeks during the year 2021 (January-July & September-December).
The goal of this series of conferences is to bring together specialists working on a broad region extending from North Africa to the Middle East and focusing on the period from Late Antiquity to Modern era. As the current pandemic is forcing us to reinvent ways of communicating and sharing our work, a webinar would be an opportunity to reconnect the academic community of researchers working on this field. It is open as widely as possible and aims to gather together archaeologists working on this large area as well as students.
While other regions will be addressed in the following cycles, this first series focuses on archaeology and material culture of Lebanon and Jordan. These meetings will present, on the one hand, ongoing projects and, on the other hand, comparative data and synthesis studies, which will allow to frame this region into a broader historical and geographical context.
Organisers
Qusayr Amra (photo : Julie Bonnéric)
Registration
Free access on registration for each session via this link : https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwqcO2przkiH9ZoNZohNh0Vtd-Kkeud7_HE
PROGRAM (from January to June)
January, the 28th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
The Rural Renaissance of Mamluk Jordan: Tall Hisban in Context, by Bethany J. Walker (University of Bonn)
Aerial picture of Tall Ḥisbān (© APAME)
Abstract
The recent “rural turn” in Islamic archaeology is nowhere more evident than in the rapidly growing interest in the Middle Islamic period in Jordan. The 13th-14th centuries CE is a rich time culturally and historically. Having documented the Mamluk-era phases of construction and reuse of the Crusader and Ayyubid castles, archaeologists are now turning to the extensive archaeological remains of rural settlements to reconstruct daily life in small communities. As most of what stands above ground is Mamluk in date, and the Citadel and village houses are quite well preserved, the site of Tall Ḥisbān has become the type-site of this period in Jordan.
This lecture will summarize the rather surprising results of the last two decades of fieldwork at this site, and what light it sheds on such issues as rural revival, peasant migration, agrarian knowledge and crafts, family life, and the relationship between Jordanian villages and the Mamluk state.
Bethany Walker (PhD 1998, University of Toronto, Middle Eastern Studies) is a Research Professor at the University of Bonn, where she holds the Chair of Mamluk Studies and directs the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Islamic Studies. She was also the co-director of Bonn’s Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg, a Center for Advanced Research in Mamluk Studies. A historically trained archaeologist and Arabist, Walker directs multiple archaeological projects in Jordan and abroad, including the excavations at Tall Ḥisbān. Prof. Walker is founding editor of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology, founding co-editor of Equinox’s Monographs in Islamic Archaeology, and co-editor of the recently published Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology; serves on numerous American and French editorial boards; and is a long-time Board member of the American Center of Research in Amman. Her monograph Jordan in the Late Middle Ages: Transformation of the Mamluk Frontier was published by Chicago Press in 2011. She has worked in Jordan for over twenty years.
February, the 11th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
The Role of the Islamic Coins in Reading the History of a Site: Baalbak and Beirut as example
Hassan Akra (Lebanese University)
February, the 25th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
The Late Petra Project: settlement in post-urban Petra
Micaela Sinibaldi (Shanghai International Studies University – Cardiff University)
March, the 11th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
The medieval heritage of Anfeh and its neighbourhood (North Lebanon)
Patricia Antaki (University of Balamand)
March, the 25th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
The Umayyad and early Abbasid Reservoir-Enclosure of ‘Ayn Sawdā(Azraq Oasis, Jordan)
Lorraine Abu-Azizeh, Julie Bonnéric, Barbara Couturaud, Aurélien Stavy (Ifpo)
April, the 8th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
Restore and rehabilitate Al-Qastal mosque
Ahmad Lash (Department of Antiquities of Jordan)
April, the 22th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
Crossing Medieval and Islamic Studies in Jordan. Medieval Petra and Shawbak in cc. 11-14: a Light Archaeology.
Michele Nucciotti (University of Florence)
May, the 6th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
Umm as-Surab (north-eastern Jordan): Settlement Dynamics in the Islamic periods. New data from Building Archaeology
Piero Gilento (CNRS UMR 7041 ArScAn – Ifpo)
May, the 20th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
Ablution rooms of mosques in medieval Near East
Marie-Odile Rousset (CNRS UMR 5133 Archéorient)
June, the 3rd (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
Overview on the archeological research in the Shouf Mountains from late Antiquity to the Maan dynasty
Wissam Khalil (Lebanese University)
June, the 17th (3h-4h PM CET, 4h-5h PM in Amman & Beirut)
Recent landscape archaeology in the Jabal Moussa Biosphere Reserve, Kesrouan, Lebanon: the medieval to modern periods
Stephen McPhillips (Association for the Protection of Jabal Moussa)
July sessions will be announced soon
