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Threats to Middle Eastern Archaeological Sites Take Center Stage
at Forthcoming ASOR Meeting
(For immediate release,10/7/03)
In the early 1920s the American Schools of Oriental
Research (ASOR) established its first School in Mesopotamia. Based in
Baghdad, this school would ultimately support some of the most important
excavations in modern Iraq and Syria, only to leave Baghdad in the altered
political climate of the late 1960s.
Now, some 35 years later, the cultural heritage
of Iraq will be back on the agenda when ASOR holds its annual meeting
at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Buckhead Nov. 19-22. More than 500 scholars
from throughout the world will attend this meeting where, in addition
to considering the threats to cultural property in Iraq, they will examine
the latest findings in the archaeology of places such as Turkey, Arabia,
Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, and Syria.
To cover so broad a spectrum, some 50 different
academic sessions will be held. Topics will include current excavations,
nautical/maritime archaeology, the relationship between Egypt and Canaan
in ancient times, the historicity of the Hebrew Bible, epigraphic and
gender studies, and the ethics of archaeology. A special day-long session
on the archaeology of the Wadi Arabah will be held at the Fernbank Museum
of Natural History on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Proceedings will begin at the Grand Hyatt
in Buckhead at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 when Professor Lord Colin Renfrew, noted
Aegean archaeologist and Director of Cambridge University's Illicit Antiquities
Research Center, offers the plenary talk, "The
World's Diminishing Archaeological Heritage: the Role of Museums and Scholars."
Citing the looting of Iraqi sites as an example, Renfrew will go on to
explore how the sale of antiquities fuels the systematic robbery and consequent
destruction of ancient sites.
The antiquities market and the potential
for future research in the Near East in the current political climate
will be addressed again in four ASOR academic sessions.
At 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, fakes and
forgeries will provide the focus for The Ethics of Collecting and Communicating
the Near Eastern Past.
The theme will be continued at 4:15 p.m.
Friday when the first annual Presidential Forum will examine the potential
for archaeology in the Middle East following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's
regime. ASOR President Lawrence Geraty will introduce keynote speaker
Rami Khouri, Executive Editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut, and
a prolific writer on the problem of communicating to the public the richness
and fragility of the world's cultural heritage. The Presidential Forum
will include a report by Elizabeth Stone of Stony Brook University who
visited Iraq this summer to view the extensive damage caused by looting
of some of the country's most important archaeological sites. (For a full
report, see the October 2003 issue of National Geographic magazine.)
At 12:45 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21, Khouri
will address the problem of archaeology and public education in the first
of two consecutive sessions on Archaeology and the Public. The 2 p.m.
session will examine the importance of public participation in the preservation
of such sites as Petra, Akko and Tel Beersheba. Adel Yahya of the Palestinian
Association for Cultural Exchange will speak on Preserving World Cultural
Heritage in Wartime.
In addition to the academic sessions, ASOR
will join Emory University to sponsor a public lecture by Edward Bleiberg,
a curator of Egyptian art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In his talk,
"Scenes from a Marriage: A Jewish Family Archive from Ancient Egypt,"
Bleiberg will focus on the private lives of the Jewish temple official,
Ananiah, and his wife Tamut, who lived on Elephantine Island in the late
5th century BCE (see lecture summary
or press release). Their family papers, on
display at the Carlos Museum from Oct. 18 to Jan. 4 reveal daily life
during Dynasty 27 (525-402 BCE), the period of Persian rule in Egypt and
the Near East. The Bleiberg lecture will take place in the auditorium
of the Woodruff Health Sciences Administration Building at Emory University
at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 20. It is free and open to the public
and all who attend are invited to tour the Carlos Museum afterward
free of charge.
The ASOR academic sessions are also
open to any interested person. The cost is $70.00 for one day or $135
for two or more days. Accompanying spouses or partners may attend at a
reduced fee: $35 for one day and $70 for the entire session. ASOR members
are eligible for a reduced fee. A complete program of events is available
online (http://www.asor.org/AM/am.htm). Information
is also available from the ASOR Administrative Office, 656 Beacon Street,
5th floor, Boston, MA 02215-2010. Tel. (617) 353-6570, fax: (617) 353-6575,
email: asor@bu.edu.
ASOR
was founded in 1900 by a consortium of 21 universities, including Harvard,
Princeton, Yale and Columbia. Today it counts more than 100 institutions
in its membership roster. This list includes universities, seminaries,
museums, foundations and libraries. Emory University and the Fernbank
Museum of Natural History are both corporate members of ASOR.
ASOR's stated objectives are to initiate,
encourage and support research into the cultures of the Near East from
the earliest times, and to help the public understand these findings.
ASOR fosters such original research as archaeological excavations and
explorations, and encourages scholarship in the basic languages, cultural
histories and traditions of the ancient Near East. ASOR also offers educational
opportunities in Near Eastern history and archaeology to students in North
American colleges and universities, and, through outreach activities,
to the public.
The November 20 talk by Edward Bleiberg is one
example of ASOR's extensive outreach program.
Read
more about ASOR's:
Annual Meeting, its mission,
and members of its consortium
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2003
ASOR Annual Meeting - press release