Seminar
for Arabian Studies
An outline history
In the early part of 1968 an informal study-group was set up at the suggestion of John Dayton to promote the cause of archaeological research in the Arabian Peninsula. After an initial meeting the group formed itself into a society, with John Dayton as its Secretary. It held its first meeting in October 1968 with a lecture by Peter Parr on a survey in the North-west Hejaz which he had undertaken earlier in that year with Gerald Lankester Harding and John Dayton.
On the 6th of January 1969 a further one-day Seminar was held at the Institute of Archaeology, London University, at which five papers were delivered. Summaries of these were published in the Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology volume 8-9 (1968-1969: 243-258), following the first part of Parr, Harding and Dayton's "Report on the Preliminary Survey in N.W. Arabia".
On the 19th of June 1969 a second Seminar was held in Cambridge at which six papers were read. These were not published as a group but their titles were listed in the Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology volume 8-9 (1968-1969: 258).
On the 6th of January 1970 a third Seminar was held at the Institute of Archaeology, London. Only one paper (by Peder Mortensen) was published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies [PSAS] volume 1-3 (1970-1973).
The fourth Seminar was held in Cambridge on 22nd-23rd of June 1970 at which twelve papers were read, of which seven were published in the first volume of PSAS volume 1 (1971).
The fifth Seminar was held at Oxford on 22nd-23th of September 1971 at which eleven papers were read of which eight (plus one sent by Paolo Costa) were published in PSAS volume 2 (1972).
The sixth Seminar was held at the Institute of Archaeology, London, on 27th-28th of September 1972 at which 14 papers were read (both Beeston and Winnett read papers, though this was not mentioned in the list of the papers published in PSAS). Nine papers were published in PSAS volume 3 (1973).
In 1973, the papers from the fourth, fifth and sixth Seminars were reprinted in one volume as PSAS volumes 1-3 (1970-1973). These were prefaced by summaries of those papers read at the first Seminar, a list of papers read at the second, and Peder Mortensen's paper from the third.
The seventh Seminar was held at Cambridge in June 1973 and thirteen papers were read, all of which were published in PSAS volume 4 (1974), together with a book review by A.F.L. Beeston and a cumulative index of all papers published in previous PSAS volumes.
After this the present pattern of publication was established. The eighth Seminar was held at Oxford on 3rd-5th of July 1974 and was the first three-day seminar.
To date 41 Seminars
have been held. Volume 37 (from the 40th Seminar)
of the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian
Studies was published by Archaeopress
in Oxford in July 2007 and contained 24 papers. Volume
38 (from the 41st Seminar) is now in preparation and should be available
for sale at the 2008 Seminar.
The 42nd Seminar is due to be held in London at The British Museum from
the 24th to 26th of July 2008.
© Seminar for Arabian Studies 2008.
Website
design by markbeech.com
Go to Top
About us
Committee
Contact
Instructions
for Authors
(pdf
- 467 Kb)
Index
PSAS vols.1-36
Links
Proceedings
Seminar 2002
Seminar 2003
Seminar
2004
Seminar
2005
Seminar
2006
Seminar 2007
Seminar
2008
What's
new?
email SAS
webmaster
page last updated:
25 April 2008