Seminar for Arabian Studies

Seminar 2008

The 2008 Seminar for Arabian Studies will be held at the British Museum in London from Thursday 24th - Saturday 26th July 2008.

This is supported by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Visit their website at: www.mbifoundation.com and read details about their sponsorship at http://www.mbifoundation.com/mbi-foundation-projects/seminar-for-arabian-studies.html



Go to PROGRAMME - POSTERS - ABSTRACTS

BOOKING FORM - click here for a booking form to register for the 2008 Seminar for Arabian Studies, and to book your accommodation in Schafer House. Please don't delay in making your booking as only a limited number of rooms are available.


* IMPORTANT NEWS *

Dear All,

Due to refurbishment at Ramsay Hall they have had to close down some extra floors unexpectedly. As a consequence accommodation is no longer available at Ramsay Hall.

Alternative accommodation has been arranged at Schafer House, 168 – 182 Drummond Street, NW1 3HZ. Tel: 020 7387 1286 & Fax: 020 7383 3920. Click here for a location map using streetmap.co.uk. The cost is still £37.00 per night (bed & breakfast) per person in single bedrooms. Please note that Schafer House is a student residence, not a hotel, and for those who prefer to make their own arrangements a list of hotels can be found on our website, however, the Seminar bears no responsibility for these.

Schafer House has 364 single rooms arranged in flats of up to 5 rooms around a kitchen/dining room and a shower room with toilet. The building is of a higher standard than Ramsay Hall and is fully self-catered. It is located about 10 minutes walk away from Ramsay Hall across the Euston Road. Breakfast will still be served in Ramsay Hall. Click here for a location map using streetmap.co.uk.

Schafer House is perhaps more conveniently located to the Mainline and Underground stations.

Mainline Stations:
Euston, St. Pancras International and King’s Cross railway stations are located about 5-25 minutes away.

From King’s Cross station:
turn right on to Euston Road, travel past St. Pancras International Station, The British Library and Euston Station. At the junction where Euston Road meets Tottenham Court Road and Hamstead Road, turn right onto Hamstead Road and then take the next left on to Drummond Street. It should take about 23 minutes to walk.

From St. Pancras International station:
turn right on to Euston Road, travel past The British Library and Euston Station. At the junction where Euston Road meets Tottenham Court Road and Hamstead Road, turn right onto Hamstead Road and then take the next left on to Drummond Street. It should take about 24 minutes to walk.

From Euston Station:
walk to Melton Street, which is to the west, Drummond Street is close by. Walk along Drummond Street for about 5 minutes.

Underground:
The nearest stations are Warren Street (Victoria and Northern Lines) and Euston Square (Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith and City Lines)

From Warren Street:
turn left onto Tottenham Court Road, cross the Euston Road onto Hamstead Road, then turn left onto Drummond Street.

From Euston Square:
walk straight up Stephenson Way for about 40m, turn Right onto North Gower Street after about 250-300m turn left onto Drummond Street. Schafer House should be about 350m away.

To get to Ramsay Hall which is about 8 minutes away. Turn right off Drummond Street onto Hamstead Road, cross the Euston Road onto Tottenham Court Road. Walk along Tottenham Court Road until you met Maple Street, which will be on your right. Ramsay Hall will be about 150-200m on your right on Maple Street.

Visit also a List of Hotels in the neighbourhood of the British Museum. The Seminar for Arabian Studies in no way endorses or takes responsibility for any of these establishments.

SPEAKER FORM - click here for a form which all speakers have to complete and submit as soon as possible.

POSTER FORM - click here for a form which all people preparing a poster have to complete and submit by 18 June.

ABSTRACTS

THE SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES
24-26 July 2008

All lectures will be held in the Clore Centre within the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG

To download this draft programme in Acrobat pdf format, please Click here
To read the abstracts for the papers Click here


THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008

09:00 - 9:45 – Initial Registration
09:45 – Welcome

Early Prehistory

09:55 – HDOR 419 site: Early to Mid-Holocene occupations in Wadi Wa‘shah (Hadramawt, Yemen), Remy CRASSARD (Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, U.K.), Hussein AL-‘AIDARUS (GOAM, Say'un, Yemen), Khalid AL-HAJ (GOAM, Say'un, Yemen), Gaëlle BRULEY-CHABOT (INRAP, Pantin, France), Vanessa LÉA (CNRS, Toulouse, France) & Céline THIÉBAUT (CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France).

10:20 – The Neolithic period in Arabia – the view from the lithic technology, Heiko KALLWEIT (Freiburg, Germany)

10:45-11:15 COFFEE

Archaeology and Environment

11:15 – Towards a history of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivation: integrating morphometric and genetic analyses of modern varieties, Claire NEWTON (Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, U.K.), Norbert BILLOTTE (Développement et Amélioration des Plantes, équipe 'Génome et Sélection', CIRAD, Montpellier, France), Sarah IVORRA (Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie - Cnrs/Université Montpellier II/EPHE, Institut de Botanique, Montpellier, France), Michel FERRY (PHOENIX Research Station on the Date palm and on Oasis Agriculture, Elche, Spain) & Jean-Frédéric TERRAL (Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Écologie - Cnrs/Université Montpellier II/EPHE, Institut de Botanique, Montpellier, France).

11:40 – Prehistoric Camels in South-Eastern Arabia: the Discovery of a New Site in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region, United Arab Emirates. Mark BEECH (Historic Environment Department, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, U.A.E.) & Marjan MASHKOUR (UMR 5197 Muséum national d'histoire naturelle/ CNRS, France).

12:05 – Early Arabian Pastoralism at Manayzah in Wadi Sana, Hadramawt, Louise MARTIN (Institute of Archaeology - UCL), Joy MCCORRISTON (Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University, U.S.A.) & Remy CRASSARD (Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, U.K.).

12:30-13:35 LUNCH

Archaeology in Eastern Arabia

13:35 – Archaeological investigations in Shenah, Oman, Mohammed A. AL-BELUSHI & Ali Tigani ELMAHI (Department of Archaeology, Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman).

14:00 – Space Syntax at the Early Bronze Age sites of HD-6 and RJ-2 (Ja’alan, Sultanate of Oman), Valentina AZZARÀ (CNRS UMR 7041, Paris, France).

14:25 – The Early Bronze Age at Kalba (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates), Daniel EDDISFORD (Institute of Archaeology, UCL, U.K.).

14:50 – Wadi Hilo (Sharjah, UAE) – a new Bronze Age mining and melting site in SE Arabia, Johannes KUTTERER (Instititut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, University of Tübingen, Germany) & Sabah A. JASIM (Directorate of Antiquities, Department of Culture and Information, Government of Sharjah, U.A.E.).

15:15-15:45 TEA

Archaeology in Eastern Arabia

15:45 – A Bronze Age Settlement at Al-Khidr, Failaka Island, State of Kuwait, Lucie BENEDIKOVÁ & Petr BARTA (Institute of Archaeology, Nitra, Slovak Republic).

16:10 – The First Season of Kuwaiti-Polish excavations in As-Sabiyah, Lukasz WOJNAROWICZ (Poland).

16:35 – Funerary landscape as part of the social landscape and its perception: Three thousand Early Bronze Age burials in the eastern Ja'alan (Sultanate of Oman), Jessica GIRAUD & Serge CLEUZIOU (University of Paris 1, France)


18.30 SPECIAL LECTURE

MBI Al Jaber Lecture
Cartography and Cantatas: Arabia and the European Enlightenment
Professor D.T. Potts, University of Sydney

This lecture forms part of the British Museum’s public programme and is free.


FRIDAY 25 JULY 2008

Archaeology in Eastern Arabia

09:30 – Excavations at the Iron Age site of Salut by the Italian Archaeological Mission to Oman, Carl PHILLIPS (CNRS UMR 7041, Paris, France).

09:55 – The Iron Age ceramic tradition in the Gulf: a re-evaluation from the Omani perspective, Marco IAMONI (Verona, Italy).

10:20 – Southeast Arabian pottery at ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, U.A.E): its origin, distribution, and role in the local economy, Katrin RUTTEN (Département d'Assyriologie et Archéologie, de l'Asie Antérieure, Université de Liège, Belgium).

10:45-11:15 COFFEE

Archaeological Science

11:15 – The Provenance Postulate in Archaeological Softstone Analysis. Results from Arabian and Iranian Analysis, Peter MAGEE (Department of Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, U.S.A.), Don BARBER (Department of Geology, Bryn Mawr College, U.S.A.) & Z. RUGE.

11:40 – The function of ceramic jar Type 4100: Performance characteristics, archaeological and inscriptional evidence, and organic residue analyses, Alexandra PORTER (Middle East Department, British Museum), Brendan DERHAM (Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, Scotland) & Rebecca STACEY (Conservation, Documentation and Science Department, British Museum).

12:05 – Lead isotope analyses of Bronze Age copper-base artefacts from Al-Midamman, Yemen: Towards the identification of an indigenous South Arabian metal production and exchange system, Lloyd WEEKS (University of Nottingham, U.K.), E. KEALL, S. STOCK, J. EVANS & V. PASHLEY.

12:30-13:35 LUNCH

Ancient South Arabia

13:35 – Les monolithes dans l’architecture monumentale de l’Arabie du Sud Antique, Christian DARLES (Laboratoire MHA-APB de l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Toulouse, France).

14:00 – House and household: A contextual approach to the study of south arabian domestic architecture - A case-study from Yala'ad-Durayb - Romolo LORETO (Università di Napoli, Italy).

14:25 – The 2008 field season at Awam Temple: Restoration and excavation work, Zaydoon ZAID (American Foundation for the Study of Man, U.S.A.).

14:50 – Fieldwork in Zafar, Capital of Himyar (Yemen), Paul YULE (Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients, University of Heidelberg, Germany) & Manfred RÖSCH (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Germany)
.

15:15-15:45 TEA

Ancient South Arabia

15:45 – Barrages in the Western Mountains of Yemen: A Himyarite Model of Water Management, Julien CHARBONNIER (Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité, Université de Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne, Nanterre Cedex, France).

16:10 – Sabaean animal economy at Yala ad-Durayb, eastern Yemen lowlands, Francesco FEDELE (University of Naples, Italy).

16:35 – The status of sacred pastures according to Sabaic inscriptions, Sergei A. FRANTSOUZOFF (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St Petersburg Branch), St Petersburg, Russia).

17.00 - The struggle for Oman: the Second Ibadi Imamate and the Wajihid, Abdulrahman AL-SALIMI (Bidiya, Sultanate of Oman).

18:00 RECEPTION
Clore Centre, The British Museum

SATURDAY 26 JULY 2008

Ancient South Arabia

09:30 – Illness and healing in ancient Yemen: A study of the epigraphic evidence from the Awam Temple/Mahram Bilqis, near Marib in the light of the recently discovered Sabaean inscriptions by the AFSM, Mohammed MARAQTEN (American Foundation for the Study of Man, U.S.A.).

09:55 – Stela CIH 611=BM 102600 in the British Museum, Giovanni MAZZINI (Department of Science, University of Pisa, Italy) & Alexandra PORTER (Middle East Department, British Museum).

10:20 – The Ancient South Arabian minuscule inscriptions on wood - state of research, Peter STEIN (Lehrstuhl für Semitische Philologie und Islamwissenschaft, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany).

10:45-11:15 COFFEE

Ancient and Islamic Arabia

11:15 – People of powerful South Arabian kings or just ‘people like others’, Manfred KROPP (Collège de France).

11:40 – A parallel to the Second Commandment ‘revisited’, Anne MULTHOFF (Lehrstuhl für Semitische Philologie und Islamwissenschaft, Jena, Germany).

12:05 – Bronze and Iron Age Cornelian Beads in Oman and Armenia: Exposition of different networks of circulation through technological study, Olivier BRUNET (Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France & French Archaeological Mission in the U.A.E.)

12:30-13.35 LUNCH

Islamic Arabia

13:35 – Territory and Settlement Patters during the Abbasid Period: the village of Murwab (Qatar), Alexandrine GUÉRIN (Maison de l'Orient et de la mediterranee, France).

14:00 – New Epigraphical Evidence on the Ancient North Arabian-Nabataean Bilingualism, Hani HAYAJNEH (Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan)

14:25 – The Battle of Julfar (1475 A.D.), Valeria PIACENTINI (Facoltà di Scienze Politiche, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy) & Christian VELDE (National Museum of Ras Al-Khaimah, U.A.E.).

14:50 – Islamic Urbanism in Eastern Arabia, Andrew PETERSEN (Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Wales, Lampeter, Wales).

15:15-15:45 TEA

Islamic Arabia

15:45 – Water and sign magic in al-Jabin, Yemen, Ingrid HEHMEYER (Department of History, Ryerson University, Canada).

16:10 – (bracelet): Jewish Art or Islamic Art?, Ora BERGER (Department of Art History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel).

16:35 – Yemen: Religion, Magic and Jews, Bat-Zion Eraqi KLORMAN (Department of History, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel).


POSTERS

A total of 6 posters have been submitted to date (as of 28 June 2008):

The Bat type: an example of an early Bronze Age tomb in Oman, Manfred BÖHME (Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman)

Techno-functional analysis of the bone tools unearthed at the fishing settlement of KHB-1, from the beginning of the IV millennium BC (Ra's al-Khabbah, Ja'lan region, Sultanate of Oman), Fabio CAVULLI and E. CRISTIANI (Laboratorio di Preistoria 'B. Bagolini', Dipartimento di Filosofia, Storia e Beni Culturali, Università degli Studi di Trento, Corso Trento, Italy) & Simona SCARUFFI (Dipartimento di Archeologia, University of Bologna, Italy).

Environmental Research at Al-Khidr, Failaka Island (State of Kuwait), Maria HAJNALOVA (Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra, Slovakia), Zora MIKLIKOVA and Tereza BELANOVA (both Institute of Archaeology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Nitra, Slovakia)

The discovery of Insect remains associated with a Bronze Age tomb In the United Arab Emirates: A microscopic preliminary study, Khudooma AL NA'IMI (Department of Forensic and Investigative Science, University of Central Lancashire, UK)

An historical cartographic study of the Yabrin Oasis (Saudi Arabia), Claire REELER (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Nabiel AL SHAIKH (Dammam Regional Museum, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) & Daniel Potts (School of Archaeology, The University of Sydney, Australia)

Copper smelting at RJ-2 (Ra's al-Jinz, Sultanate of Oman), Alexandre DE RORRE (CNRS UMR 7041-ArScAn, Paris, France)

Himyarite Reliefs from the Stone Building Zafar/Yemen, Paul YULE (University of Heidelberg, Germany)



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