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.
The first series focused on archaeology and material culture of Lebanon and Jordan. The webinar is open as widely as possible and aims to gather together archaeologists working on this large area as well as students. The second series, focusing on Iraq and Arabian Peninsula, 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.
December, 14 | 3PM (Rome), 5PM (Qatar)
New Archaeological Insights into the Early Islamic Period in Qatar
Robert Carter (Qatar Museums) and Ferhan Sakal (Qatar Museums)
Digital Elevation Model of the site of Nahayy B, Qatar”. Copyright Qatar Museums, Landscapes of Faith Project
Since 2018 a significant number of new sites dating to the Early Islamic period have been identified in Qatar, though a combination of kite survey, desktop analysis of satellite imagery and ground survey. These are provisionally dated by their surface finds to the 7th/8th and 9th centuries CE. According to historical records and archaeological investigations elsewhere they may be the settlements of either Christian or Muslim communities. The sites present a range of morphologies but can broadly be characterised as either linear or agglomerated, while the economic and subsistence activities of their inhabitants remain poorly understood. Only two sites of this date in Qatar have been excavated and published (Murwab and Yughbi), but excavations of two more (Mesaika and Ain Muhammad) will begin in November 2022. We will present an overview of the sites, along with the first results of the 2022 excavations, and consider the nature of Early Islamic and Christian settlement in Qatar.
Robert Carter
Dr. Robert Carter has researched the archaeology of Arabia and Gulf, as well as neighbouring regions, for nearly 30 years. His interests and publications cover Neolithic seafaring in the Gulf, Ubaid period Mesopotamia, Bronze Age trade, archaeological ceramics, post-medieval archaeology, urbanism, pearl fishing and the archaeology of the Early Islamic Period, including studies of the Christian sites of the Gulf and a reconsideration of their dating. He was Professor in Arabian and Middle Eastern Archaeology at UCL Qatar until 2019 and now works for Qatar Museums, where one of his major duties is the instigation of new archaeological research projects.
Ferhan Sakal
Dr. Ferhan Sakal is an archaeologist with 32 years of field experience in Western Asia and Europe. Before moving to Qatar, he worked on several excavation projects in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Germany and was field director of several excavations and survey projects, as well as a teaching fellow at the University of Tübingen (Germany). He published several books, editions, and articles mostly on chronology, funerary archaeology, archaeological excavations, and material studies. Since 2013 he works for Qatar Museums and currently holds the position of Head of Excavation and Site Management at the Department of Archaeology.
January, 11
Islamic Archaeology in context: Occupation, Territories, and Material Culture in the piedmont of Zagros mountains in Northern Iraq (Sulaymaniyah province as an example)
Mustafa Ahmad (German Archaeological Institute, Orient-Department, Berlin)
January, 25
New Archaeological perspectives on Islamic period settlement and landscape use in Khaybar, Saudi Arabia
Guillaume Chung-To et Stephen McPhilipps (CNRS)
February, 22
An Islamic period settlement in Southern Kurdistan: Girdi Qala
Marie-Odile Rousset (CNRS)
March, 22
Christian landscapes in the Umayyad-period Northern Iraq
Karel Nováček (Palacký University Olomouc)
April, 26
The Crowded Desert project and the emergence of nomads in Qatar in the early Islamic period