News

GSANES 2021: "Disruption in the Ancient Near East" (Feb. 19-20). 

February 20, 2021

We are happy to announce that the third Graduate Symposium in Ancient
Near Eastern Studies (GSANES) will take place on February 19-20, 2021
over Zoom. The topic for this year's symposium is "Disruption in the
Ancient Near East."

Originally a medical term referring to the tearing asunder of bodily
tissue, disruption has come to refer to radical transformations in
society and the uncertainty that sets in as a result. But disruptions
do not have to be inherently negative experiences: as old systems fall
into disarray, new, innovative systems may emerge in their...

Read more about GSANES 2021: "Disruption in the Ancient Near East" (Feb. 19-20). 

Gojko Barjamovic Featured in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and More

November 15, 2017

Gojko Barjamovic and colaborators Thomas Chaney, Kerem A. Cosar, and Ali Hortacsu, developed an algorithm based on trade data from 12,000 ancient clay tablets. The results help corroborate the historical location of 11 lost Bronze Age cities.

“In a rare example of collaboration across disciplines, we use a theory-based quantitative method from economics to inform this quest in the field...

Read more about Gojko Barjamovic Featured in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and More

Harvard University Explores New Applications of Archaeological Data in the Giza Project, ARCE Newsletter

December 6, 2016

What do the great expeditions of the early 20th century have in common with some of today’s digital projects in the field of archaeology? They both make use of large teams and require a passionate dedication and attention to detail. Today the Giza Project, based since 2010 at Harvard University, is a non-profit international initiative that assembles all available archaeological data concerning the Giza Pyramids and surrounding cemeteries and settlements.

...

Read more about Harvard University Explores New Applications of Archaeological Data in the Giza Project, ARCE Newsletter

"A Queen's Seat" - Harvard Magazine, July/August 2016

June 20, 2016

A Queen's Seat  “Experimental archaeology” at the Harvard Semitic Museum

Harvard Magazine, July/August 2016

Much is still unknown about the world of the ancient Egyptian elites, whose lives are fossilized in the riches of the ruins at Giza —and reflected by the luminous throne that sits on the second floor of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Crafted from cedar wood, covered in delicate gold foil, and inlaid with turquoise-colored faience tile, the piece replicates a 4,500-year-old chair that belonged to Queen Hetepheres, the mother of King Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid...

Read more about "A Queen's Seat" - Harvard Magazine, July/August 2016

Rivka B. Hyland '16 featured in this Harvard Gazette article

May 20, 2016

Wrapping her mind around the past: Rivka B. Hyland thrills to the details in history and culture

Harvard Gazette, May 20, 2016

Rivka B. Hyland ’16 always keeps an embroidered handkerchief in her pocket.

“My grandmother sends one to me every month,” said Hyland, a Lowell House resident whose grandparents live in the Czech Republic. “I grew up watching Czech movies from the 1940s. My Czech is old-fashioned, and so are my habits.”

...

Read more about Rivka B. Hyland '16 featured in this Harvard Gazette article

Goyko Barjamovic featured in "Singapore of the Bronze Age" Der Spiegel 19/2016

May 10, 2016

Singapore of the Bronze Age

Archaeology. Bankruptcies, inheritance feuds, financial crises: Four thousand years ago Assyrian merchants left behind 23,500 clay tablets that provide a fascinating insight into an astonishingly modern ancient life – and into the birth of Capitalism and Democracy.

Click here for complete article.

 

Read more about Goyko Barjamovic featured in "Singapore of the Bronze Age" Der Spiegel 19/2016

Khaled El-Rouayheb named 2016 Cabot Fellow; Harvard Gazette, 5/3/2016

May 3, 2016

Eleven faculty members have been awarded 2016 Walter Channing Cabot Fellowships for their outstanding publications, among them NELC's own Khaled El-Rouayheb, the James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and of Islamic Intellectual History.

His book is “Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth-Century: Scholarly Currents in the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb” (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Congratulations to Khaled!

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Read more about Khaled El-Rouayheb named 2016 Cabot Fellow; Harvard Gazette, 5/3/2016