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Durham archaeologists show their strength at key West Asia Archaeology conference

2 April 2024
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Group photo of smiling members of the Archaeology Department, at the conference celebration event.

Durham staff and students, and former visiting scholars and honorary fellows of the department showed the department’s strength in archaeology of the Middle-East at the 2024 meeting of the British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology (BANEA), hosted by Glasgow University earlier this year.

Shown (above) at the culminating conference celebration are, clockwise from bottom left: Jennie Bradbury, PGR alumnus and current Associate Professor of Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College in the USA; Graham Philip, Professor in the department; Francesca Chelazzi, former post-doctoral research associate, current Gerda Henkel Research Fellow; Israel Hinojosa-Balino, PGR alumnus and current post-doctoral research associate; Dan Lawrence, Professor in the department; Michael Brown, former postdoctoral fellow in the department, current post-doctoral researcher at Universität Heidelberg; Kamal Badreshany, Assistant Professor in the department; Aiya Raissova (bottom right), current PhD student in the Archaeology and Anthropology departments and Head of the Laboratory of Physical Anthropology at the National Museum, Kazakhstan; Stefan Smith, PGR alumnus, current post-doctoral researcher at Freie Universitat Berlin; Kristen Hopper, PGR alumnus and current Assistant Professor in the Department; Cathie Draycott, current Associate Professor in the department; Max Price (front centre), Assistant Professor in the department. 

Durham archaeologists delivered a total of ten papers across sessions and workshops. The conference included numerous archaeologists from the Middle East and sessions on colonial archaeological practices of the past and present.

The following workshops were run and presentations made by current members (staff, students and honorary research fellows) of the department:

  • Cathie Draycott and Max Price joined colleague Ben Irvine to run the workshop Achaemenid Environments: Agenda-setting economic, landscape, environmental and bioarchaeological approaches to Achaemenid Impact.
  • Dan Lawrence contributed the paper Modelling land use in Southwestern Asia: an archaeological approach (with Francesca Chelazzi, Lynn Welton [former visiting fellows in department], Emily Hammer, Michelle de Gruchy [PGR alumnus and former post-doctoral research associate in department] and Jane Gaastra) in the session Landscape Archaeology.
  • Aiya Raissova presented the papers Gendered practices and internalised patriarchy in archaeological fieldwork in Central Asia: the parallel challenges faced by women archaeologists in Central Asia and West Asia in the workshop Big Dig Energy beyond West Asia: Comparing Notes with sister fields and Photogrammetry in Bioarchaeology: Revolutionising Research and Public Engagement in the study of human remains in Kazakhstan (Central Asia) in the session Digital Archaeologies.
  • Kristen Hopper, together with Bijan Rouhani and Nichole Sheldrick contributed the paper Reflecting On Participation, Practice, And Progress In Digital Cultural Heritage Projects: A Critical Look At The EAMENA-CPF Training Programme in the workshop Whose Heritage is it?
  • Israel Hinojosa-Balino and Dan Lawrence contributed the paper Resilience and perseverance: Urban persistence and sustainability over the ages from the Nile Delta to the Fertile Crescent in the Landscape Archaeology session.
  • Joseph Meadows (current UG student), with Katleen Deckers, Simone Riehl, Valentina Tumolo (former post-doctoral researcher in department), Israel Hinojosa-Baliño and Dan Lawrence contributed the paper Old roots, new insights: Phytogeographic modelling of olive and grape distributions in the Levant over the Holocene in the Landscape Archaeology session.
  • Jafaar Jotheri presented the paper To What Extent Do The Local Archaeologists Have the Right of Coauthorship? in the workshop Whose Heritage is it? and the papers, What archaeology and heritage do we have in the Iraqi western desert? and (with L. Smith and E. Egberts) Remote Sensing the Western Iraqi Desert: A Survey of Satellite Imagery in Preparation for Fieldwork in the session Archaeology of Iraq and Kurdistan.
  • Kamal Badreshany and Graham Philip, together with Michel de-Vreeze contributed the paper New Insights into Early Bronze Age Urbanism on the Lebanese Coast: Excavations at Tell Koubba 2019-22 in the workshop Recent Fieldwork.

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Our Department of Archaeology is a leading centre for the study of archaeology and is ranked 10th in the world (QS World University Rankings by subject 2023). We are an inclusive, vibrant and international community. Our students develop knowledge and gain essential and transferable skills through research-led teaching and lab-based training.