International Symposium on Geoarchaeology in Ancient Mesopotamia (14 Nov, Tokyo)

[Geoarchaeology IAG]

Dear Colleague,

It is my pleasure to announce that the international symposium "Advances in Geoarchaeological Approaches to Ancient Mesopotamia: Tablets, Paleogeography and Microfossils" will be held at the Saitama University Tokyo Station Collage, Tokyo, on November 14, 2015. Please see http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/geoarchaeology/ for the detail.

Programme

9:30-10:00

Chieko E. Watanabe & Mark Altaweel: Welcome & Opening Remarks

Chieko E. Watanabe: Introduction

Session 1: Tablets 10:00 - 12:30

Jonathan Taylor: Clay tablets as a craftman's product

Gebhard Selz: Quarrying for clay according to textual sources

Mark Altaweel: PXRF results from clay objects in Chicago and Suleymaniyah

Ryo Anma et al.: Geochemical studies on clay tablets and sediments from Mesopotamia

Lunch

Session 2: Microfossils 14:00 – 15:00

Anke Marsh: Unearthing the past: using sediments and microfossils to reconstruct Near Eastern palaeoenvironments

Akihiro Tsuji: Microfossil analysis on clay tablets

Session 3: Salt damage 15:00 - 16:00

Gebhard Selz & Keisuke Takai: On salinity, irrigation, water management in the Early Dynastic Period: A philological and historic-cultural approach

Chiaki T. Oguchi: Weatherning of mud and soft rock materials at some archaeological sites

Break

Session 4: palaeogeography 16:15 - 17:15

Takashi Oguchi et al.: Geomorphological and GIS applications to Middle Eastern archaeology

Jaafar H. Jotheri: Geoarchaeological understanding of palaeochannel in the Southern Mesopotamia

Closing remarks 17:45 - 17:55

Contact: Watanabe Lab, Osaka Gakuin University ecohistory"at"ogu.ac.jp

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Yasuhisa Kondo

IAG Working Group on Geoarchaeology