All events

     Once again, our project has been the protagonist of a major event: this time in Leiden, in the Netherlands. The university of Leiden, in collaboration with the associations "Ex Oriente Lux" and "Oriental Landscape Leiden" has invited the Profs. Buccellati to an entire day of debate and reflection about the topic "Archeology for Peace" (an abstract of the paper given by the Professors is available at this link).
     The event included an exhibition on Urkesh which showed the latest projects carried out on the site together with the local communities, as well as a conference. Giorgio and Marilyn Buccellati explained how Urkesh, today, is a symbol of pride in a shared past and a united future.
     The day has ended with an evening performance by the "New European Ensemble & Geert Mul", with music inspired by the Syrian city of Palmyra.

     In Villa Manzoni, in the Republic of San Marino, there has been a conference entitled "I valori nascosti dell'archeologia: un episodio della guerra in Siria" ("The hidden values of archaeology: an episode of the Syrian war"), promoted by the State Congress of the Republic of San Marino in collaboration with Banca di San Marino SpA and the Foundation "Meeting per l'Amicizia fra i Popoli".
     In addition to the directors of the Tell Mozan/Urkesh project, Giorgio and Marilyn Buccellati, also Nicola Renzi (Italian Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Justice), Domenico Lombardi (CEO of the Banca di San Marino SpA), and Emilia Guarnieri (President of the Foundation "Meeting per l'Amicizia fra i Popoli") took part to this initiative.
     This has been the occasion to discuss about the current situation in Syria and the role that archaeology can play in order to restore the profound value of the dispersed or destroyed cultural heritage, and give it back to the Syrian population.

     Our collaborators from the site today sent us a surprising news: on the same day, tourists from Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom have come to Urkesh!
     Being aware of the uniqueness of this event, our Syrian colleagues and archaeologists have recorded some videos, with short interviews that they made to these visitors, and then sent these videos to us.
     Everyone expressed surprise and admiration for the work done by the archaeological mission to ensure the continuous use of the site and to protect the Palace and the monumental terrace of the Temple area.

     In the past days, the last 9 villages have been reached. The campaign is over! Toki, Ranko, Joldara, Jamerli, Oljya, Shork, Ghazalik, Sorka and Hasda were the last ones to host Ristom and Amer.
     Finally, we managed to go to every village, from the most populous ones to those in which only 2 or 3 families live today.
     Understandably, we have encountered different levels of interest and participation but what matters the most is our having brought in each village the perspective of the eco-archaeological park, the awareness of a shared past and a concrete project for a future of hope.

     The kids from Qamishli and Domodossola who take part to the school project finally got to know each other!
     Today, for the first time, they spoke through Skype, each in their own classes and accompanied by their educators. Speaking in English directly with each other, the kids exchanged information about themselves and their schools, spoke about their passions and habits, and they even played live several instruments, thus sharing their music.
     This was the first step towards an even greater involvement, to be cultivated and developed as soon as the schools will start again in Italy, in September..

     Tell Mozan, Karah Kob, Foukani, Bab al khair, Oul al Rabia, Briva. Our awareness campaign continues to move across the Urkesh region.
     This month has also seen a particularly moving and significant moment for our project: the presentation in Tell Mozan. Among those who were seated in the small desks of the school kindly made available for the event, sat many of those workers who participated in our excavation campaigns in the past. And, in the front row, their sons - some of them possibly cannot even remember that, as children, they visited us on the excavations together with their fathers and mothers.
     Our initiative is becoming more and more known throughout the area: our local collaborators tell us that in some villages the participation is particularly active, and those taking part in the presentations arrive "prepared", having also spoken to others who attended the campaign in the other villages.
     Interest is growing, as it also growing the expectation for the moment when the Park will finally be a reality.

     Once a year, the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology hosts an open house for the students and public, giving them accessibility to observe the ongoing projects happening in the labs of the institute including ours. This year's 2018 Open House, we decided to display our ongoing relationship and our role at the excavated site, Urkesh.
     A separate page give more details on this event.

     A bad storm has battered the site on May 10. We have seen images like these before, and they give evidence of how damaging the weather can be. At the same time, the immediate monitoring we receive of the situation in the field and of the occasional finds that emerge from the flooding (like the animal figurine shown here), are indicative of the coordination we have in place for assessing the damage and mitigating it as much as possible.
     A separate page give more details on this event.

     Based on the one that had been previously set up in Beirut in November 2017, this exhibition brings Urkesh to Urkesh – which is a bit like bringing owls to Athens ... The exhibition highlights the spirit of pride in the past that everyone shares in Urkesh, a past that these communities have internalized even more during these dark seven years of war.
     Organized by fellow archeologists from Qamishli, and translated into Arabic and Kurdish, the event will also include a series of guided tours for our friends from the many villages in the Urkesh hinterland. We illustrate in a separate page some details of the exhibition.

     Today, our awareness campaign reached two new villages: Simitek Ezzo and Maamarlo.
     Participation was different in numbers (about thirty people in the first village, twelve in the second) but similar with respect to the attention given to the words of our collaborators. The video shown at the beginning of each meeting, in which the project directors Giorgio and Marilyn greet and directly address the participants, always affects the attendants. In this way, we really enter their homes, as guests of their culture and history.

      Visits to Urkesh have never stopped throughout the year, but with spring the Tell is even more crowded: here we see a second large group of future teachers, arrived in Mozan with two buses.
     Accompanied by Amer, they visited the entire archaeological site: starting from the monumental staircase to the palace, and inside the abi.
     Their amazed faces make them similar to those youngsters, to whom they will one day teach the history of this place...

     Also for this group, the visit to the excavations follows the first contacts made during class lessons. As always, a sense of joy shines through when these kids look at the monuments that still transmit life.
     Soon we will receive the first texts written by these children, with their reflections on what is the sense, according to them, of studying the past and looking for their roots in their territory of origin. And perhaps this visit to ancient Urkesh will have given them new answers.

     Buses are now part of the normal Mozan landscape. What a contrast to the refugee columns we see elsewhere in Syria, not to mention the trucks with armed soldiers... Here we see the young orchestra Roj Ava of Qamishli, just arrived at the site and ready to explore the ruins of ancient Urkesh.
      The very establishment, in September 2016, of this orchestra that brings together 32 children aged between 7 and 16 represents a source of hope for this region of Syria. And many of these budding musicians are involved in our schools project!

     This time it is not young students who visit the site, but those who are preparing to become teachers. We see them here, as they listen to a brief introductory lecture by Amer Ahmad, the archaeologist on our staff in Mozan who comes from Qamishli.
      We like to think that, once they will have completed their education and become teachers in the towns and villages of the region, they will also bring their students to visit Urkesh, and explain to them the important role of the Hurrian civilization for the history of the ancient Near East.

     The meeting held in Sabahia also brought together the very few inhabitants who are still living in Kurdu, a small village inhabited by only three families. In total, there were forty-five participants: once again, men, women and children, united by the curiosity to know more about the history of their region. None of the attendants had ever been to Urkesh as a workman during the excavations, yet at the end of the meeting they asked our collaborators when we will return among them, to resume our work.
      This is precisely the interest we want to raise with our campaign, hoping to be able to give soon a positive response to this kind of questions.

     These are the seeds of peaceful cohabitation that we want to help cultivate and reinforce. In April, the students of another middle schools of Qamishli (Armenian, Arabic and Kurds) also joined the students of the English school. Together with the kids of Domodossola, they will work on a project that invites them to reflect on the history, and their sense of the past.
     Here they are, each one with a copy of the Beirut exhibition catalog. Starting from today, the students will undertake a constructive dialogue with the other schools: we are waiting impatiently for the result of their new adventure.