The founders
  five millennia of history

     Urkesh was one of the first cities in history, founded at the beginning, and fully consolidated at the end of the fourth millennium BC. It is therefore a history that goes back to more than five thousand years ago.

     Our invitation is to help us re-found the ancient city - a site which enjoys today of a life full of significance for the local population as well as for us, distant in space as we are in time from those beginnings of a urban life. Five millennia of history that today nourish the present more than ever.

     The Cariplo Foundation has placed itself at the forefront of this process, which aims to establish on new foundations not only a site, but also the perception of what archeology can do for the development of the territory where it operates. It also launched a challenge, proposing a co-financing that goes alongside their generous contribution. The first answers came from these three companies that we want to call, with the Cariplo Foundation, the new founders of the ancient Urkesh:

  • AVSI, an international association based in Milan, dedicated to the development of cooperation projects, with particular emphasis on education
  • Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, a research institute of the University of California, Los Angeles
  • Dabbagh Group of Companies, founded by Marwan Dabbagh in 1996, is recognised as one of Australia’s most respected exporters
  • GMB Foundation, dedicated to the training of young scholars in the field of jewelry history
  • IIMAS, an American NGO that has supported in the past, and contributes to support today, the projects carried out by AVASA
  • Rimini Meeting, a foundation that organizes the Meeting, a great event that takes place every year in Rimini
  • Poscio, a company based in Villadossola (VB) that actively participates in the cultural life of the city of Domodossola and the VCO territory
  • Steinmetz Family Foundation, a foundation based in Los Angeles, dedicated especially to education
  • UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
  • Yard, a company based in Milan specialized in the management of real estate technical services
     In the respective pages to which the links refer, we illustrate the particular motivations that have induced each of these entities to join our intentions and work together to achieve the results that are commonly close to our hearts.