The schedule for the First International Conference of the RIAB Minerva Center is now ready, and it can be found below. This meeting has a wide range of fascinating talks on a broad range of topics. If you are interested in participating, please do notify the center directors (Aren Maeir or Angelika Berlejung).
Below is the schedule – hope to see you at the meeting!
Dependency and Autonomy in Intercultural Relations: Israel and Aram as a Case Study
June 5th-9th, 2016
Institut für Altes Testament der Universität Leipzig, in Cooperation with Bar Ilan University, Israel
at the Bibliotheca Albertina, University of Leipzig
Sunday, June 5th (at the Faculty of Theology, Martin-Luther Ring 3, SR1)
10:00–17:00: Pre-Conference Workshop on Maresha Aramaic Inscriptions (Chair – Esther Eshel, Ramat-Gan)
Participants: Joachim Quack (Heidelberg), Mark Geller (Berlin), Holger Gzella (Leiden), Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert (Leipzig), Christa Mueller-Kessler (Jena), Michael Langlois (Strasbourg) and Minerva Center Members from Germany and Israel
Coffee/tea and a light lunch will be provided at the venue
18:00 – Dinner for Participants
Monday, June 6th
11.00-14.00 Registration (Foyer) and Coffee/Tea
14:00–16:15: Opening Session: Greetings (Chair – Aren Maeir/Ramat Gan)
Musical Interlude
14:15-16:00 Welcoming Talks
Prof. Dr. Beate Schücking, Rector, University of Leipzig
His Excellency, Mr. Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, Israeli Ambassador to Germany
Mr. Burkhard Jung, Lord Mayor of Leipzig
Prof. Miriam Faust, Rector, Bar-Ilan University (represented by Prof. S. Shpiro/Ramat-Gan)
Prof. Dr. Matthias Schwarz, Vice Rector, University of Leipzig
Prof. Dr. Gert Pickel, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Leipzig
Prof. Dr. Angela Friederici, Director, Minerva Stiftung
Ms. Angelika Lange-Gao, Director, Minerva Stiftung
Ms. Gabriele Hermani, Scientific counsellor, German Embassy in Israel
Prof. Dorothea Weltecke, Director, NISIBIN Intitute, Konstanz (15 min)
Prof. Marie-Claire Foblets, Director, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (15 min)
Musical Interlude
16:15-18:30 Public Papers (Chair: Angelika Berlejung/Leipzig)
16:15-17:00 Public paper: Johny Messo (Leader, World Council of Arameans) – Syrians in Exile and the Religious Situation in Syria
17:00-17:45 Public paper: Markus Hilgert (Direktor Vorderasiatisches Museum/Berlin) – Protecting and Developing the Archaeological Heritage of Iraq and Syria: Political and Institutional Responsibilities
17:45-18:30 Public Paper: Shlomo Shpiro (Bar-Ilan University/Ramat-Gan) – The Political Background of the Destruction of Antiquities
18.30 Reception
19.30 Conference Dinner for the Speakers and Special Guests: Restaurant Ratskeller
Tuesday, June 7th
9:00–12:30: Section I: Cultural Autonomy and Independence in the Historical Sciences (Chair – Andreas Schuele/Leipzig)
9:00-9:45: Jan Dietrich (Aarhus) – Autonomous Decision Making in the Ancient World: A General Introduction and Comparison
9:45-10:30: Paul Weirich (Columbia, MO) – Models of Cultural Transmission
10:30-11:15: Christoph Wulf (Berlin) – The Implicit Decision Making in Rituals
11:15-11:45 Coffee/Tea Break
11:45-12:30 David Smith (Glasgow) – National-cultural Autonomy in Ethnically Diverse Societies: Theoretical Approaches and Practical Challenges in Modern and contemporary Europe
12:30-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-18:45: Section II: Aram and Israel in the Biblical Sources (Chair – Israel Finkelstein, Tel Aviv)
14:30-15.15: Eckart Otto (München) – The Arameans in the Book of Deuteronomy
15:15-16:00: Yigal Levin (Ramat-Gan) – Aram and Arameans in the Book of Chronicles
16:00-16:45: NN – Hazael & David: The Shaping of the Davidic-Solomonic Kingdom
16:45-17:15 Coffee/Tea Break
17:15-18:00: Thomas Römer (Paris/Lausanne) – The Strange Conversion of Naaman, Commander of the Aramean Army (2 Kgs 5)
18:00-18:45: Nili Wazana (Jerusalem) – From Joshua to Zakkur: Biblical and Aramaic Descriptions of Military Coalitions
19:00-20:00 Public Paper (Chair – Jan Dietrich/Aarhus): Israel Finkelstein (Tel Aviv) – Israelite Identity Formation in the 10th-8th cent. BCE
20:15 Dinner for Participants
Wednesday June 8th
8:00-12:15: Section III: Archaeological Perspectives on the Arameans in the Northern Levant (Chair – Gunnar Lehmann/Beer-Sheva)
8:00-8:45: Dominik Bonatz (Berlin) – The Myth of Aramaean Culture
8:45-9:30: Martin Makinson (Bern/Paris) – Identity and Material Culture: Looking for the Elusive Iron Age I and II Aramaeans in Northern Syria through Archaeological Lenses
9:30-10:15: Mirko Novák (Bern) – Guzana (Tell Halaf) and the ‘Cultural Code’ of Aramaean Architecture
10:15-10:45: Coffee/Tea Break
10:45-11:30: Daniele Morandi Bonacossi (Udine) – Aramaeans in Central-Western Syria: The Material Evidence from Iron Age Mishrifeh
11:30-12:15: David Schloen (Chicago) – Neo-Hittite Styles and Aramean Kingship in Iron Age Sam’al
12:15-14.00 Lunch Break
14:00-19:30: Section IV: Archaeological Perspectives on the Aramean/Israelite Inter-relations in the Southern Levant (Chair: David Schloen/Chicago)
14:00-14:45 Shuichi Hasegawa (Tokyo) – En Gev in the Iron Age: Material Culture and Political History
14:45-15:30: Nava Panitz-Cohen (Jerusalem) – Excavations at Tel Abel Beth Maacah and Their Contribution to Understanding Southern Aram and Northern Israel
15:30-16:30: Adi Eliyahu and Vanessa Workman (Ramat Gan) – Workshop I: Comparative Metallurgy in the Iron Age Levant
16:30-17:00 Coffee/Tea Break
17:00-17:45: Yifat Thareani (Jerusalem) – The Archaeology of Imagined Community? Tel Dan in the Iron Age IIA
17:45-18:30: Gunnar Lehmann (Beer-sheva) – Hazael in the South
18:30-19:30: Assaf Kleiman (Tel Aviv) – Workshop II: The Excavations at Tel Hadar – Work in Progress
20.00 Dinner at the Restaurant AM COSPUDENER SEE
Thursday, June 9th
8:30–13:00: Section V: Historical Perspectives on Aramean-Israelite Interactions (Chair – Michael Streck/Leipzig)
8:30-9:15: Omer Sergi (Tel Aviv) – The Kingdom of Geshur and the Expansion of Hazael into the Northern Jordan Valley: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives
9:15-10:00: Karel van der Toorn (Amsterdam) – Cultural (or Religious) Interaction between Arameans and Israelites in Papyrus Amherst 63
10.00-10.30 Coffee/Tea Break
10:30-11:15: Christian Frevel (Bochum) – The Role of Hazael‘s Expansion in the Birth of a Judahite State
11:15-12:00: Herbert Niehr (Tübingen) – The Relations between the Kingdoms of Hamath and Israel (10th to 8th cent. BCE)
12:00-13:00: Cornelia Wunsch (London), Johannes Hackl (Leipzig), Amena Fadhil (Baghdad) –Workshop III: New Texts from al-Yahudu in Iraq
13.00-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-18:00: Section VI: Historical Perspectives on Later Periods (Chair – Angelika Berlejung/Leipzig)
14:30-15.15: Leeor Gottlieb (Ramat-Gan) – From Translation to Midrash: On the Role of Aramaic Targum towards the End of the First Millennium CE
15:15-16:00: Marco Frenschkowski (Leipzig) – Are Syrians Aramaeans? Syriac Ethnic Identity in Hellenistic and Roman Times
16:00-16:30 Coffee/Tea Break
16:30-17:15: Stefan Schorch (Halle) – Aramaic Prayers of the Samaritans, and their Contribution Towards a History of Aramaic Literature
17:15-18.00: John Healey (Manchester) – Aramaic and “Arameans” in Transitions: Hellenization and the Roots of Aramaic Christianity
18:00 Departure or Cultural Event