Humanities Research Seminar

9.30-10.30am Friday 24th October 2014 in A3

Lloyd Weeks

‘The quest for the copper mountain of Magan: How metallurgy shaped Arabia and set the horizons of the Bronze Age world’

 More than 4000 years before petroleum re-configured Arabia’s role in the modern world, copper played a similar part in the development of Bronze Age Arabia. This lecture will discuss the social, technological and economic roles of metals in the early complex societies of the ancient Near East, and the ways in which a Bronze Age copper ‘boom’ in south-eastern Arabia, ancient Magan, underpinned its integration into the long-distance exchange systems and cultural encounters that characterised the Bronze Age world. The prospects for future fieldwork in Arabia related to this subject, involving staff and research students from UNE, will also be addressed.

Professor Lloyd Weeks (BA Hons & PhD UniSyd) came to UNE in early 2014 to take up a position as Head of School of Humanities. His PhD dissertation was entitled Pre-Islamic Metallurgy of the Persian Gulf. This was published in 2004 as a book – Early Metallurgy of the Persian Gulf: Technology, Trade, and the Bronze Age World. From 2002 – 2004 Lloyd was MacCurdy Post-Doctoral Fellow in Archaeology at Harvard University. Thereafter Lloyd lectured in the Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham with the last two years as head of department. He has served as: Trustee, British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (2010-2013); member of the Steering Committee, Seminar for Arabian Studies (2005-2013); and Field/Co-Director, Mamasani Archaeological Project, Iran (2002-2012).

A3 – Arts Building

followed by morning tea

ALL WELCOME

Enquiries to: Karin von Strokirch – kvonstro@une.edu.au