This lecture will present an overview of the site at Khuraybah and the activities there, and it will highlight joint efforts between King Saud University (KSU) and KAUST aimed at better understanding the funerary practices of the Lihyanite civilization.
The site, which has been under excavation since 2004 by the Archaeology Department of KSU, has revealed an important settlement dating back to the Dedanite and Lihyanite periods. A vast necropolis overlooking the settlement has been found to contain more than 650 tombs, many of which are carved directly into the façade of the mountain.
About Dr. Samer Sahlah
Dr. Samer Sahlah is a faculty member in ancient near eastern archaeology in the Department of Archaeology, College of Tourism and Archaeology, KSU. He has acted as general director and co-director in the excavations at Dedan/Al-Ula for the past thirteen seasons.
Sahlah earned a Ph.D. in ancient history and archaeology from the University of Birmingham, U.K. He is specialized in ancient Anatolia and the Levant; fields methods in archaeology and the rise of civilizations.
Dr. Sahlah participated in many field works as a director and member of the excavations, including Khuraybah, Al-Faw (KSA) and Jerablus-Tahtani (Syria), and is now acting as vice dean for Development and Quality at KSU.
About Dr. Laurence Hapiot
Dr. Hapiot earned a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University Paris 1 (Pantheon-Sorbonne, France). She specialized in physical anthropology, and more precisely on the reconstruction of food ways, activities and health status of past civilizations through the study of dental remains, paleopathology and stable isotope analysis. She trained in stable isotope analysis as a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley.
Dr. Hapiot’s work focuses also on the study and reconstruction of funerary practices. She participated in several excavations in France and Greece from 2003 to 2015 and she has been in charge of the excavations of the Ottoman period necropolis in Argos (Greece).
Dr. Hapiot is currently involved in the archaeological mission in Khuraybah (Al-Ula, KSA) as an archaeo-anthropologist.