The NYU Center for Ancient Studies presents the annual Rose-Marie Lewent Conference on Ancient Studies
People of the Sand, People of the Tent: Archaeological Perspectives on Mobility and Fluidity in Arid Regions
Thursday, March 20, 2025 - Friday, March 21, 2025
NYU Silver Center for Arts & Science
31 Washington Place (accessible entrance)
Hemmerdinger Hall, 1st Floor
New York, NY 10003
This conference will be held in-person only. It is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. Visit the NYU Center for Ancient Studies website to learn more and register.
THURSDAY, MARCH 20
5:30pm Mobility Ancient and Modern
keynote, with audience Q&A
Greg Woolf (NYU ISAW)
Sailakshmi Ramgopal (Columbia University)
Fiona Kidd (NYU Abu Dhabi)
Yifat Thareani (NYU Tel Aviv and Hebrew Union College)
7:00pm Reception
FRIDAY, MARCH 21
9:00am Check-in and Coffee
9:30am Opening Remarks
10:00am SESSION I: THE LEVANT
Chair: Lawrence Schiffman (NYU)
Planting Roots in Shifting Sands: A Travel Account for a First Millennium BCE Trade Caravan
Yifat Thareani (NYU Tel Aviv and Hebrew Union College)
Between the Desert and the Sown: Mobile Societies in the Southern Levant from Roman to Islamic Rule, Some Perspectives and Misconceptions
Gideon Avni (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
11:15am Coffee Break
11:30am Session II: Central Asia
Chair: Yifat Thareani (NYU Tel Aviv and Hebrew Union College)
Historiography and Agency: Theoretical Approaches Towards Mobility: Perspectives from the Qyzylqum
Fiona Kidd (NYU Abu Dhabi)
Long-Term Adaptation in Central Asia's Arid Zones: Insights from Prehistoric Dispersals
Farhod Maksudov (Institute of Archaeology, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences)
12:45pm Lunch Break
1:45pm Session III: The Gulf/Arabia
Chair: Fiona Kidd (NYU Abu Dhabi)
The Cumulative Impacts of Unsettled Pasts in Prehistoric Southeastern Arabia
Eli Dollarhide (NYU Abu Dhabi)
Tracing the Mobility of People and Goods in Ancient North Arabia (Bronze Age to Late Antiquity): Insights, Challenges, and Perspectives
Jérôme Rohmer (French National Centre for Scientific Research)
3:00pm Panel Discussion and Closing Remarks
Moderators:
Fiona Kidd (NYU Abu Dhabi)
Yifat Thareani (NYU Tel Aviv and Hebrew Union College)
Visit the NYU Center for Ancient Studies website to learn more and register.
