Archeologists’ profiles [Archives:2006/913/Culture]
Yosuf Muhammad Abdullah was born on May 19, 1943 in Taiz province, Yemen. After gaining his high school certificate in Aden in 1962, he went to the American University in Beirut to study Arabic Language and Literature, obtaining his B.A. in 1967. For his M.A.(1970) Prof. Abdullah benefited from the supervision of Prof. Mahmud al-Gul assisted by both Prof. Ihsan Abbas and the well known British Professor Lancaster Harding. All three professors contributed to Abdullah's continued studies in the field of Semitic and ancient archeology, especially in those related to Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula. Abdullah won a Ph.D. scholarship to study in Tubingen University in Germany with the help of Prof. Walter Muller, who is considered today one of the foremost authorities in Sabaean studies. Abdullah specialized in Sabaean and Islamic archeology and studies in 1975. In 1986 he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt certificate for his post doctorate research in the field of epigraphy and archeology.
Yusuf Muhammad Abdullah's main research interest lies in the archeology of Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula. He has made many journeys inside Yemen and is considered the leading expert in epigraphy from the area of al-Mi'sal and Hagar Qaniya. He discovered the first literary text in the form of a poem or religious hymn written in musnad (old Yemeni script) in 1977, deciphering its symbols, translating it into Arabic and publishing it. He was among the first to contribute to decoding the symbols of public al-zabur handwriting, found inscribed on wooden sticks in 1985. He also contributed to discovering and documenting a large number of Yemeni archeological locations and was head of the campaign that discovered the mummies in Shibam al-Ghiras in 1983.
Prof. Abdullah has taught in the University of Sana'a for nearly thirty years and still lectures on ancient Yemeni epigraphy and archeology. He has supervised many M.A. and Ph.D. theses and participated in M.A. and Ph.D. discussion committees at the King Sa'ud University in Saudi Arabia.
Prof. Abdullah has served in a member and trustee of many research and academic institutes. Moreover, he has been a board member for many journals and specialized books. He has been awarded many medals, including the medal in Literature and Science, first class in Yemen (1989) and the award of the Supreme Council for Litereature and Arts in Kuwait (2001). He was appointed President of the General Organization for Antiquities, Museums and Manuscripts. Since 2004, Prof. Abdullah has been a consultant for the Minister of Culture and Tourism on museum and archeological affairs.
Christian Robin:
Christian Julien Robin, French national, was born on May 12, 1943. He is specialized in History of Arabia from the earliest times to the first years of Islam. He studied political science at the Institute d'detudes politiques de Paris) as well as Arabic Language and Civilization
Since 1978 he has been a researcher at the Centre National de la recherche scientifique, and currently he is directeur de recherche de 1re classe.
He was the founder of the French Archeological Mission in the Yemen Arab Republic (1978) and founder of the Centre francais d'etudes Yemenites, currently Centre francais d'archeologie et de sciences sociales de Sana'a. he was the first Director of the above mentioned Centre (1982-1987)
Prof. Robin served as Director of the Institute de recherches et d'etudes sur le monde arabe et musulman from 1997 to 2000, and Joint Director of the same center during 1994-1997.
He was the Chairman of the Section 33 (Formation du monde moderne – Historie moderne, Historie contemporaine et Orientalisme) of the National Committee of the Scientific Research. (2000-2004)
Currently, Prof. Robin is the Director of the Laboratoire des etudes semitiques anciennes , UMR, Paris. He is also the Director of the French Archeological Mission in Hasi (Republic of Yemen).
He is the Editor of the Inventaire des inscriptions sudarabiques and Co-director of the Semitica, Arabia and Raydan journals.
Prof. Christian Robin was awarded corresponding member of the Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres on October 31, 1997 and was awarded member of the same Academie on March 18, 2005.
Alessandro de Maigret
Alessandro de Maigret, Italian national, was born on August 14, 1943. He studied archeology of the Near East at the Istituto di Studi del Vicino Oriente in Rome University. On graduating in Classics (archeology) in 1971 and specializing in Eastern archeology in 1973, he spent several years excavating at Tell Mardikh/Ebla (1970-1976) with a team from Rome University directed by P. Mattiae as part of the Italian Archeological Mission in Syria.
In 1980, following his appointment as Associate Professor at the Istituto Unversitario Orientale in Naples, he created the “Italian Archeological Mission in the Yemen Arab Republic,” with funding from the Italian Foreign Ministry, the Ministry for the University and the National Council for Researches. This Mission, founded with the support of Sabatino Moscati and under the aegis of first the Istituto per l'Oriente of Rome and subsequently, from 1983, of the Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO), directed by Gherardo Gnoli, is still actively engaged in field work, having changed its name to the “Italian Archeological Mission in the Republic of Yemen.”
In the years 1981-1985 the Mission carried out a preliminary recognition of the rich and multifarious prehistory of Yemen (investigated both on the tableland and in the desert and coastal plain). In 1981 it made the crucial discovery of the existence of a Bronze Age culture in Yemen (3rd-2nd millennium BC). More than fifty sites from this pre-Sabaean phase were found in the mountainous region to the southeast of Sana'a. The data to emerge from the explorations and excavations carried out in 1984 and 1985 in four of the main settlements gave a first, quite complete picture of a culture showing clear affinities with the one that flourished in Palestine in the Early Bronze Age and which preceded the Southern Arabian civilization of the classic period.
In 1985 research into the Sabaean period resulted in the discovery, on the eastern boundary of the desert, of a large, complex of ruins (Wadi Yala) which, after Marib, can be considered the most important Sabaean site known in Yemen. An excavation conducted in the city (1987) provided essential data for clarifying the much debated chronology of Southern Arabian civilizations.
In the late 1980s the Italian Mission investigated a number of topics, including the types of necropolis located in the desert (turret tombs) and the tableland (hypogean tombs).
In 1990, A. de Maigret became full professor of Archeology and Art History of the Ancient Near East at the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. The following year, he was elected President of “Arabia Antiqua (International Association for Studies of the Arabian Peninsula). This led in 1992 to his appointment by the Italian Foreign Ministry as Archeological Counsellor to the Italian Embassy in Riyadh.
He is a member of many institutes such as Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, Rome; and the Society for Arabian Studies, London. He is director of the series Repertorio Iconografico Sudarabico, co-director of the journal Arabia, and member of the scientific committees of other journals such as Arabian Epigraphy and Archeology (Copenhagen).
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