Welcome to the website of the Hellenic Society for Near Eastern Studies

From 14 February to 2 March 2006, HSNES executive committee members Drs K. Politis, S. Chlouveraki and D. Karadimas conduct a lecture series at Damascus University on ancient mosaics, their preservation and the ancient Greek language for the Syrian Mosaic Documentation Training Programme. This will be followed by a second series of lectures from 11-30 March by Drs Amr Al-Azm, Maamoun Abdelkarim and Taghrid Shaaban on cultural heritage management, the ‘Dead Cities' and mosaic decorations and motifs. IT specialist, Mr Vicken Abajian will then conduct an IT training course from 1–11 April. This programme is funded by the European Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments (EKBMM).

On 23 March 2006, Fr Michele Piccirillo of the Franciscan Biblical Institute in Jerusalem lectures on Recent Discoveries of Mosaic Pavements in Jordan: Mt Nebo, Madaba and Kastron Mefa'a at the Institute of Greek and Roman Antiquity (KEPA) of the National Hellenic Research Foundation 22 Vassilis Konstantinou avenue, Athens.

Dr Joshua Muravchik, Adjunct Professor of the Institute of World Politics lectures on American Policy in the Middle East at the Institute of International Relations (3-5 Hill street in Plaka) of Panteion University, Athens at 12.00 noon on 16 February 2006.

On 23 January 2006 Mr Georgios C. Liakopoulos (PhD student at Royal Holloway University of London) delivered at the University of Athens a lecture entitled ‘The Evolution of the Ottoman Funerary Inscriptions; A Study of Stelae from Greece’. The talk encompassed much of Mr Liakopoulos' research on the Ottoman tombstones of Imathia, Pella, Larissa, Chalkis and Messenia Prefectures and was embellished with rich visual material. For more information email: G.Liakopoulos@rhul.ac.uk