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The conference on burial customs in the Levant from Roman times to the end of the Islamic era opened at the University of Jordan on September 10, 2013. The conference was organized by School of Archaeology and Tourism at the University in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and German universities.
The two-day conference, titled "Burial Customs in the Levant from Roman Times to the End of the Islamic Era," was attended by 28 experts specializing in archaeology and excavation from local, Arab, and German universities, in addition to the Jordanian universities.
According to the preparatory committee chairman, Prof. Dr. Nizar Attarshan from the University of Jordan, the conference aims to enhance cultural and scientific exchange and cooperation between the University of Jordan and German universities, and to understand the religious, cultural, social, and anthropological identities of the Jordanian people during those periods.
Attarshan added that School of Archaeology and Tourism, represented by the Department of Archaeology, was keen to start the new academic year with academic research activities aimed at highlighting the ethnic, religious, and cultural aspects of archaeological sites in Jordan throughout the ages and the burial customs therein.
During the opening ceremony, Prof. Dr. Shatwi Al-Abdullah, Vice President for Administrative and Financial Affairs at the University, delivered a speech emphasizing that the conference represents a significant milestone in the university's history, bringing together distinguished European academics specializing in burial customs alongside their Jordanian and Arab counterparts.
Al-Abdullah affirmed that the conference's topics, focusing on burial customs throughout the ages in the Levant, could serve as a unifying factor for the peoples of the region despite the political differences among them.
Representative of the DAAD, Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, expressed pride in the efforts made by the conference organizers in preparation and implementation, aiming to establish a solid foundation contributing to the success of the conference.
Dr. Christoph Eger from the University of Munich shed light on religious practices and rituals that characterized successive eras, from the Roman to the Islamic, in preparing the deceased from the moment of death until burial.
Eger pointed out clear differences in religious practices between the Roman era and the Byzantine and Islamic periods, confirming that religions impose specific rituals for preparing and burying the deceased.
On behalf of the students of the Faculty of Archaeology and Tourism, Hala Abu Jarada welcomed participants from various local, regional, and German universities, highlighting her academic benefit from the scholarship she received from the German DAAD foundation.
The conference participants discussed research papers covering various topics related to burial customs, spanning from the Hellenistic and Roman periods to an extensive review of burial customs in the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic eras, along with the differences that accompanied each era through historical sources and excavation results revealing these graves in Jordan. They also focused on studies related to organic anthropology concentrated on the results of archaeological excavations.
During the first day sessions, researchers presented topics related to burial customs among the Nabateans, the Roman eras, the forms of burial coffins in northern Jordan, the continuity of burial customs in the Yarmouk archaeological site from the late Bronze Ages to the Islamic eras.
The sessions also examined the features of burial customs in many archaeological sites spread across the governorates of Jordan, such as Khirbet al-Samra, Um Qais, and the Jordanian desert, through inscriptions and archaeological remains.