Laurent Dissard

My Blog

  • Siros Autrefois

    Siros Autrefois

    Siros autrefois : mémoires d’un village or Siros in the Past: Memories of a Village is an oral history project in the village of my mother and grandmother along the Gave de Pau in Béarn, southwestern France. The website Siros Autrefois: Mémoires d’un Village publishes archival documents, press articles, and writings on the recent and… Read more

  • Digging (Ziyaret) Tepe – A Funeral

    Digging (Ziyaret) Tepe – A Funeral

    Archaeologists often come across ancient human burials during their excavations. It is less often, however, that human burials come across archaeological excavations. This is what happened, however, to one particular funeral procession a few years ago, in the town of Tepe in Southeastern Turkey. The goal here* is, rather than arrive at a fixed definition of Ethics,… Read more

  • Scramble for the Past: The Global Fight Over Cultural Heritage

    Scramble for the Past: The Global Fight Over Cultural Heritage

    Across Turkey, antiquities are increasingly subject to surveillance, documentation, and legal control. In Istanbul, the Süleymaniye Mosque has introduced security cameras and expanded its guard staff in response to concerns over theft. Manuscripts and architectural elements—previously unregistered Qurʾans and wall tiles in particular—have now been formally inventoried and archived. Beyond monumental sites, Turkish authorities have… Read more

  • Diyarbakır’s New Museum(s)

    Diyarbakır’s New Museum(s)

    The southeastern provinces of Turkey will soon be home to a series of new, state-of-the-art, archaeology museums. Such buildings are being (or have already been) planned, constructed, remodeled, or expanded. The Gaziantep Museum, for instance, houses many of the Roman mosaics of Zeugma unearthed before the construction of the Birecik Dam. Other mosaics, discovered during… Read more