The Temple of Aleppo
Lecture with Prof. Dr. Kay Kohlmeyer, MIA Auditorium
8 January,6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
MIA is delighted to invite you to the opening lecture in the Syria Matters Exhibition Series. Delivered by the one of the exhibition contributors, Professor Dr Kay Kohlmeyer, the lecture will focus on the temple of Aleppo, an important site from ancienct times buried beneath the ruins of the medieval citadel, the most important Islamic military construction in Syria and a UNESCO world heritage monument.
Kay Kohlmeyer is a Near Eastern Archaeologist, and since 1994 has taught as professor of Field Archaeology and Landscape Archaeology at the HTW University of Applied Sciences Berlin. Following his retirement in 2015 he works as a senior researcher. He specialises in Syrian and Anatolian art and archaeology but has also worked in Sri Lanka and Turkey. His current research focuses on 3D digitalization and visualisation methods. He was responsible for setting up the interdisciplinary research clusters ‘Virtual Archaeology’, and ‘Protection, Preservation and Management of the Cultural Heritage of the Islamic World’.
Since 1996 he has directed the excavations on the Citadel of Aleppo (Syria), and uncovered the remains of the temple of the weather god of Aleppo. In the Ancient Near East, this god played a supra-regional role, which accounts for the enormous size of the temple in Aleppo itself and its brilliant relief decoration, from the middle of the 3rd millenium BCE to its destruction around 900 BCE.
This presentation describes the development of the architecture and sculptures of the Aleppo temple, the remains of its cult inventory, its pattern of space, and tries to explain the origin and importance of the cult’s association with this site focussing on geographical and climatic aspects.
In English with Arabic translation.
