From Ohio to Cyrenaica: Libyan Archaeological Heritage Matters by Dr. Ahmad Emrage

This talk outlines the academic and field archaeological activities that Libyan archaeologist Dr Ahmad Emrage of Benghazi University has conducted since September 2019 until the present time. This includes a summary of his experience as a Fulbright visitor professor to the USA, where he taught two semesters on Libyan archaeological heritage to students of Oberlin College in Ohio. This lecture also incorporates a general account of the archaeological works, including excavations, surveys and awareness programmes that Dr Emrage supervised and participated in, at different locations in Cyrenaica, in cooperation with national, British and American institutions from October 2020 until now.

About the Speaker:

Dr Ahmad S M Emrage is an Assistant Professor at the University of Benghazi’s Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts. He holds a BA and an MA in Archaeology from University of Benghazi. In 2014, he completed a PhD at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester.

In addition to his work with the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East & North Africa (EAMENA) project, Emrage has been a team member of another CPF project ‘Training in Action.’ In August 2019, Ahmad was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach two courses about Libyan cultural heritage at Oberlin College, Ohio.

Ahmad has extensive experience in field archaeological survey and excavation. He has participated in and directed a number of excavations in Libya, such as the training excavations of the University of Benghazi in Tocra, the final seasons of Cambridge University’s excavations in the prehistoric cave of Haua Fteah and the training excavations of the University of Muhammad bin Ali Al-Sanousi at Cyrene. He is interested in landscape archaeology and rural Roman sites in Libya.

In recent years, Ahmad has been focusing on the protection of Libyan cultural heritage through teaching, and inviting colleagues from the Department of Antiquities to teach archaeology students on how to document, evaluate, monitor and protect archaeological sites and artifacts through the use of modern techniques.