The MARES Project Blog

10th February 2010

Two MARES researchers presented their findings as part of the IAIS Seminar Series, on 10th February 2010.
Dr John P. Cooper talked about “Materiality on the periphery: change and identity in the boatbuilding traditions of Yemen.”

Julian Jansen van Rensburg made a presentation about “The Hawārī of Socotra, Yemen and ethno-technical study of traditional vessels”, which looked at the technical aspects of their construction and repair together with issues concerning the influences of local knowledge and overseas contact. Utilizing both ethnographic and archaeological evidence the study into the hawari sought to identify various cultural and social differences in the importation of the hawari and local differences in their maintenance, alteration and repair.

MARES Project /Maritime Culture of the Arabian-Persian Gulf and the Red Sea Project/ is a three-year, multi-disciplinary, multi-period project focusing on the maritime traditions of the peoples of the Red Sea and Arabian-Persian Gulf. Drawing on ethnography, archaeology, history and linguistics, it seeks to understand how people have inhabited and navigated these seascapes in late antiquity and the medieval period, and how they do so today.

MARES Project team, led by Professor Dionisius Agius, Al Qasimi Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture and consisting of Post-doctoral Research Associates Dr John P. Cooper and Dr Chiara Zazzaro, Ph.D. Candidates Julian Jansen van Rensburg and Lucy Semaan,  and a Research Support Officer, Beata Faracik, is based at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) at the University of Exeter in England.

The project is funded by the Golden Web Foundation, based in Cambridge, UK.

Futher information about the MARES Project can be found at: www.exeter.ac.uk/mares .

MARES Project Team can be contacted on mares@exeter.ac.uk .