ARCHAEOZOOLOGY OF SOUTHWEST ASIA AND ADJACENT AREAS

9th Meeting of ASWA
15-20 November 2008
Al Ain, Abu Dhabi emirate, United Arab Emirates

organised by:
Marjan Mashkour (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle / CNRS, Paris, France) &
Mark Beech (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, Abu Dhabi, UAE)

sponsored by the:

Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH)
French Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Bank of Sharjah
Dassault Aviation
Thales
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Mercure Hotel - Jebel Hafit

ASWA IX 2nd Announcement

Dear all,

Following the discussions about the organization of the IXth ASWA in Al Ain - Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, we have accepted the proposal of our colleagues Daniella Bar-Yosef, Guy Bar-Oz, Lior Weissbrod and the Executive committee of ICAZ to organize this meeting here on the understanding that the Xth ASWA conference will be held in Europe and the XIth in Israel.

As for the dates, due to some local circumstances we have decided to shift the schedule a few days earlier.

The venue for the conference will be the Mercure Hotel on top of Jebel Hafit, the dramatic mountain overlooking the oasis city of Al Ain. The conference will begin on Sunday 16th of November and will end on Thursday 20th of November. Registration will take place on Saturday 15th. After three days of academic papers (16-18 Nov) there will be two days of excursions (19-20 Nov). These will primarily be oriented towards visiting local archaeological and environmental sites. It is planned that we will hold the closing dinner in the fantastic Al Ain Zoo, an important breeding centre for endangered Arabian, African and Asian species. The visit to the zoo will include a special bird show and then al fresco dining next to some of the animals!

As you might all notice time is short for us as the organizers and we need to urgently have at this point a list of people interested in attending the conference. This will help us to better orient our budget planning. Please email us as soon as possible indicating your interest in participating in ASWA IX and the title of your paper.

As for the publication of the proceedings we are exploring different options to get the totality of the papers, published as it has been the case for previous conferences.

We are doing our best to get sponsors who might be interested in supporting the conference partially. We would like you to know that we are not asking registration fees for the conference. Also we are working hard in getting funds to invite young archaeozoologists to Al Ain to attend the conference. The situation will be clarified within a few months. Until then and in case delegates have to pay for their expenses, here are some general guidelines for the approximate cost of the conference:

FLIGHTS

You can fly into the United Arab Emirates using either Abu Dhabi or Dubai airport. Emirates Airways, Al Etihad and Qatar Airways are just a few of the major airlines which fly into the UAE. For example the price of a direct return economy flight from London to Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airlines currently costs approximately 2590 UAE Dirhams- Dhs (which is equivalent to about 706 USD, or 477 EUR, or 359 GBP). From Paris it costs between 500 to 600 EUR. Qatar Airways offers also very competitive prices. Sometimes, it can be slightly cheaper flying into Dubai than Abu Dhabi, however Dubai is a very crowded airport and city.

Please note that the city of Al Ain does have its own "International Airport" but this only has limited flights to it from certain countries. Airlines serving the airport only include Gulf Air, Egypt Air, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Syrian Arab Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Air India, Pakistan International Airlines and Sudan Airways.

TAXI FROM AIRPORT

The conference location is about a 90 minutes car ride from either airport. The price of a taxi from Abu Dhabi airport to the Mercure Hotel on Jebel Hafit is around 265 Dhs (about 72 USD, or 49 EUR, or 37 GBP). The Emirates is an extremely safe country and you can pick up taxis immediately upon arrival at any time of day.

The price of a taxi from Dubai airport to the Mercure Hotel on Jebel Hafit is around 235 Dhs (about 64 USD, or 43 EUR, or 33 GBP).

HOTEL

The price of the Mercure Hotel on Jebel Hafit (including all meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner) will be 550 UAE Dhs per night (about 150 USD, or 103 EUR, or 77 GBP).

OTHER EXPENSES

The cost of the Closing Conference Banquet (including the bird show and entrance ticket) at Al Ain Zoo will be approximately 150 UAE Dhs per person (about 41 USD, or 28 EUR, or 21 GBP).

The pricing of excursions is not yet finished and we will announce these in due course. They are likely to be very reasonable.

TIMETABLE

We look forward to hearing from possible participants. Those of you who already know that you would like to present a paper and/or poster, please supply us with a title and 200 word abstract as soon as possible. This will assist us with planning the meeting. Here is a brief outline of the ASWA IX schedule:

Deadline for Titles and Abstracts - 1 June 2008
Deadline for Conference Registration (Accommodation Booking) - 1 September 2008
Delegates arrive and Register - 15 November 2008
ASWA IX Conference papers - 16-18 November 2008
ASWA IX Excursions - 19-20 November 2008
Delegates depart - 21 November 2008

Best wishes

Marjane Mashkour and Mark Beech

Would you please send your mails to both of us
janmash2000@yahoo.com and mark.beech@cultural.org.ae

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