Simone Paturel

Dear Simone,

I want to thank you again for sending me your lovely doctorate. I’m greatly enjoying reading through it. The whole approach to archaeology as a cultural phenomenon seen from the reception end is a very new way of looking at the whole thing. I do hope we can have a chat about it sometime!

What are your plans? Are you working in the academic field? Why don’t you apply to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a post-doc? You will almost certainly be accepted!

All the best,

Alexander

[Professor Alexander Borg, Ben Gurion University of the Negev]

Dear Simone,

After many delays over recent months, I have finally found the time to read your manuscript. You have produced a very good piece of research on a subject that is a worthwhile as it is challenging, since in many respects we lack both primary sources and modern scholarship. I find many of your argument convincing, as they were based on your familiarity and good understanding of the sources, and you do well to challenge received opinions in many places.

Dr Andreas J.M Kropp

Assistant Professor in Classical Art

Department of Classics

The University of Nottingham

University of Newcastle 2007-2014
PhD Archaeology

Thesis: Landscapes of Conversion: Baalbeck-Heliopolis from 100BC to AD 400

University of London 2006-2007
MA History of Ideas

Dissertation: How Does labelling a person, group or state as terrorist constitute a technique of domination” (Edward Said)?

Essays

• “To What Extent Does The Liberation Theology Of Gustavo Gutierrez Represent a˜Successful Intellectual Synthesis Of Christianity And Marxism?”
• “To what extent did Cicero’s political theory, as described in his De Republica, rely on earlier models?”
• “To what extent are Islam and Democracy compatible? A comparative study between Saudi Arabia and Turkey”
• ‘Professional historians have been generally wary of attempts to deploy psychoanalysis in explaining the history of fascism. Explain why has this been so and assess how convincingly the case has been made for and against a psychoanalytic dimension of historical explanation.”
• “Moliere’s the Bourgeois Gentleman: Revealing political views of the gentleman under Louis XIV?”

University of London 2002-2006
BA History and Archaeology:

Dissertation: Was Yigael Yadin investigation of the Cave of Letters compromised by a political agenda?

Institut Kheops, Paris
Degree Egyptology

Paris-Sorbonne / Paris IV
Licence Spanish and Latin American Literature

Paturel, Simone, “Reconstructing the History of the Cypriot Maronites”, Journal of Cyprus Studies, (2009)

Paturel, Simone, “Baalbek -Heliopolis, the Bekaa, and Berytus from 100 BCE to 400 CE
A Landscape transformed”, Brill publication.

Paturel, Simone “Hellenistic, and Roman Baalbeck, and the Bekaa” OUP Handbook of Hellenistic and Roman Syria.

I completed in Paris a license (BA degree) in Spanish and Latin American literature at Paris-Sorbonne University. I also worked in the financial markets in Paris for a period. After leaving finance, I studied fashion design at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris, also known as Ecole Saint Roch. I spent three years there and worked in many prestigious fashion houses.

Next, I studied for a degree in Egyptology at the Institut Kheops in Paris, focussing on ancient Egyptian language. I then moved to London and started a BA degree in history and archaeology at the University of London shortly after that. I focused my degree on the ancient Greek and Roman periods. After finishing my BA, I remained at the University of London to complete an MA in philosophy.

In 2014, I completed my Ph.D. thesis at the University of Newcastle. I center my research on the landscape archaeology of the ancient city of Baalbek-Heliopolis and its environs. In modern Lebanon, Baalbek-Heliopolis was a city and significant religious sanctuary in the Roman period. The temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus was one of the largest temples in the Roman world. My research explores the religious transformation of the landscape of Baalbek-Heliopolis from 100 BC to AD 400.

I extended my research to cover the city of Berytus and the territory of the Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus.

I speak French, Lebanese, and English and understand Spanish well.

• 2009: 1-week excavation: Vindolanda Roman Fort, Northumberland, United Kingdom.
• 2007: 2 weeks excavation: Maan, Jordan “ Archaeology of the First World War.
• 2006: 2 weeks excavation: Vindolanda Roman Fort, Northumberland, United Kingdom.
• 2005: 1-week excavation: Vindolanda Roman Fort, Northumberland, United Kingdom.
• 2004: 2 weeks excavation: Roman Villa at Alba Julia, Romania with Dr. Ian Haynes.
• 2003: 2 weeks excavation: Apulum project, Alba Julia, Romania with Dr. Ian Haynes.

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2016, University of Colorado, Boulder

Presenting a paper: ” Re-thinking three: A cautionary tale of the Heliopolitan the triad and the Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus”

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2015, New York University

Presenting a paper: “Ritual, memory and movement at Baalbek-Heliopolis”

Imperialism and Identities at the Edges of the Roman World 2014,
Petnica Science Center, Serbia

Presenting a paper: “The Roman Bekaa: A Sacred Landscape of Imperialism?”

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2013, University of Chicago

Organising a session: “Writing to be seen: epigraphy and graffiti as a visual form.”

Presenting a paper: “Deconstructing the Source Book: Visual and Non-Visual Responses to Greek and Latin Inscriptions from the Bekaa Valley”

Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2013, Kings College London

Presenting a paper: “Cosmopolitan Heliopolitans?: a case study in social identity at the ancient city of Heliopolis”

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2012, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Presenting a paper: “Ontology, Perception, and Language: Seeing the World through Bedouin Eyes”

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2011, University of California, Berkeley

• Organised a session: Landscape Archaeology through Modern Eyes
• Presenting a paper: “Roman Baalbek & the Bekaa Valley: a Landscape of Conversion?”

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2010, Brown University, Rhode Island

Presented a paper: “Locating the Sacred in Roman Syria: Roman Temples and the Constructed and Natural Landscape.”

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2009, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California

• Organised a session: Spatiality and Conflict: The Archaeology and Anthropology of Space in conflict zones
• Presented a paper: Spatiality, Memory, and Conflict in Beirut: Living the Civil War and After

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA 2008, Columbia University, New York, New York

• Presented a paper: Perceiving Landscape through Eastern Eyes

Critical Roman Archaeology Conference, 2008, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California

• Presented a paper: A Landscape within a Landscape: Reconstructing Arabia in the Sacred Landscape of Baalbek

6th International Congress on Cyprus Studies, 2007, Famagusta, Cyprus

• Presented a paper: “Reconstructing the History of the Cypriot Maronites.”

welcome to my website.