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About the
Editor
When asked why she chose to become an archaeologist, Helga
Seeden says: "I lived my school years in drab postwar Germany and decided when
I was eleven that I wanted to become an archaeologist. I think my interest in
past civilizations was probably inspired by the desire to get out of the gloomy
present I was then living in…to escape, at least in my imagination, to
other times and other places. Everyone thought I was totally mad, as a girl, to
even think of it. The only one who encouraged me was my History and Latin
teacher, whose parents wouldn't let her become an archaeologist and who, with
lingering regret, became a teacher instead."
Seeden, who earned both
her BA in Ancient History (summa cum laude) and her MA in Near Eastern
Archaeology from AUB, holds a doctorate in Western Asiatic Archaeology from the
University of London. In 1970, she joined the faculty of AUB, where she moved
up the ranks in its Department of History and Archaeology to become full
professor of archaeology in 1991. She is fluent in German, English and French
and is also proficient in Greek.
Along with her teaching
responsibilities, Seeden has been heavily engaged in research and fieldwork
during the past decade. In 1991, she participated in an ethno-archaeological
investigation of two villages in the Bekaa, as well as in the salvage of
important archaeological finds from Tyre for the Lebanese Department of
Antiquities. From 1994 to 1996, she was the principal investigator in
excavating the old souks in the Beirut city center, a project sponsored by AUB,
the Leverhulme Trust of London and Solidere. Since 1997, under another project
funded by the Leverhulme Trust, she and her team of archaeologists have been
involved in post-excavation |
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She estimates that publishing the results of the souk
excavations will call for the preparation of six to ten separate volumes. The
initial volume, Berytus volume XLV-XLVI
(Archaeology of the Beirut Souks 1), is entitled
"Small Change in Ancient Beirut" and was written by the
classical numismatist Kevin Butcher. It deals with the
roughly 7,000 coins – all of them small bronzes
from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and
Byzantine periods – found in the souk
excavations. The second volume from the souks
excavations, Berytus volume XLVIII-XLIX, will
report on the glass finds and is expected to be
published in late 2005.
Seeden's key interests in delving
into the past lie in anthropology and ethno-archaeology – the study of
living peoples preserving traditional ways of life, arts and crafts. She
believes that ethno-archaeology, when properly applied, can be very helpful in
understanding both the present and the past, as she learned from the fieldwork
she undertook in Syria during the 1980s.
In teaching archaeology,
especially during the war years in Lebanon, Seeden derived much satisfaction
from keeping the interest in cultural heritage and its preservation alive in
her students. "On our field projects," she recalls, "we often lived with
village people in situations that were sometimes difficult, but the experience
helped in overcoming the divisive animosities and prejudices usually provoked
by the circumstances of war."
In addition to the numerous articles she
has published in journals in the Middle East and
abroad,
Seeden is the author of The Standing Armed Figurines in the Levant
(Prahistorische Bronzefunde, Vol. 1. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1980) and the
co-author of Beiteddin Past and Present, A Museum and Palace Guidebook (Beirut:
Seikaly Express International, 1989). She is the editor of Berytus, the only
English-language journal of archaeology in the Middle East, published by AUB
Press from 1934 to the present. |
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