Laila Nehmé
Dr Laila Nehmé is a senior research fellow
in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. She works on Nabataean archaeology and Nabataean inscriptions and the development of the Nabataean script into Arabic. She is the director of the Madain Salih Archaeological Project and has published a two volume book on the Nabataean tombs of Hegra (2015, French Academy). The Nabataean and Roman city of Hegra (Madain Salih): The ongoing excavations and surveys
Madain Salih is one of the major archaeological sites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Located 300 km northwest of Medina, in the Hijãz, it corresponds to Nabataean and Roman Hegra. It flourished, on the southern margins of the Nabataean kingdom and the Roman Empire, from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The most important results of these excavations will be presented in this lecture, including a complete restitution of Nabataean funerary rituals based on the unique material discovered in the excavated tombs, the discovery of the southernmost fort of the Roman period and a large Nabataean sanctuary.