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1: G. Buccellati, December 2002
Version 1a (on development)

The project

To the right, the image of a woman –
peering at us, as if to establish eye contact,
four thousand years hence.
     And we look back, in turn, peering at her world.
Through our project, we aim to bring her back more fully.
     Because there is a context to her face.
It is the context defined by the moment when, and the spot where, we first found her.
The context of the city where she was fashioned.
The context of the larger culture that shaped the tastes, beliefs, ambitions of the people
who held her gaze.
     It is this context we seek to establish, these many levels of a life once lived,
which we now aim to recover
and to re-embed in our own lives.

An exploration is defined not only by its goals and its finds.
It consists as well of the many people and organizations that make its realization possible
and bring back the site of yesterday to its new today:
Syria and its people who host us, jointly searching for their ancient history,
the institutions that provide the scholarly scaffolding for our endeavors,
those who enable – through a shared vision of the potential,
those who perform – through their presence (literally) in the trenches,
those who inspire – as they extol the feelings for which we all ultimately reach.

Behind it, the logistic details that punctuate the times
and hold the filaments that reach our visitors.