Gulfsands

Click here to see a short video about Gulfsands at Urkesh.
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Gulfsands Petroleum Plc      Gulfsands' policy, embodied in their statement about Corporate Social Responsibility, and reflecting a strong commitment to values, was due to the enlightened initiative of the then CEO, Mr. Mahdi Sajjad, and to the then Director of Corporate Developmen, Ken Judge.      Gulfsands provided major support for the last season of excavations before the war, in 2010, and also for the first year of the war, in 2011-12. Its support made it possible for us to work on three fronts that would help maintain a strong presence even during this period of forced absence. Research is continuing on a wide range of topics resulting from previous work: we have thus been able to support the work of a number of post-docs and graduate students. They not only work on material previously excavated, but they also are expanding the focus to include broader theoretical aspects in the field of archaeology. Since the end of excavations, four Ph.D. dissertations from prestigious American and European universities have been completed on our material. We have developed a vigorous publication program, that includes not only material from the earlier excavations, but also forays into important methodological issues, from conservation to 3-D analysis, which have always characterized the scholarly profile of our project. We are also emphasizing more than we were able to do before our public outreach mission. This has materialized in a major exhibit held in Rimini in 2018, and in a number of presentations at high schools, which are now partnering with us in certain aspects of our work, beginning with a translation of selected portions of the website into Italian.

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Gulfsands Urkesh Exploration Fund

	The Gulfsands Urkesh Exploration Fund was created as a prestigious mechanism providing ongoing financial support to a distinctive scholarly enterprise. A high level of funding ensures continuity to the archaeological endeavor, and grafts not only the name of Gulfsands Petroleum, but also its sense of purpose, onto the project.      The program came to an end after the first year of the war. We celebrate the partnership with a few images that highlight some of the main finds from Urkesh. It is this partnership in discovery that makes possible the results we have achieved.
	The focal point of social life, the king and his family project an image of security and harmony. These faces are marked with the distinctiveness of portraiture.      As we free a civilization from the grip of the soil, we recover values, passions and ambitions. These faces and gestures speak volumes – the queen securing the succession for her son, the son showing submission and familiarity toward his father, the father solemnly legitimizing the joint efforts of wife and son.      Through the toil of scholarship, their names resound on our lips once more their faces are profiled for us anew – Tupkish, Uqnitum, etc.      Gulfsands Petroleum helps us listen to voices silent no more and look at faces no longer hidden.
	Urkesh was at the wellspring of an original ancient Syrian culture, that of the Hurrians.      In this city, a new artistic style was developed, sparkling in its realism and yet daunting in its expressionism.      Like an ancient Mona Lisa, this female statue still smiles her mysterious smile and elicits the same emotions from us that it did from the ancient Syrians some four millennia ago.
	An image of power, the lion is the preferred symbol of the Urkesh kings.
	At home in the mountains, the lion tells how these ancient Hurrian kings of Syria controlled and ruled their rich hinterland to the north, whence came the metal and the stone.      The bronze lions assert their power through the written word guarded by their paws.

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