Speakers

PROF. DR. STEPHEN OPPENHEIMER (UNITED KINGDOM)

Prof. Dr. Stephen Oppenheimer (born 1947) is a world-recognised expert in the synthesis of DNA studies with archaeological and other evidence to track ancient migrations. He is a graduate of Green Templeton College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. In addition to his work in medicine and tropical diseases, he has published popular works in the fields of genetics and human prehistory. His latter work has been the subject of a number of television and film projects. Oppenheimer trained in medicine at Oxford and London universities, qualifying in 1971. From 1972 he worked as a clinical paediatrician, mainly in Malaysia, Nepal and Papua New Guinea. He carried out and published clinical research in the areas of nutrition, infectious disease (including malaria), and genetics, focussing on the interactions between nutrition, genetics and infection, in particular iron nutrition, thalassaemia and malaria. From 1979 he moved into medical research and teaching, with positions at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Oxford University, a research centre in Kilifi, Kenya, and the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. In 2002, Oppenheimer worked as consultant on a television documentary series, The Real Eve, produced by the American cable TV network the Discovery Channel.


DR. JANE ALLEN (USA)

Dr. Jane Allen is Senior Archaeologist at International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc. (IARII) in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. She has over 36 years of archaeological experience in cultural resource management. Dr. Allen has directed large, multi-disciplinary projects and has prepared Cultural Resource Management Plans and other archaeological reports and publications on research in Japan, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia. She has directed and served as soils and geomorphic specialist for projects in Hawai‘i, the Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, and California. She has completed coursework concerning NHPA and Section 106 and the preparation of cultural resource management plans, has applied ARPA guidelines, and is experienced at satisfying U.S. and Government of Japan requirements for archaeological research. Her technical specialties include historical archaeology; in-field and laboratory analyses of soils, sediments, and landscape change; paleoenvironmental interpretation; ceramic analysis; and mapping. Her academic specialties include paleoenvironmental studies; and studies of agricultural systems, exchange, the initial Contact period, and the emergence of complex societies in Asia and the Pacific. She has authored over 20 articles or book chapters in scholarly publications and has participated in numerous local and international scientific conferences.


DR. ZAHI HAWASS (EGYPT)

Dr. Zahi Hawass is responsible for many exciting recent discoveries, including the Tombs of the Pyramid Builders at Giza and many other discoveries concerning the construction of the pyramid. He discovered the satellite pyramid of Khufu and revealed the secrets behind the so-called doors found inside the pyramid. He also excavated at Bahariya Oasis where he discovered the Valley of the Golden Mummies. This find is considered to be the King Tut of the Graeco-Roman period. He also found the tombs of the governor of Bahariya and his family under the houses in the town of El-Bawiti. This discovery is regarded as one of the most amazing adventures in archaeology. His excavations at Saqqara revealed many important archaeological discoveries around the pyramid of Teti, such as the tomb of the physician Qar, and the rediscovery of the “headless pyramid.” He led an Egyptian team in the examination of the mystery of King Tut’s mummy through the use of a CT-scan. Dr.Hawass has lectured on these discoveries all over the world in front of large audiences, including kings, queens, the general public, and media. Dr. Hawass has appeared on television specials on channels such as the National Geographic Channel, The History Channel and Discovery Channel.


PROF. ARTHUR ANDREW DEMAREST (USA)

Prof. Arthur Andrew Demarest has worked in Mesoamerica for over 35 years, leading archaeological excavations and investigative expeditions every year. He is considered one of the world's leading experts on the Maya, but is also interested in the Olmec, Incas, Aztecs and many aspects of anthropological theory, particularly the collapse of civilizations, the role of religion in ancient societies, and ethics in anthropology. He currently divides his efforts between archaeological excavations and exploration, development programs for indigenous Maya communities, and management of the Vanderbilt-owned, but Maya-managed, Cancuen tropical forest and archaeological park in the Peten region of Guatemala. He is currently director of both the Vanderbilt Cancuen Regional Archaeological project in the Peten forest of Guatemala and the Vanderbilt/Universidad del Valle San Andres Semetabej Regional Archaeology and Development projects in Guatemala's volcanic highlands. Demarest's work with the Maya in Mesoamerica has been featured in many TV documentaries by National Geographic, the History Channel, Travel Channel, NBC, CBS, and programs in Brazil and Guatemala. In 2004 Demarest became the first U.S. citizen to be awarded the Orden Nacional del Patrimonio Cultural de Guatemala, for his successful battles with looters and his contributions to "the rescue, conservation, and protection of the tangible cultural patrimony of Guatemala."


PROF. DR. NASIM KHAN (PAKISTAN)

Prof. Dr. M Nasim Khan (FRAS) is a Meritorious Professor at the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He was the first Pakistani graduate with double M.Phil. and a Ph.D in the field of Archaeology, in which the second one was awarded by the Sorbonne University, Paris. He was the first Visiting Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London (awarded twice) as well as the first recipient of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust, tenable at the Institute of Archaeology University College London, UK. As a founder of “Gandharan Studies”, a research journal, Prof.Nasim Khan is a renowned expert in Gandharan civilization studies. Gandhara was the name given to the land and its associated civilization that existed in what is now northern Pakistan and Afghanistan from the mid 1st millenium BCE to the beginning of the 2nd millennium CE and consisted of multiple dynasties which ruled over the same area but which were linked by their adoption of Buddhism as a religion for the most part and also of the Indo-Greek artistic tradition as its cultural identity. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at University of Cambridge (since 2007), convenor for Ancient and Medieval Gandhāra Research Group (London), Fellow Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, UK and a founding member of Board of Trustees for the Central Asian Numismatic Institute, UK.


DR. DEREK KENNET (UNITED KINGDOM)

Dr. Derek Kennet is an expert in the archaeology of the Western Indian Ocean (including South Asia, eastern Arabia, southern Iran and the Gulf), focusing on the Early Historic and Medieval periods, especially the economy and longue durée development of this region. This also touches on the archaeology of Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, the Sasanians, Roman trade and the archaeology of trade and economy generally. He is also interested in long-term patterns of change and the use of archaeological techniques to elucidate and explain these. In Ras al-Khaimah, he is currently working on the interaction between different levels of the economy: inter-regional (Indian Ocean) trade, local trade, and agricultural production: -exploring these interactions using archaeological evidence. Currently, he is an advisor to the Department of Antiquities and Museums of Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, a member of the organising committee of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, and joint series editor of the Society for Arabian Studies Monograph Series. He is currently attached to the Department of Archaeology at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.


DR. DIRK BOOMS (UNITED KINGDOM)

Dr. Dirk Booms studied Classical Archaeology at Leuven (Belgium), Reading, Rome, and Cambridge (Ph.D), and taught at Cambridge, Oxford, and Birkbeck College before joining the British Museum. His main interest is Roman architecture, but other responsibilities include sculpture, particularly the Townley collection and the Museum’s cast collection, inscriptions, cameos, and glass inlays. He has participated in excavations in Belgium, Turkey, Italy and Tunisia, and is finalising the publication of the architectural fragments, design, and reconstruction of the imperial villa of Marcus Aurelius at Villa Magna, Italy, in a volume edited by E. Fentress, C. Goodson, and M. Maiuro, and of the so-called Domitianic Vestibule to the Palatine Palace in Rome, in its publication by H. Hurst. He is also turning his Ph.D thesis into a monograph, titled ‘Space and Identity at Roman Imperial Villas’. He is currently digitising the Museum’s collection of Latin inscriptions and is preparing a popular book on the subject for British Museum Press.


PROF. YU, XIYUN (CHINA)

Prof. Yu Xiyunis an expert in Archaeology and Museology at the College of History of Wuhan University, Hubei, China. His expertise is in the pre-Qin period archaeology. Among his projects and researches is the excavation of Hubei province Badong Phoebe Park Site, under the State Council’s Three Gorges Project Construction Committee (2000 to 2005), the excavation of Weiying Cemetery Tomb Cluster in Xichuan, Henan province, under the State Council’s Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Committee (2006 to present). He is also the author of “The Ba in the Three Gorges”, Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau (2006 to 2010) Zhengzhou XishanYangshao City Site Settlement Pattern Studies, under the “Origins of Chinese Civilisation II” by National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2007 to 2008). He also led an excavation of Maling site in Xichuan county, Henan province, under the State Council’s Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Committee (2007 to present).


PROFESSOR EMERITUS NITTA EIJI (JAPAN)

He is a Professor of Faculty of Law, Economics and the Humanities, Department of Humanities, Comparative Archaeology, Kagoshima University. He was the President of Japan Society for Southeast Asian Archaeology (2002-2007). Among his previous projects are: a study of the Early Metal Culture in Southeast Asia (project year: 1983), a study on the Ancient Iron-smelting and salt-making industries in Northeast Thailand (project year: 1987 - 1992), urbanization in Southeast Asia (project year: 1992 - 1995) and archaeological Study on the Mekhong Civilization (project year: 1997 - 2000).




PROF. BASANTA BIDARI (NEPAL)

Prof. Basanta Bidari is a Visiting Professor at Lumbini Buddhist University, Lumbini, Nepal. He is also a Nepali Chief Archaeologist at Lumbini. He has worked with the Lumbini Development Trust in Nepal for decades, which actively creates awareness among the people about the need for preservation of Ancient Buddhist Sites in Asia. He was also the Siddhartha the Buddha 2012 movie Producer / Production Advisors, which has provided his expertise for the designs of the Film SETs dating back over 2600 years. Among his books is Lumbini: A Haven of Sacred Refuge.




PROF. DR. MARIKO YAMAGATA (JAPAN)

Dr. Mariko Yamagata is a Project Professor from Graduate Program in Cultural Resource Management of Kanazawa University, Japan. Dr. Yamagata is also the vice-president of Japan Society for Southeast Asian Archaeology. She is an expert in Vietnamese archaeology as she was involved in numerous archaeological researches, especially focusing on the transition from the prehistoric Iron Age culture to the emergence of the first polity in present-day central Vietnam. She has carried out excavations at the Tra Kieu site, which has been identified as the old capital of Linyi. Among her journals are “Construction of Linyi Citadels: The Rise of Early Polity in Vietnam (forthcoming)” and “Tra Kieu during the second and third centuries CE: the formation of Linyi from archaeological perspective (2011)”. 

DR. JIANG, ZHILONG (CHINA)

Dr. Jiang Zhilong is a researcher at Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Kunming, China. He is an expert in archaeological excavations and research. He has conducted several excavations including:
i. The excavation of the Shuicheng cemetry, Huize county, Yunnan Province;
ii. The excavation of the shell-mound site at Xiyuan, Kunming Province;
iii. The excavation of the shell-mound site at Xiaoping Mountain, Jingning;
iv. The excavation of North-South crossing at Jinggu county; and
v. The 5th rescue excavation of Shizhaishan at Jingningcounty, Yunnan province, which was recognized later by State Administration of Cultural Heritage as one of the most important archaeological finds in China. He has published more than 30 archaeological papers until now.
His representative work includes “The Research on Fuxing Jia” (1995), “New Excavation at the Bronze Age site of Shizhaishan and the Implication for the Archaeology of Ancient Dian Kingdom” (1998) and “Dian Quest - New Discovery of Shizhaishan Culture” (2002). He was also invited to participate in The Third and Forth International Conference on Ancient Bronze Drums and Bronze Cultures in Southern China and Southeast Asia, National Exhibition of New Archaeological Discoveries in Beijing, and 16th Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Congress in Malaysia.

MR. NAHAR CAHYANDARU (INDONESIA)

Mr. Nahar Cahyandaru, a Borobudur Conservation Office (BCO) expert in heritage conservation, is actively involved in the current conservation programme of the BCO and UNESCO’s projects in Borobudur. He holds a Master in World Heritage at Work from the Universitàdegli Studi di Torino and the Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He has experience in the conservation of underwater heritage, especially on waterlogged wood and metal. In 2014, he led a team of evaluator to assess ITASA (Indonesian Technical Assistance for Safeguarding Angkor) project on Angkor restoration during 1995-2000. He was also invited as a speaker at the network meeting on Conservation of Archaeological Waterlogged wood in Southeast Asia , organized by the Kyoto - Nara NRICP University. He is now pursuing his Doctoral Program in Chemical Sciences at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia.


DR. NGUYEN GIANG HAI (VIETNAM)

Dr. Nguyen Giang Hai is the Director of the Vietnamese Institute of Archaeology. He has completed a book on surveys of prehistoric metallurgy in the Dong Nai area (Southern Vietnam), which was sponsored by Sumitomo Foundation (2000). The surveys aimed to collect materials in the local region for a comparative study with Japanese Yayoi culture. As the head of the Vietnamese Institute of Archaeology, he has strived to develop a commodity archaeological model, with the participation of people in archaeological activities for a betterment in heritage preservation. He is an expert in archaeo-metallurgy and ethno-archaeology in which he has produced a lot of publications such asAncient Metallurgy in Vietnam: An Ethno-archaeological Investigation(2007).


DR. LE THI LIEN (VIETNAM)

Dr. Le Thi Lien’s recent studies focus on the iconography of Buddhist and Hindu art, and the ancient script on archaeological artefacts of the OcEo culture in southern Vietnam. She is also interested in cultural exchanges and interaction in the early historical period between Vietnam, Southeast Asia and the civilizations of India and China. The results of her research have been presented at the Conference on Early Indian Influences in Southeast Asia: Reflections on cross-cultural movements (Singapore, Nov. 2007); the International Conference on “Archaeology of Vietnam – Laos – Cambodia: Towards Sustainable Cooperation” (Hanoi, December 2007); the Fourth Worldwide Conference of the SEAA (Beijing, June 2008); and the Second Scientific Conference on the Cat Tien site (Da Lat, December 2008). In 2008, working as a National Officer for Culture in the UNESCO-Hanoi office, Dr. Le focused on the promotion of capacity building in research, and the protection and development of cultural heritages in Vietnam.


MR. NYUNT HAN (MYANMAR)

Mr. Nyunt Han is a Senior Researcher at Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts, Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), Bangkok, Thailand. Formerly the Director-General of the Department of Archaeology under the Ministry of Culture in Myanmar, Mr. Han conducted research and identified artifacts in the Asian Art Museum's collection of Burmese art during his two-week professional affiliation. A specialist in archaeology in Myanmar, Mr. Han has supervised excavations in ancient cities and the conservation of many ancient monuments and mural paintings.




PROF. EUSEBIO Z. DIXON (PHILIPPINES)

He started working in prehistoric archaeology in 1977 at the National Museum of the Philippines and received formal academic training in Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania specialized in Archaeometallurgy. He was the founding Director of the Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines, Diliman in 1995. To date, as a Scientist III, he is coordinating, participating and conducting archaeological researches in the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, the Metal Age, Protohistory, Underwater and Maritime archaeology. Among his major publications are The Role of the Philippines as an Entrepot during the 12th to15th Century’s Chinese and Southeast Asian Trade Network (2005) and The Role of Archaeology in Restoration (2004).



PROF. DR. THUY CHANTHOURN (CAMBODIA)

Prof. Dr. Thuy Chanthourn is the Deputy Director, Institute of Culture and Fine Arts, Royal Academy of Cambodia. Prof. Chantourn discovered the earliest known iron smelting works in Cambodia in 2010 after several years exploring the countryside along the path of an ancient road dating back to the time of Angkor Wat. He and his team excavated in 2011 and again in 2012. In addition to hundreds of small sites, they were able to identify five major sites of ironworks.




PROF. THONGLITH LUANGKOTH (LAOS)

Prof.Thonglith Luangkhoth is the Director of Archaeology Division with the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism. He has led a joint research team from Laos and Australia, which uncovered a new set of human remains on the Plain of Jars, believed to date back to the Iron Age, some 2,500 years ago. Scientists say the field work has added a significant amount of knowledge towards unraveling the mysteries of about 100 jar and mortuary sites spread across the region.




PROF. DR. AGUS ARIS MUNANDAR (INDONESIA)

Prof. Dr. Agus Aris Munandar is a Professor at Department Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. Born in the Indramayu district in the northern city of West Java on July 13, 1959. He has produced a lot of journals such as “The Continuity of Megalithic Culture and Dolmen in Indonesia (2011)” “Kehidupan politik, ekonomi, dan sosial budaya masyarakat Majapahit: upaya menggali dan rekonstruksi kebesaran Kerajaan Majapahit pada abad XIII-XV di Jawa Timur: laporan penelitian (2005)” and “Mitra Satata: Diplomasi Majapahit di Nusantara dan Asia Tenggara (2015)”.




MR. PIRA VENUNAN (THAILAND)

Pira Venunan is an academic staff of Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. His educational background is BA, Archaeology, Silpakorn University in 2005, MA, Prehistoric Archaeology, Silpakorn University, in 2010 and MSc. Technology and Analysis of Archaeological Materials, UCL, in 2011. One of his research is an archaeometallurgical investigation of the 9th Century AD iron smelting technology in Thailand with regard to Ban Kruat Area, Burirum.





DR. NGUYEN MINH KHANG (VIETNAM)

Dr. Nguyen Minh Khang is an expert from the Department of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, Vietnam. He completed his doctoral research in Champa architecture, which focused on the 10th-11th century period in Central Vietnam. Among his other research is “Research On Champa Architecture Looking Through The Archaeological Site Of Hoa Lai (2013).”