Long before the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, the doubly devastating impact of ISIS in the Middle East was felt in Ann Arbor by U-M researcher Geoff Emberling.
First, communications he’s had over 12 years with a Syrian family have fallen silent.
“There’s no word of the six brothers or their wives or children,” Emberling says. The assistant research scientist at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and lecturer in Near Eastern Studies knew the family as he worked as an archeologist in Syria.
Second, ISIS oppresses, abuses and kills those whom it conquers, causing those in its path to flee, he says.
“We should all be deeply concerned about the scope of this refugee crisis. It’s amazing when you think that half of a country is leaving. It’s also devastating that these gorgeous monuments are being destroyed and historic sites systematically looted,” Emberling says.
He currently directs field research on ancient Nubia at El Kurru in northern Sudan, and teaches classes at U-M.
His fascination with ancient history and archeology began in the 1970s as a freshman at Lowell High, an honors public high school in San Francisco. Emberling was fascinated by the King Tut artifacts presented during a U.S. museum tour.
“It really put our present moment in a much longer historical context than I recognized,” he says. Emberling found investigating the past is like traveling. “You get immersed in another environment, another set of beliefs and ideas.”
He says we can connect across the ages with the ancients — over love of family, a need to establish security and to find material goods.
But there are contrasts.
“It’s shocking to see how poor their health could be,” he says. While pursuing one dig along the Nile River in Sudan, findings revealed the average age of death at about 25. The cause was infectious disease.
In his field work, Emberling says surprises can arrive on a small scale — such as when a doorway is revealed during an excavation. Once, his team found that a temple had been dug into a rock formation. “We removed all this sand and discovered these columns. It was just amazing; a beautiful, beautiful structure. Wow — what a dramatic moment.”
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In his current project in Sudan, Emberling studies the area surrounding the first royal pyramids in Sudan.
“The ancient culture of Kush (who built these pyramids from 800 B.C. to A.D. 300) took on a lot of Egyptian ideas. They thought of themselves as the inheritors of that tradition long after the Egyptians had abandoned many of those things,” he says.
Emberling also recently worked with the Detroit Institute of Arts on a new permanent gallery of ancient Middle Eastern art that became a meditation on the relationship of technology and art in ancient societies. Looking ahead, he has been offered a chance to direct work at a UNESCO world heritage site dig in the Sudan, once work at the current site is finished in the next two years.
Emberling’s work in the Sudan is the focus of the recent National Geographic film “Rise of the Black Pharaohs.”
Q & A
What moment in the classroom or lab stands out as the most memorable?
Many of the teaching moments I treasure most are when students teach me something. That tells me that they are engaged and thoughtful, and that I’ve helped create a stimulating and safe environment for learning and for taking chances.
What can’t you live without?
My family. They are endlessly supportive and endlessly entertaining.
What is your favorite spot on or near campus?
I love the Arb and the river. I’ve always loved rivers, which is one of the many reasons I’m enjoying my current project in Sudan so much — the Nile!
What inspires you?
I’m still inspired by the idea of bringing the past to life, of understanding past societies in all their richness. And I’m excited to share those perspectives with colleagues and with the broader public.
What are you currently reading?
I read mostly books and articles related to my work, even in my “spare” time here at home. Right now, I’m reading two books about ISIS, for example. But when I’m in the field, I unwind reading a wide variety of less serious stuff — I’ve read all the Jeeves stories by P.G. Wodehouse, about a British valet and his boneheaded employer; the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian about the British navy in the 19th century; all the hard-boiled detective stories of Dashiell Hammett.
