‘Cutting the Silk Road’: Aleppo and Mardin in Memory
Foreword: In March 2020, Mia Shouha embarked on a three-month trip to Southeast Turkey. Mia toured the old city of Mardin and the surrounding sites that her ancestors inhabited roughly a century ago. She had heard stories growing up of how she hailed from a well-renowned Chaldean-Assyrian family from Mardin and Nusaybin and hoped to […]
A Fertile Ground for Alternatives: Looking at Lebanon’s Traditions Amid a Climate Storm
Golden wheat fields in Lebanon during harvest. Photo by Rashid Khreiss on Unsplash. Sowing traditions It was an unusually warm and sunny autumn morning as a friend and I parked on the side of the Chtoura-Nabatieh road, facing the entrance of the Ammiq reserve, the largest remaining freshwater wetland in Lebanon. We crossed the […]
When Woman Was Worshipped in the Levant
Ancient Akkadian cylinder seal depicting the goddess Inanna resting her foot on a lion while Ninshubur stands in front paying obeisance, (c. 2350–2150 BCE). Photo by Sailko on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). Years ago, across the Levant and the land surrounding it, Woman was worshiped. The “Queen of Heaven” went by different names […]