Moain Sadeq

Moain Sadeq () is a Palestinian-Canadian archaeologist specialising in the archaeology of Gaza. He teaches at Qatar University and has worked at colleges in Canada. After completing a doctorate at the Free University of Berlin, Sadeq co-founded the Faculty of Education in Gaza, which later became Al-Aqsa University. In 1994, Sadeq co-founded the Department of Antiquities of Gaza. While working at department, Sadeq jointly led excavations at Tell es-Sakan and Tell el-‘Ajjul.

Early life and education

Sadeq was born in Khan Yunis in Palestine. Sadeq graduated from the Cairo University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in Islamic archaeology. He then studied at the Free University of Berlin, completing a doctorate in Islamic history and archaeology.

Career

With support from fellow archaeologist Klaus Brisch and funding from the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienst, Sadeq developed his doctoral thesis into a book, published by Klaus Schwarz Verlag in 1991. ''Die mamlukische Architektur der Stadt Gaza'' was a survey of Islamic architecture in Gaza. Also in 1991 Sadeq co-founded the Faculty of Education in Gaza, which later became Al-Aqsa University.

The Palestinian National Authority established the Department of Antiquities in 1994 with responsibility for managing Palestine's cultural heritage sites. Sadeq was one of the founders of the department's Gaza branch, and is an expert on Gaza's archaeology. In his role as Director of the Department of Antiquities in Gaza, Sadeq was involved in a number of archaeological projects, such as the Gaza Research Project which began in 1996 and was led by Louise Steel, Joanne Clarke, and Sadeq. The project searched for evidence of archaeological remains dating to the Bronze Age in the region. Sadeq discovered a Bronze Age site in 1996, al-Moghraqa, which became one of the foci of the Gaza Research Project and underwent excavation. In 1999, Sadeq and Peter M. Fischer led excavations at Tell el-‘Ajjul which was last excavated in the 1930s. Along with Hamdan Taha, the head of the Department of Antiquities, Sadeq was involved with negotiations with Israel about the return of artefacts excavated in Palestine during the Israeli occupation.

Building projects in Gaza led to the discovery of new archaeological sites such as Tell es-Sakan, a Bronze Age fortified settlement discovered in 1998 where Sadeq led archaeological investigations with Pierre de Miroschedji between 1999 and 2000. The site began as an Egyptian settlement before it was abandoned and reinhabited by the Canaanites; Tell es-Sakan is the oldest known Egyptian fortification to have been excavated.

With archaeological fieldwork in Gaza impractical due to conflict with Israel, Sadeq left Gaza in 2007 and moved to Canada where, through the Scholars at Risk project, he worked at Massey College and the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2010, Sadeq was a visiting professor at the Institute for Global Citizenship at Centennial College in Canada. In August that year, Sadeq took up a position teaching archaeology at Qatar University.

Selected publications

Books

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Articles and chapters

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References

Further reading

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External links

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Gaza Research Project

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21st-century Canadian educators
Cairo University alumni
Free University of Berlin alumni
Living people
Massey College, Toronto people
Palestinian archaeologists
Academic staff of Qatar University
People from Khan Yunis Governorate
20th-century archaeologists
21st-century archaeologists
1955 births