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PAST NEWS ARCHIVE
November 6, 2001
Contact: Patricia Fraga, Austin Public Library, (512) 974-7528
Fax: (512) 974-7442

Pleasant Hill Branch will host "The Legacy of the Middle East" exhibit
November 27 through December 11, 2001

"The Legacy of the Middle East" is a bilingual-bicultural production of a unique international collaboration between the Jeddah Historical Preservation Department (Saudi Arabia), the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Texas Humanities Resource Center. At the heart of this collection of humanities resources is a photo-panel exhibit that reflects the contributions of all three agencies. This exhibit will be at the Pleasant Hill Branch of the Austin Public Library, 211 E. William Cannon Drive, from November 27 through December 11, 2001. Hours of the branch are Monday-Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Call (512) 441-7993 for additional information about the exhibit.

Organized on 20 vertical panels, the exhibit provides a concise introduction to the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the influence of early Arabic-Islamic scholars on world civilization. These panels were conceived and developed by Engineer Sami Saleh Nawar, Director of the Jeddah Historical Preservation Department.

The main focus of the exhibition is illustrated through a sequence of 14 panels detailing the profound evolutionary advances in human culture that originated in the ancient Middle East. These include: agriculture, domestication of animals, the founding of cities and city-states; the beginnings of such technologies as metal working and glass making, the invention of the wheel, and the creation of counting and writing.

These panels were created and developed by Denise Schmadt-Besserat, Professor of Art and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She has won international acclaim for her scholarship in the origins of writing and the symbolism of clay tokens and tablets that survive in the ancient Middle East.

The Texas Humanities Resource Center has designed and fabricated the exhibition, overseen the production of print resources, and created a digital version of the resource for online use in classrooms, libraries, and other sites where viewers log onto the Internet. In addition, the Center is managing the circulation of two copies of the exhibit in the United States.

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