Minutes from the Plenary Discussion Following
the Closing Panel of Melammu Symposia 7

Taken by Sebastian Fink

After the four talks on the future of the Melammu Project, Simo Parpola opened the discussion and asked for comments on the talks and for proposals for the future of Melammu.

Sabina Franke proposed a Melammu newsletter that should contribute to general awareness of the project's activities (which are quite visible now, but remained rather low-key in the last few years).

Alan Lenzi suggested using the Melammu network to mobilise support for institutions in humanities which are under danger of being closed.

John Lynch made the suggestion that it could be useful to integrate work on the Melammu Database in academic teaching and to build up content for the database – especially the bibliography – through student assignments in undergraduate courses.

Aaron Tugendhaft pointed out that it might be attractive for young researchers to publish Melammu-related articles in a peer-reviewed journal. Robert Rollinger approved of this idea, but also stressed the fact that establishing a journal that could really foster research in this area would mean a lot of work and time for the editors.

Saana Svärd suggested that creating new entries for the database might be made more attractive by giving contributors titles such as "Senior contributer to the Melammu Database", depending on the number of entries contributed.

Winfried Held stated that it would be promising to include more classical archaeologists in future Melammu conferences.

Simo Parpola pointed to the possibility of creating database entries with visual materials, which might also be useful for archaeologists.

Joachim Ganzert proposed to collaborate with an existing journal and have Melammu sections in special volumes, which might create further attention for Melammu and deal with the problem of having to set up a new journal.

Jörg Erdtmann's proposal was also concerned with generating more public attention for Melammu. He proposed an exhibition on cultural transfers.

Ann Gunter drew our attention to an exhibition scheduled for September 2014-January 2015 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the title: "From Assyria to Iberia: Crossing Continents at the Dawn of the Classical Age", from which we could learn for possible future exhibitions on this topic.

The next point was the election of the board for the next two years. The proposal for the new board consisted of nine established scholars and nine young scholars, also including the organizers of the next two Melammu meetings. The following people were proposed: Tzvi Abusch, Sebastian Fink, Ann C. Gunter, Johannes Haubold, Cynthia Jean, Giovanni-Battista Lanfranchi, Martin Lang, Julien Monerie, Simo Parpola, Simonetta Ponchia, Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Lucian Reinfandt, Robert Rollinger (Chairman), Aleksandra Szalc, Krzystof Ulanowski, Erik van Dongen (Vice-Chairman), Josef Wiesehöfer, Agnieszka Wojciechowska. The proposal was accepted.

The special duties of the board members should be established in the next two years. Robert Rollinger pointed to the danger that the Melammu conferences could become a kind of "closed event", featuring always the same group of people. To prevent this from happening, he stressed that board members do not necessarily have to give a lecture at every conference.

The International Association for Intercultural Studies of the Melammu Project was dissolved by a majority vote, in accordance with article 29 of its statutes.