François Villeneuve

Dharih (Jordan) : the sanctuary in the Roman period and in the 6th-8th centuries AD. Excavated by François Villeneuve & Zeidoun al-Muheisen, 1984-2013

François Villeneuve, a French scholar, was born in 1954. He graduated from Ecole normale superieure (Paris) and University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, where he gained his Ph.D. (1983), Recherches sur les villages antiques du Hauran,  Syrie du Sud. Dr. habilit. in 2004 with a series of publications dealing with Villages, lieux de culte et garnisons, de Damas au Bab al–Mandeb, du Jourdain à la steppe arabo–syrienne, du 2^e siecle av. J.–C. au 7^e siecle apr. J.–C.. He was a researcher (1980-82), then assistant director (1982-87), then director (1990-1995) of the French archaeological institute for the Near East (IFAPO), in Amman, Damascus, Beirut. He taught Ancient history at Ecole Normale Superieure as an associate professor (1987-1990; 1996-2004). From 2004 through 2021, he was full professor of Archaeology of the Mediterranean & the Middle East in the Hellenistic & Roman Periods, University Pantheon–Sorbonne, where he is now emeritus. He is also a corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Berlin.

He is mainly interested in the period between the Late Iron Age and Early Islam in the Middle East, especially the Roman phase. He lead projects with Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi scholars in Southern Syria (Sia, ad-Diyatheh : 1977-1995), Jordan (Iraq al-Amir, 1978-1987;  Dharih,1983 till 2013), Saudi Arabia (Hegra / Madain Salih, 2008-2018). He currently works in a field project in Farasan islands, Red Sea, headed by Solène Marion de Procé and Muhammad al-Malki  and acts as a member of the Scientific Committee for Archaeology and Conservation for the Royal Commission for al-Ula, Saudi Arabia.