Patrick Maxime Michel

Switzerland
Born in 1983 in Switzerland, he studied Classical Archeology and Ancient History at the University of Lausanne before specializing in Assyriology at the University of Geneva. He was an assistant at the University of Lausanne between 2005 and 2006, in the same year he was appointed assistant to Prof. An. Cavigneaux in Geneva. He completed his Ph.D. in the same university in 2012. His research has focused on Le culte des pierres en Syrie du Nord et en Anatolie aux IIIe et IIe millénaires from the perspective of a philological and archaeological approach. To further his research, he studied in Rome as a member of the Swiss Institute and was hosted by the Pontifical Biblical Institute, he was awarded scholarships from the Fondation Ernst Boninchi and the Société Académique vaudoise (2007-2008). He published a book in june 2014 under the title : Le culte des pierres à Emar à l’époque hittite, Fribourg Academic Press (OBO 266). He dedicated an exhibition to the collection of René Dussaud (1858-1958), Conservator of the Near Eastern Department of the Louvre and Secrétaire Perpétuel of the Accadémie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, at the Villa romaine of Pully (Lausanne) with the publication of a catalogue : Fragments du Proche-Orient. La collection archéologique de René Dussaud, Document du Musée cantonal d’archéologie et d’histoire, Infolio, Lausanne, 2014. In 2013 he got the Fellowship of the International University of Venice for the interdisciplinary seminar Between East and West, working on the concept of hegemony in the Near East during the first millenium BC.He also worked on the publication of a retrospective of the work of Emmanuel Laroche, a renowned French Hittitologist.

In addition to his research, Dr. Michel participated in several excavations on the site of Tell Kazel (Tartous) in collaboration with the American University of Beirut. He was also responsible for managing the Fonds d’Archives de Maurice Dunand (Genève) and of Paul Collart (Lausanne), and President of the Association des Membres et des Amis of the Swiss Institute of Rome. He is now responsible of the project of digital safeguarding and 3D modeling of the Baalshamîn Temple.

After teaching at the University of Bern (Einführung in die Altorientalische Philologie), Dr. Michel currently teaches Ancient Near Eastern languages (Akkadien, Hittite) and Ancient Near Eastern History at Geneva and Lausanne universities.

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