OrAM, formerly APOHR, is one of the founding teams of ArScAn, since 1999. It follows the associated research team (ERA n°20) Archaeology of South Syria and the Petra area, created in 1978 and attached to the Centre de Recherche Archéologique (CRA) of the CNRS. With its new title, Archaeology of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East-APOHR, defined in 1999, the team immediately specified the geographical and historical framework (4th century BC-5th century AD) that characterised its founding research in Syria (South Syria, Bosra, Chahba/Philippopolis) and Jordan (Petra, Khirbet ed-Dharih). The plurality of the ancient worlds studied soon led her to open new fields of research in the Arabian Peninsula (Hegra), then in the Arabian Gulf in the Emirates (Mleiha/Oman Peninsula) and in Kuwait (Failaka), and to diversify its activity in Syria, its members carrying out research in Shâ’ra, Palmyra, Qalaat al-Mudiq/Apamea Citadel, Dura-Europos, Cyrrhus, and Saint-Symeon.
The geopolitical upheavals causing the closure of the Syrian field in 2011, the Yemeni field in 2015 (Shabwa, Makaynun), and the Ethiopian field in 2016 (Kwiha), led to the development of new archaeological missions in line with the team’s research themes, in Central Asia (Southern Tajikistan), the Arabian Peninsula (Farasan Islands, Upper Wadi Sirhan) and Jordan (Hauran, Umm as-Surab). From 2019 and 2022, the team has included the whole of the Roman Mediterranean, Egypt (Kharga Oasis) and Turkey. Chronologically, its field of competence has been extended to the early Islamic period (9th century).
Thus, the research conducted by the members of the team covers territories from the Mediterranean to Central Asia, from the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander to the Islamic conquest, while maintaining a special place for the Roman Empire, whose integration has opened them to the Mediterranean world in all its extension.
In order to better reflect this diversity, in 2023 APOHR changed its name to The Orient, from Alexander to Muhammad / OrAM – Archaeology – History – Architecture – Epigraphy.
The geographical and civilisational complex on which OrAM is conducting these studies was unified by Hellenism and its heritages, enriched by multiple exchanges, but also divided into numerous political and cultural entities (Greek, Nabataean, Greco-Bactrian, Parthian, Roman, Kushan, etc.). It was in this context that artistic, linguistic, religious and graphic innovations emerged and developed, which in turn were factors in the affirmation or formation of new collective identities. This circulation between unity and diversity, tradition and innovation constitutes the framework of the team’s research and justifies a broad geographical and chronological definition, making it possible to study the exchanges and syncretisms provoked by the constant contacts between these protagonists, which cannot be identified in a single place and time. Their fate during the later periods (Byzantine, Umayyad) preserves such an imprint of these past civilisations that it is necessary to consider them here too.

The team is made up of CNRS researchers and engineers, teacher-researchers, INRAP archaeologists (11 people) and PhD students (13). It welcomes many researchers assigned to other institutions or independent researchers (23).
Founded by Jean-Marie Dentzer, it remained under his direction until 1996, when he left for Damascus to become director of the Institut français d’Archéologie du Proche-Orient. It was then directed by Christian Augé (1996-2004) and then by Jacqueline Dentzer-Feydy from 2004 to 2010, with Pierre-Marie Blanc succeeding her from 2010 until 2020. Since then, the responsibility for the team is shared by Pierre-Marie Blanc, Thibaud Fournet and Mathilde Gelin.

The subjects treated by OrAM (Themes) give it a natural kinship with the other ArScAn teams working from the Near and Middle East to Central Asia (From the Village to the East, HAROC, Archaeology of Central Asia) and on the « classical » Mediterranean world (Archaeology of the Greek World, THEMAM, LIMC, ESPRI). The study of ceramics through the TessonnierS platform, of which OrAM is the determining actor, involves the participation of GAMA, VEPMO, Archaeology of Central Asia, Aegean World. Finally, OrAM is integrated into the research axes of ArScAn (axes 1, 2, 3, 4) and participates in the publication of work resulting from the Collective Projects.
In France, the OrAM team pursues numerous and continuous scientific collaborations with academics (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres), CNRS researchers and teacher-researchers in Paris and the Paris region (UMR 8167 LESA; univ. Paris 4; UMR CEA CNRS UVSQ 8212; UMR 7209 Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle), in Limoges (CRIHAM, univ. Limoges), in Tours (univ. François Rabelais), in Lyon (HISoMA, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée), in Bordeaux (Ausonius, univ. Bordeaux 3), Toulouse (école d’Architecture), Lattes (UMR 154) and Nice (univ. Sophia Antipolis). Her involvement in the Labex Les passés dans le présent and Dynamique des Territoires leads her to work in particular with the TGIR Huma-Num (UAR 3598), the laboratories Trajectoires (UMR 8215) and ANHIMA (UMR 8210). OrAM collaborates with the doctoral schools ED 112 of Paris 1 and ED 31 of Paris 8.
In Europe, it works with colleagues from the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut of Berlin, the universities of Basel, Geneva, Brussels, Berlin, Augsburg, Vienna, Graz, Bologna, Milan and Warsaw.
Internationally, OrAM’s numerous interventions abroad (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Tajikistan), necessitated by its archaeological missions, have led the team to establish partnerships with the Antiquities and Museums Directorates, the Academies of Sciences, and the History and Archaeology Institutes that conduct research there. It is involved with local universities, particularly in terms of its expertise for training courses but also for the dissemination of its research. In this way, OrAM is developing a partnership with the universities of Yarmouk and Maan (Jordan), Bir Zeit (Palestine) and King Saud (Saudi Arabia). It has set up international research agreements with the antiquities services of Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan and the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of Dushanbe. It has particularly close scientific and logistical links with the Institut français du Proche-Orient and the Centre français de recherche de la Péninsule arabique, in particular through the participation of team members as directors and researchers, with the Royal Commission for Al-Ula (Saudi Arabia), and the American Centre of Oriental Research in Amman.