As part of the SoHP "What's New in the Fall of the Roman Empire" Lecture Series, Dr. Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division in the Israel Antiquities Authority and a lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, will speak at Harvard University on "'An Early Islamic Agricultural Revolution?' New Light on the Transformation of Agricultural and Irrigation Technologies in the late Roman and Islamic Near East." Included will be a discussion on projects of OSL dating fields, the early Islamic agricultural estates, the mechanism of introduction and diffusion of qanats in the Near East and beyond (north Africa, Iran and the east), in relation to the main issues raised by Andrew Watson’s pioneering research.