Emotional competences in the professional practice of mediation

Mediation can be defined as "a negotiation between adversarial parties in the presence of a third party, who is neutral, and has the role of facilitating the search for a solution to the conflict" (Touzard, 1977, p. 87). Since the eighties, mediation has been more widely used in North America and Europe. It encompasses both the public and private sectors in various fields such as family, neighbourhood, workplace, schools, and the commercial sector (Carnevale & Pruitt, 1992; Guillaume-Hofnung, 1995). Several authors (Herrman, 2006) have addressed the role of mediators’ behaviour and techniques in the efficacy of mediation. It is generally admitted that mediators have to be neutral and impartial, possess communication skills, be able to address emotions (Jameson, Bodtker, & Linker, 2010), develop competencies in understanding their own emotions and those of the parties involved. We therefore tested the hypothesis that mediators have better emotional competencies than people who are not mediators. We used the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) (Mikolajczak, et al., 2007) with 3 groups of persons: 36 mediators of all varieties of practice, 31 students in mediation, and 32 persons who have no link to mediation. Results showed that mediators had a significantly higher score on the whole questionnaire than the two other groups (F(2,96) = 3.30 p< .05). However results were more differentiated if sub-scales were considered. Our communication will present and discuss the complete results in the light of professional practices of mediators, especially those aspects linked to emotional competencies

The Development of the Southeast Lower Town of Sirkeli Höyük: A Preliminary Assessment based on the 2013–2019 Campaigns

The site of Sirkeli Höyük in the province of Adana in modern Turkey is one of the largest settlement mounds in Plain Cilicia. In 2012, a geophysical survey revealed that the ancient settlement was not confined to the höyük, but also encompassed an extensive lower town to the southeast of the main mound. To gain information on the dating and development of this part of the settlement, an excavation area (“Sector F”) was opened at a spot where the magnetometry survey suggested the presence of a city gate. Since then, archaeological work in this area has continuously produced new discoveries that help us understand how this residential area and its inhabitants developed throughout the periods of its occupation. Especially the Iron Age (Neo Cilician period) levels, which cover approximately the 11th–7th centuries B.C., provide important information on how this urban center of the Neo Hittite kingdom Hiyawa/Que changed over time and to which extent historical events impacted the people living in one of its residential areas. This contribution discusses the stratigraphic sequence, the pottery, and the archaeobotanical remains discovered in Sector F during the 2013–2019 campaigns, and concludes with a synthesis of the development in this area from a historical perspective