Conferences (since 2013)

CENTRAL international workshop on “Tradition and Innovation” in Ancient Egypt

From December 12 to 14, 2023, the Czech Institute of Egyptology organised for the second year running a three-day international Ph.D. workshop “Tradition and Innovation II: Traditional Customs and Creative Redefinitions in Ancient Egypt”. The workshop specifically focussed on different aspects of the development of the ancient Egyptian society against the backdrop of the continuously ongoing confrontation between traditional concepts and innovative ideas throughout all stages of ancient Egyptian history.

The workshop brought together Ph.D. students and scholars from the Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), Universität Wien, Humboldt University (Berlin), and Charles University (Prague). It provided the students with a platform to present and discuss their research, while concomitantly offering them an in-depth evaluation of their specific research topic during informal group discussions.

The organisation of the workshop was funded by the “Central European Network for Teaching and Research in Academic Liaison” (CENTRAL: https://central-network.eu/). For more information: https://www.central-network.eu/news-events/workshops/tradition-and-innovation-ii/

 

International workshop on “Continuity, Discontinuity and Change” in Ancient Egypt

 

The Czech Institute of Egyptology is happy to announce the organisation of an international workshop dedicated to aspects of continuity, discontinuity and change in ancient Egypt, with a focus on how individuals as well as priestly communities adapt to ongoing political-ideological as well as socio-economic changes and reshape their identity (as expressed in the material culture).

  • Date: Tuesday August 24 to Thursday August 26, 2021
  • Place: Faculty of Arts, room 104 (first floor), nám. Jana Palacha 1/2, Prague
  • Program
  • Abstracts
  • Contact: Assoc. Prof. Filip Coppens

The workshop is organised as part of the Czech Science Foundation – Grant GA ČR 19-07268S: “Continuity, Discontinuity and Change. Adaptation Strategies of Individuals and Communities in Egypt at Times of Internal and External Transformations”.

 

Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2020

Prague, June 29–July 3, 2020

 

The Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University in Prague organizes for the fifth time since 2000 the “Abusir and Saqqara” conference, covering principal fields of Egyptology such as history, archaeology, environmental studies, philology, art history, religion and other related subjects on ancient Memphis, the adjacent pyramid fields and cemeteries.

The conference will be held at the premises of the Charles University, from Monday, June 29 to Friday, July 3, 2020. The conference languages will be English, German and French, with 30 minutes allotted for each paper.

The online portal for registration of already accepted speakers and poster presenters, as well as visitors to the conference, is now open. For more information on the registration process, please see this PDF.

Megiddo, Kadesh, and the Aftermath. An international conference on war and peace in antiquity

Dates: September 21-23, 2020

Venue: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Nám. Jana Palacha 2, 116 38 Prague 1

 

The Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, and University of Memphis are pleased to announce an international conference: “Megiddo, Kadesh, and the Aftermath”.

In 1985, the late William J. Murnane published the first edition of his book The Road to Kadesh. A Historical Interpretation of the Battle Reliefs of King Sety I at Karnak. Undoubtedly, this volume marked a milestone in the interpretation of historical events connected with Egypt’s foreign relations in the late 18th and early 19th Dynasties, and still remains an invaluable aid to researchers studying ancient Egyptian history, society, and culture during the New Kingdom. More than 30 years have passed since Murnane’s book was published, and there have been many new discoveries in the fields of archaeology, history, and philology of Ancient Egypt and the Near East. We believe that the time has come for us to revise the old conclusions and try to formulate a new outline of the political and cultural history of Egypt and the Near East in the 15th through 13th centuries BC.

We invite scholars to submit papers and posters dealing with the political and cultural history of this period. In order to obtain a well-balanced insight, we would like the topic to be examined from an archaeological, historical, iconographic, art historical, legal, and philological point of view for both Egypt and the Near East. Although the 15th-13th centuries BC will represent the main focus of the conference, papers dealing with the themes mentioned below during other periods of the Egyptian and Near Eastern history are welcome to frame our discussion. We are especially interested in questions dealing with the following topics:

  • War and/or peace? How do we define states of “war” and “peace” in the Late Bronze Age? Was it either war or peace, or something in between? Are modern concepts of war and peace appropriate for the ancient Near East?
  • Daily life during war times and days of peace. How did military conflict and diplomacy impact the rhythms of daily life including international trade and domestic economic conditions in Egypt and the Near Eastern states? How did war and peace affect people at different levels of society? What about people in the military and civilian sectors?
  • Tradition and innovation in warfare and foreign relations. How did new technologies impact warfare during this period? What new administrative, diplomatic, and legal procedures for conducting war and foreign relations evolved during this period? What common traditions and ideological approaches to foreign relations continued to hold true? How did rulers and the elite present their warlike and diplomatic activities in official sources like royal inscriptions and the “autobiographies” of high officials?

We hope that the idea of working along these topics of will provide for some fascinating lectures and discussions.

The official language of the conference will be English, and each lecture should be 25 minutes long with an additional 5 minutes allowed for discussion. In order to assess your paper proposal, we request that you submit an abstract of your presentation (300–500 words) by March 31, 2020 to megiddo.kadesh@gmail.com. All proposals will be reviewed by the committee and the authors will be notified of the results by April 15, 2020 at the latest. The conference fee will be 100€ (standard), 75€ (students), 125€ (visitors).

 

Jana Mynářová (Charles University)

Peter J. Brand (University of Memphis)

on behalf of the Organizing Committee

7. PTOLEMÄISCHE SOMMERSCHULE – 7th PTOLEMAIC SUMMER SCHOOL

 

PRAGUE, AUGUST 27–30, 2019

On behalf of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, we would kindly like to invite colleagues to the 7th Ptolemaic Summer School. The event will be held from Tuesday August 27 (morning) to Friday August 30 (early afternoon), 2019 in theGreen Lecture Hall (“Zelená posluchárna”) on the first floor in the street Celetná 20 (see also the practical information in pdf).

The event languages will be English, French and German. We would welcome both discussions on specific (groups of) texts (problematic issues related to the interpretation, translation etc.), as well as papers. The basic time allotted for each discussion/presentation is 30 minutes, but should you need more time, please let us know in advance.

The conference room is equipped with a pc, allowing for PowerPoint presentations. In order to avoid presentational problems, we strongly suggest inserting both transliteration and hieroglyphs as images in your presentation, or to use a pdf version instead. If you are using Apple, please make sure to bring all necessary equipment to connect your notebook to the system.

There will be no registration fee to the summer school, but participants are asked to arrange and fund their own transport and lodging. We strongly recommend not waiting until the very last moment to book a hotel room as the tourist season peaks over summer in Prague.

We kindly ask all participants to provide both a title and short abstract related to the text(s) you which to discuss or present. Please send your abstract by May 10, 2019 to filip.coppens@ff.cuni.cz. The file should include the title, brief abstract and your affiliation.

Should you have any questions regarding any aspect of the Ptolemaic Summer School, please do not hesitate to contact us at the same email address. More detailed information on the conference itself, but also practical information, can be found in the pdf.

 

Sincerely,

 

Filip Coppens, Dana Bělohoubková, Jiří Honzl and Dorotea Wollnerová

Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

Update on 6th August 2019

 

The Crossroads III – A Stranger in the House. Foreigners in Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Societies of the Bronze Age

 

We are happy to announce the third international Crossroads conference – “The Crossroads III – A Stranger in the House. Foreigners in Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Societies of the Bronze Age”, which will be held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Prague) between September 10 and 13, 2018.

The main objective of the conference is to enhance our understanding of “foreignness” in ancient societies of the Near East and Egypt during the period defined by the end of the Chalcolithic period and the end of the Late Bronze Age. In order to obtain a well-balanced insight, we would like the topic to be treated from an archaeological, historical, iconographic and philological point of view. We believe that bringing together archaeologists, philologists, as well as historians and other experts, is not merely highly desirable, but also a necessity for gaining a deeper insight into the historical, social, cultural and economic aspects of “foreignness” of the respective regions (Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Levant, Egypt) at this particular moment in time.

We hope that the idea of working along the topic of “foreignness” will provide for some fascinating lectures and discussions. We are sure many of the papers will touch upon several aspects of “foreignness” but we would be very much interested in the following questions and/or topics:

  •  Who is a foreigner in the respective society?
  • How do we recognise foreigners in ancient societies?
  • What is the role of foreigners in the society?
  • Interaction between the foreigners and indigenous population(s).
  • Foreigners as enemies of the state.
  • Foreigners as allies.
  • An experience of being a foreigner.
  • Foreign people and foreign gods.
  • Communication patterns between individuals and societies.

More information can be found on the website of the conference or at Facebook.

Practical information

Programme

Booklet

 

Scientific Committee

  • Elena Devecchi (University of Turin)
  • Kevin McGeough (University of Lethbridge)
  • Jana Mynářová (Charles University)
  • Regine Pruzsinszky (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)
  • Clemens Reichel (University of Toronto)
  • Seth Richardson (University of Chicago)

Organising Committee

  • Jana Mynářová (Charles University)
  • Sergio Alivernini (The Czech Academy of Sciences)
  • Dana Bělohoubková (Charles University)
  • Marwan Kilani (Charles University)

CURRENT RESEARCH IN EGYPTOLOGY 2018

 

PRAGUE, 25–28 JUNE 2018

 

We are pleased to announce that another  Current Research in Egyptology conference will be held in Prague. It be held at the Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Celetná Street 20, Prague.

The topics are not limited, with the focus on Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology, history, philology and religion from Prehistoric to Byzantine Period. Interdisciplinary projects (such as natural sciences, etc.) are also welcome.

Presentations should last max. 20 minutes + 5 minutes discussion, and posters must be in B1 format.

The official language of the conference is English.

Information about registration is available here.

 

Contact: cre2018prague@gmail.com.

 

Generous Patrons, Loyal Clients

Prague, 4–5 September 2017

 

The study of patronage is a very important multi-layered issue closely related to the study of socio-economic and political structures of any community. An essential prerequisite of any type of study are relevant sources. Patronage is a relationship considered to be related to informal networks. This fact, as well as, the intimate nature of the bond, moral obligations between the two parties and its similarity to other dependency relations must necessarily reflect in the traces it leaves in sources. It is for this reason that we are organising a two-day workshop at the Czech Institute of Egyptology in Prague. We hope to provide scholars from various disciplines with the opportunity to engage with each other to discuss the typologies of sources coming from a wide range of societies and the types of traces which patronage leaves in them. Our main foci for this workshop will be discourse on these questions: What type of sources patron-client relations may be discerned in respective societies?  What kind of evidence can be found within these sources?

 

More details on the conference in call for papers.

Tempel-Tagungen

XI. Tempeltagung — The Discourse between Tomb and Temple

Prague, May 24 – 27, 2017

 

The XI. Tempeltagung would like to break through the boundaries separating temple from tomb and focus on the many different types of interaction that existed between these two crucial expressions of ancient Egyptian thought, belief and culture. For more information or to register as a visitor to the XI. Tempeltagung, please contact Filip Coppens: filip.coppens(AT)ff.cuni.cz

Program (updated version 11th May)

Abstracts (updated version 9th May)

Practical Information (updated version 11th May)

 

ARAMAEAN BORDERS. DEFINING ARAMAEAN TERRITORIES IN THE 10TH-8TH CENTURIES BCE
Prague, 22–23 April 2016

In April 2016 a conference “Aramaean Borders. Defining Aramaean Territories in the 10th–8th Centuries BCE” is being organized as a part of a research project of the Czech Science Foundation GA ČR no. P401/12/G168 “History and Interpretation of the Bible”. The conference will be held at the Protestant Theological Faculty, Charles University in Prague (Černá 9, Praha 1).

ABUSIR AND SAQQARA 2015

Prague, June 22-26, 2015

In June 2015 the Czech Institute of Egyptology organizes the already fourth international conference on Abusir and Saqqara. The conference aims to cover all principal fields of Egyptology connected to relevant aspects of the history, archaeology, environmental features, philology, art history, religion and other related subjects concerning the pyramid fields and cemeteries of Abusir and Saqqara and their adjacent areas.

THE CROSSROADS II, OR THERE AND BACK AGAIN

15th – 18th September 2014

The second international conference dedicated to the study of relations between Egypt, the Aegean, the Levant and the Sudan in the Second and First Millennia B.C.E. – “The Crossroads II, or There and Back Again” – will be held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague from Monday 15th to Thursday September 18th 2014.

The main objective of the conference is to enhance our understanding of the historical processes and the development of rich and complex relations between Egypt and the aforementioned regions during the period defined by the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age and the turn of the Eras. In order to obtain a well-balanced insight, we would like the topic to be treated both from an archaeological and a philological point of view. We believe that bringing together archaeologists, philologists, as well as historians and other experts, is not merely highly desirable, but also a necessity for gaining a deeper insight into the historical, social, cultural and economic developments of the respective regions (the Levant and the Sudan) at this particular moment in time. The Aegean and Anatolia will be treated as further international players of that time. During the conference special interest will be given to the topic of technologies and mechanisms of communication between “centres” and “peripheries”. We hope that this discussion will not only provide a new view on, and understanding of, the problems themselves, but we also intend to focus on the character of the political and social organization of these regions and the impact Egypt and the other Great Powers had on their cultural development.

The conference will take place in the main building of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague at Náměstí Jana Palacha 2, 110 00 Prague 1, room 104 (for directions see the Practical Information below) and, as already indicated, will be hosted by the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Institute for Classical Archaeology (both being parts of the above-mentioned Faculty of Arts) and the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures (National Museum). The programme of the workshop as well as other relevant information is now available.

Organising Committee

  • Jana Mynářová (Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague)
  • Pavel Onderka (National Museum – Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures)
  • Peter Pavúk (Institute of Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague)

PROFANE LANDSCAPES, SACRED SPACES
Prague, 26th – 27th June 2014

The Czech Institute of Egyptology announces the international conference Profane landscapes, sacred spaces. The aim of the meeting will be to discuss issues connected to environment development and climate change research in Egyptology, and to the ways ancient Egyptians reflected their environment and created sacred spaces within the natural landscape.
Each of the accepted talks will be given 30 minutes for presentation plus 10-15 minutes for discussion. Conference publication is planned.

On behalf of the organisers: Miroslav Barta, Jiri Janak, Czech Institute of Egyptology (miroslav.barta@ff.cuni.cz, jiri.janak@ff.cuni.cz).

7. Tagung zur Königsideologie: ROYAL VERSUS DIVINE AUTHORITY. ACQUISITION, LEGITIMIZATION AND RENEWAL OF POWER

The 7. Tagung zur Königsideologie will focus on different aspects of the acquisition, legitimization and restoration/renewal of power and authority from all periods of ancient Egyptian history with a spotlight on relations between the divine and royal spheres.

The congress will be held at the premises of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, from Wednesday June 26 to Friday June 28, 2013. The faculty is located on Náměstí Jana Palacha 2 and the congress will take place in room no. 104 on the first floor of the faculty building.

UNDER THE AEGIS OF 1000 GODS… THE EGYPTIAN-HITTITE TREATY OR TREATIES AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT
International Workshop

The international workshop “Under the Aegis of 1000 Gods” will concentrate on various aspects of the relations between Egypt and Hatti in the 14th and 13th centuries BC. It will take place on Friday, April 19, 2013 at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Náměstí Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1 (room 201).

List of speakers:

  • Violetta Cordani (Institut für Altorientalistik, Freie Universität Berlin, TOPOI)
  • Elena Devecchi (Assyriologie und Hethitologie, Ludwig-Maxmilians-Universität München)
  • Jana Mynářová (Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague)
  • Seraina Nett (Center for Canon and Identity Formation, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen)
  • Guido Pfeifer (Lehrstuhl für Antike Rechtsgeschichte,Europäische Privatrechtsgeschichte und Zivilrecht, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)
  • Aaron Tugendhaft (Assyriologie und Hethitologie, Ludwig-Maxmilians-Universität München)

 

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