Typ akce: konference
Místo: Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Nam. J. Palacha 2, 116 38 Prague 1
Organizátor: Jana Mynářová
The Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University is pleased to announce an international conference dedicated to migration and mobility in the ancient Near East and Egypt. The conference will be held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague between September 19 and 22, 2022.

Movement from place to place in geographical or social space is one of the basic elements of human behaviour, accompanying people since the earliest times. The main objective of the conference is to enhance our understanding of processes related to migration and mobility 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. Our aim is to approach this fascinating topic from different angles, based on the study of both written sources and material culture, using various methods and approaches. In order to obtain a well-balanced insight, we would like the topic to be treated from an archaeological, historical, iconographic, and/or philological perspective. We believe that bringing together archaeologists, philologists, historians and other experts is not only highly desirable, but also a necessity for gaining a deeper insight into the historical, social, cultural and economic aspects of migration and mobility in the respective regions and societies of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant at this particular moment in time.

We hope that the idea of working along the topic of migration and mobility will provide some fascinating talks and discussions. We are sure that many of the papers will touch upon several aspects of migration and mobility, but we would be especially interested in the following themes:

Theme #1: Spatial and social mobility
Theme #2: Migration, mobility, and interaction of ideas and their reflection in material culture
Theme #3: Migration, mobility and interaction in the world of gods and humans
Theme #4: Borders and borderlands

On the first day, the conference will open with keynote lectures introducing two of the main themes. Through his lecture “Divine Journeys in Myth and Ritual”, Paul Delnero (Johns Hopkins University) will address the problems of migration and mobility in the divine world of ancient Mesopotamia, while Juan Carlos Moreno García (CNRS) will bring our attention to social and economic aspects of human interactions in ancient Egypt by presenting a lecture “Contact, Mobility, Migration: Social and Economic Interaction across Egyptian Borders”.

The Crossroads IV scientific committee invites proposals for papers and posters relating to the above-mentioned aspects of migration and mobility. The official language of the conference will be English and each talk should be 25 minutes long with an additional 5 minutes allowed for discussion. In order to assess your proposal, you are expected to submit an abstract (not exceeding 500 words in length) by February 1, 2022, to Jana Mynářová (jana.mynarova@ff.cuni.cz).

We expect to send out notifications by the beginning of March to allow all participants ample time for travel plans. Conference registration will begin on March 15, 2022. There will be no conference fee.

Scientific Committee:
Susan Cohen (Montana State University)
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)

Organizing Committee
Jana Mynářová (Charles University)
Ludovica Bertolini (Charles University)
Federico Zangani (Charles University)

The conference is supported by the European Regional Development Fund project “Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World” (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734).