CALL. 31.03.2020: "Megiddo, Kadesh, and the Aftermath". An international conference on war
FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 31/03/2020
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 21-22-23/09/2020
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Jana Mynářová (Charles University); Peter J. Brand (University of Memphis)
INFO: Facebook -
CALL:
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).