IFAO

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the deciphering of hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion (1822-2022), the Institut français d’archéologie orientale and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina are organizing an international symposium entitled Hieroglyphs in the 21st century, with the support of the Centre d'Études Alexandrines and the French Institute of Alexandria.

The conference will take place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina from 10 to 13 October 2022 and will bring together Egyptologists, linguists, philologists and historians specializing in ancient Egyptian scripts. It will include a visit to the discovery site of the Rosetta Stone.

The papers presented at the conference will cover two main aspects of the history of research on Egyptian writing and texts: on the one hand, recent work on the decipherment of hieroglyphs and the historiography of Egyptian philology, and on the other hand, current research on linguistics, epigraphy, palaeography, and the contextual and historical analysis of ancient Egyptian texts in hieroglyphic script or its cursive variants, hieratic and demotic. 

Programme hereafter

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À l’occasion du bicentenaire du déchiffrement des hiéroglyphes par Jean-François Champollion (1822-2022), l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale et la Bibliotheca Alexandrina organisent  un colloque international intitulé Hieroglyphs in the 21st century, avec l’appui du Centre d’Études Alexandrines et de l’Institut Français d’Alexandrie.

Le colloque aura lieu à la Bibliotheca Alexandrina du 10 au 13 octobre 2022 et rassemblera des égyptologues, linguistes, philologues et historiens spécialistes des écritures de l’Égypte ancienne. Il inclura une visite sur le lieu de découverte de la Pierre de Rosette.

Les communications présentées lors du colloque couvriront deux grands aspects de l’histoire de la recherche sur l’écriture et les textes égyptiens : d’une part, les travaux récents sur le déchiffrement des hiéroglyphes et l’historiographie de la philologie égyptienne, d’autre part, les recherches actuelles sur la linguistique, l’épigraphie, la paléographie, l’analyse contextuelle et historique des textes de l’Égypte ancienne, en écriture hiéroglyphique ou dans ses variantes cursives, le hiératique et le démotique.  

Programme

Day 1: 10 October 2022 – Official Opening

4:00 – 5:00 pm: Opening of the Exhibitions:

     - The journey of writing in Egypt (Writing & Scripts center, BA)

     - Decipherments (IFAO & Musée Champollion – Les Écritures du monde de Figeac)

5:00 – 6:00 pm: Opening Session

6:00 – 6:30 pm: Keynote Speaker: Dr. Fayza Haikal. Champollion’s decipherment of the scripts of ancient Egypt and the revelation of Egyptian Intangible Heritage (Online).        

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Day 2: 11 October 2022 - The Journey of Decipherment

Session 1: Decipherment: History and Methodology (Chair: Mohamed Abdelghany)

9:30 – 9:50 am: Okasha el-Daly, Qatar University. Medieval Arabic Scholars and Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

9:50 – 10:10 am: Ola el-Aguizy, Cairo University. Champollion and the Decipherment of the Hieroglyphic Script.

10:10 – 10:30 am: Louay Said, Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Champollion, Coptic Language and the Rosetta stone.

10:30 – 10:50 am: Ahmed Mansour, Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Rosetta Stone: One or More? Examples of Multilingualism Texts and the Deciphering of Ancient Scripts.

10:50 – 11:30 am: Questions

11:30 – 12:00 am: Coffee Break

 

Session 2: Linguistic Aspects (Chair: Ola el-Aguizy)

12:00 – 12:20 pm: Hany Rashwan, UAE University / University of Birmingham. Rediscovering Ancient Egyptian Literature through Arabic Poetics

12:20 – 12:40 pm: Hussein Bassir, Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Language, Scripts and Literature in Saite Egypt.

12:40 – 1:00 pm: Mohamed Abdelghany, Alexandria University. The Motives behind using Greek in the Rosetta stone and other Priestley Decrees.

1:00 – 1:20 pm: Maha Akeel, Helwan University. Egyptian Priestesses in the Demotic Texts.

1:20 – 1:40 pm: Questions

2:00 – 3:00 pm: Lunch (invitation only)

3:00 – 3:30 pm: Keynote Lecture: Azza Ezzat & Ahmed Mansour, Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The Revival of Ahmed Kamal Pasha’s Dictionary.

3:30 – 4:00 pm: Visit to BA

4:00 – 4:30 pm: Visit to Restoration Lab

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DAY 3 : 12/10 – The study of Egyptian writing in the 21st century

Session 1: La main du scribe / The scribe’s hand. (Chair: Chloé Ragazzoli)

9:30 – 9:50 am: Lucía Díaz-Iglesias, ILC-CSIC, Madrid. Scribal hands and habits in Theban 18th Dynasty burial chambers through the lenses of TT 87 (Nakhtmin).

9:50 – 10:10 am : Sylvie Donnat, Université de Strasbourg. Scribes au travail en contexte rituel : réflexions autour de la chaîne opératoire de la production des papyrus amulettiques ramessides.

10:10 – 10:30 am: Dimitri Laboury, FNRS-FRS / University of Liège. Ḥmw m ḏbʿw.f or when the scribe is an artist: On the making of monumental hieroglyphic inscriptions and their Egyptological study.

10:30 – 11:00 am: Questions

 

Session 2: La main du scribe / The scribe’s hand. (Chair: Chloé Ragazzoli)

11:30 – 11:50 am: Annie Gasse, CNRS (UMR 5140 - Montpellier III). Écritures malhabiles et ostraca à plusieurs mains.

11:50 – 12:10 pm: Khaled Hassan, Cairo University. The scribes of the Book of the Dead papyri of the lady Hatnefer from the 18th Dynasty.

12:10 – 12:30 pm: Chloé Ragazzoli, Sorbonne Université. From the ancient hand to the modern eye: experiences of the papyrus Prisse.

12:30 – 1:00 pm: Questions

1:00 – 2:00 pm: Lunch (invitation only)

 

Session 3: Hieroglyphs in the 21st century, between semiotics and linguistics. (Chair: Stéphane Polis)

2:00 – 2:20 pm: Andréas Stauder, École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing among other pristine writing systems.

2:20 – 2:40 pm: Stéphane Polis, FNRS-FRS / University of Liège. Décoder l’énigmatique : un point de vue émique.

2:40 – 3:00 pm: Ben Haring, Leiden University. Hieroglyphs, marks, and pseudo-script.

3:00 – 3:20 pm: Roman Gundacker, University of Vienna. Everybody’s Darling: Royal Names of Endearment in a Morphological Perspective.

3:20 – 3:40 pm: Marwan Kilani, Egyptologist. Group Writing in New Kingdom Egypt: exploring the socio-cultural dimension(s) of a new orthography.

3:40 – 4:00 pm: Questions

4:00 – 4:30 pm: Coffee Break

4:30 – 5:30 pm: Workshop: Samar Farag & Peter Soccar. Digital Archives Projects.

 

DAY 4 : 13/10 – Trip to Rosetta (Qaitbay’s Fort) – Departure, BA Plaza (invitation only)