IFAO

IFAO and PCMA UW, Cairo, Egypt

The Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale and the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Research Center in Cairo are jointly organising an international conference entitled: Place-making in the desertscape: the socialisation of the Egyptian-Sudanese Eastern Desert landscape in the longue durée (4th millennium BCE- 4th century CE). Conference will take place in Cairo from 27 to 29 April 2024 at both PCMA and Ifao.

The desert to the east of the Nile Valley has had a long use-life since Prehistory, which have resulted in a multi-layered network whose nodes consist of mines and quarries together with their processing sites, connecting roads and waystations, cairns, rock shelters carved with petroglyphs, inscriptions and graffiti. All these nodes are the embodiment of individual and collective perceptions and understandings of the desert environment through time. Landscape, and perhaps even more the desertscape, is indeed a living process: whether built or not, it is constantly a work-in-progress. It is the very process of apprehension and appropriation of the environment that constitutes the landscape. The use, re-use, and abuse of the Egyptian-Sudanese Eastern Desert by various peoples over time expresses not only the control over mineral resources but also a search for continuity, the attempt to elaborate one or several group identities.

The conference, covering a wide geographical and temporal range, aims to bring together scholars who have approached the topic of the relationship between man and the desert landscape from different but complementary theoretical and methodological perspectives. In particular, the focus is on the processes of place-naming and place-making, understood as the social practices of defining places, plotting mental maps, constructing shared meanings and cultural memories, mechanisms in which the negotiation between places and people comes into play.

Themes:

• Place-naming in the desertscape: toponymy and mental mapping
• Place-making in the desertscape: marking, differentiating and connecting
• Sharing memories and negotiating identities in the desertscape
• Dynamics of power in the desertscape
• Other

Priliminary Programme (download)

Attendance

All the conference sessions are open to the public to attend. As places are limited, please register using the online form. Deadline for regestration April 19th, 2024.

Please note that the conference will be held at PCMA (27 April) and Ifao (28 and 29 April). Remote attendance is available, please make sure to choose this option in the online form.