Manifestations scientifiques
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Le séminaire de recherche de l'Ifao
Le mercredi 5 mars 2025 à 14h00 (heure du Caire), IFAO 
Not only officials and miners
specialised professionals as place-makers in the desertscape
Cristina Alù
Langue : anglais.
The 3rd session of the Séminaire de recherche de l’Ifao for this academic year 2024/2025 features Cristina Alù (Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut). It will be introduced and moderated by Laura Aguer, scientific member at the Ifao.
The seminar is open to all interested participants, in person, subject to availability.
Abstract
The processes of place-making in the Egyptian Eastern Desert reflect a deep history of adaptation, resource use, and cultural expressions.
We know a lot about the organisational aspects of the Egyptian mining expeditions, as their members left us many testimonies in rock inscriptions along the main routes, in temporary settlements, or in places of the landscape most significant to them. These sources have mostly been read as accounts of expeditionary ventures, or as documents useful for understanding the Pharaonic administration connected with mining activities.
On the other hand, not so frequently was the question asked about the degree of technical knowledge of the desert landscape and its resources that these people had: scholars have focused more on the administrative hierarchy of the expedition members than on their specialist skills, and they certainly must have them.
A re-examination of the epigraphic sources from various mining sites in the Eastern Desert (Wadi Hammamat, Hatnub, Wadi el-Hudi, Atbai region, etc.) shows that indeed some titles attested especially in the lists of expedition members must have referred to individuals with specific geological skills and know-how. After all, place-making coincides also and to some extent with in-depth knowledge and familiarity with a place and the resources it can provide.
Cristina Alù earned her BA in Oriental Studies (2013) and MA in Egyptology (2016) from the University of Pisa. In 2021, she completed a joint PhD between the University of Pisa and the Universität zu Köln, focusing on a diachronic analysis of social aspects of interaction phenomena in Egypt’s mining frontier regions.
From 2022 to 2023, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and a member of the PRIN project PROCESS in Pisa.
In 2023-2024, she further developed her doctoral research as a postdoctoral fellow at IFAO and PCMA in Cairo. As part of this work, she organized an international conference and is currently editing its proceedings, which explore the long-term dynamics of socialization in the Eastern Desert landscape.
She is currently a research assistant at the ÖAI in Cairo, where she applies her expertise in material culture and landscape archaeology to the institute’s excavation projects at Kom Ombo and Tell el-Dab’a.
Le séminaire de recherche de l'Ifao
Le séminaire de recherche de l'Ifao est un lieu d'échange et de dialogue scientifique sur les recherches en cours sur l'Egypte, l'ensemble du Proche-Orient ou parfois les espaces plus vastes dans lesquels s'inscrit l'histoire égyptienne. Y sont présentées et discutées par un ou plusieurs intervenants les recherches menées par les membres de la communauté scientifique de l'Ifao, ainsi que par des chercheurs invités.
Le séminaire vise tout à la fois à exposer et confronter des savoirs, et à s'interroger sur des questions d'ordre méthodologique (appréhension du terrain, écriture, interdisciplinarité, humanités numériques, comparatisme, etc.).
Modalités : présentiel, distanciel ou mode hybride, le mercredi après-midi, de 16 à 18h (horaire susceptible d'être modifié en fonction de l'actualité).
Lieu : salle de conférence de l'Ifao.