On behalf of the ERC Starting Grant “Challenging Time(s) – A New Approach to Written Sources for Ancient Egyptian Chronology” (GA Nr 757951) (<https://www.oeaw.ac.at/oeai/
The conference “‘In the Time(s) of My Father and of My Father’s Father’ … Genealogy and Prosopography as Sources for Historical Chronology” will take place on 4th–7th May 2022, at the Austrian Archaeological Institute (Department of Classical Studies) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Austria.
Traditionally, Egyptian chronology is largely a royal chronology, but, often enough, data is insufficient and, therefore, additional sources of information are required. Genealogies of royalty and commoners, succession lines of officials, and prosopographic networks are by far inexhausted for reasons of chronology, but may supplement our datasets. At the same time, evaluating and interpreting this kind of data faces a broad variety of difficulties and intricacies which are
paramount for our understanding of the genealogical and prosopographic information as presented by the Egyptians themselves. Among the major obstacles are:
– the understanding of expressions of kinship,
– the differentiation between homonymous persons,
– the determination of family relationships,
– the interpretation of social relations,
– the reconstruction of genealogies,
– the qualitative assessment of social networks,
– the estimation of longevity,
– the approximation of career durations,
– the determination of generations,
– the distinction between “génération généalogique” and
“chronologique”,
– the nexus with royal chronology.
At this conference, difficulties arising from prosopographic and genealogical data shall be discussed for the various periods of Egyptian history from the Early Dynastic Period until the beginning of the Late Period. Presentations may address any of the above-mentioned aspects focusing on a particular period of Egyptian history or in a diachronic perspective. In addition, contributions to the theoretical framework of prosopography and genealogy in the context of chronology are welcome.
Organizers plan to hold this conference primarily as an in-person conference, although a hybrid format is envisaged. For participants, costs of travel up to 500 EUR and all costs for accommodation will be covered from our budget.
The entire conference will be held in English; all contributions shall be published in a proceedings volume.
We would appreciate receiving your application (title and abstract [max. 300 words]) until 30th November 2021.
Please direct your reply to Annik Wüthrich, Roman Gundacker, and Hermine Huber.
