Unseen—Untold: Stories of ancient non-elite communities

NINO Postdoctoral Research Fellow 5^th Annual Conference
Leiden, 18-20 December 2024

Organized by: Alisée Devillers

The Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) at Leiden University is pleased to host the conference “Unseen—Untold: Stories of non-elite communities”, in 2024. The meeting will take place from Wednesday 18^th to Friday 20^th of December 2024 in Leiden. If you wish to attend, registration before November 22th, 2024 is mandatory. Jump to registration

Conference theme

Following the general call in social sciences to focus on those forgotten by history based on elite’s records, this conference aims to offer new perspectives on the material and textual culture of those unseen and unmentioned in the ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern monumental landscape. To unravel the visual and written stories of ancient non-elite people, speakers will be invited to ground their discourse on individual and collective identity formation and will be encouraged to include and adapt anthropological and sociological theories on this topic into their presentation.

The conference will articulate several research paths:

• Defining concepts. As it has already been underlined, we lack precise definitions for people we call “intermediate elite,” “lower elite,” or “sub-elite,” and we need an accurate adaptation of these concepts inherited from the social sciences. It should be noted, however, that the definition of non-elite socio-professional classes might vary depending on the chrono-cultural contexts in which they were set. Therefore, the following questions should be asked anew for each different context: who were these people who managed to gather enough human and economic resources to appear within the monumental landscape built by the elite? How did they define themselves, individually and collectively? Which (new) socio-professional categories emerged at a specific period/place? What did they appear in our documentation?
• Close-up on the added value of art historical-materialist approaches. Especially welcome are communications using art historical analytic methodology to make sense of ancient artifacts to assess social rankings in terms of prestige and preciousness. Such perspectives will question the means used to access funerary commemoration: what was legitimate or accepted to borrow from elite culture? Which networks were used to commission their own funerary monuments? What was valued as prestigious and precious? Which tricks were used to make a less valuable material “look like” an elite object?
• A cross-cultural perspective. Scholars from other fields are welcome to share their research on other chrono-cultural contexts. These comparanda may help us to identify the specificities of ancient Egyptian/Nubian/Near Eastern societies and highlight culturally specific mechanisms at stake in these contexts.

Program

December 18, 2024 (Academiegebouw)

December 19, 2024 (P.J. Veth Building)

December 20, 2024 (Leemanszaal, RMO)

Disclaimers

The conference is organized on-site. Colleagues and students are welcome to join the audience, as room capacities allow.

We plan to livestream the conference, for those who cannot participate in person. A link to the video stream will be provided in due course.

Registration, contacts, and information

Registration for attendance in person is now closed. Attendance is free of charge, and on a first come, first served base.

The conference will be livestreamed through Zoom – please note: no recordings will be made, and it will not be possible to watch the lectures afterwards. Register here to receive the link to the livestream via email.

For additional questions and information, please contact the organizing committee: a.k.m.devillers@hum.leidenuniv.nl or NINO-conference@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Deadlines and dates

Image credit: Relief depicting workshop (RMO inv.no. AP 40), Saqqara, New Kingdom. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden.