Wednesday, February 23rd
14:15 h Greetings / EVA CANCIK-KIRSCHBAUM, DFG-Kollegforschungsgruppe 2615: „Rethinking Oriental Despotism”
14:30 h THOMAS L. GERTZEN & OLAF MATTHES: Introduction
15:00 h Coffee break
Panel 1: The many facets of an intricate topic
15:15 h LARS PETERSEN (Karlsruhe): Between passion for antiquities and science – European aristocracy and archaeology
15:45 h MARCO BONECHI (Rome): Rise and Fall of the Società Asiatica Italiana
16:15 h FELICITY COBBING (London): The Many Faces of the Palestine Exploration Fund: Hidden and not-so hidden agendas at work in a learned society in the late 19th century
16:45 h Discussion
18:00 h Keynote lecture: CHRISTOPH JAHR (Humboldt Universität Berlin): Europa und der Orient. Bürgerliche Gelehrsamkeit und imperiales Sendungsbewusstsein im langen 19. Jahrhundert
Thursday, February 24th
Panel 2: Discovering the ‘lands of the Bible’ – A vast area of research
10:00 h STEFANIA ERMIDORO (Venice): The Assyrian Exploration Fund and the early exploration of ancient Mesopotamia
10:30 h SEBASTIAAN BERNTSEN (Leiden): Case studies in popularizing the Ancient Near East in the Netherlands: The Sichem Committee, Ex Oriente Lux
11:00 h Discussion
11:15 h Coffee break
11:30 h SILVIA ALAURA (Rome): Oriental Societies and Hittite studies in Victorian England: Tracing the history of an entangled relationship
12:00 h REIKO MAEJIMA (Vienna): Babylon Society as a Japanese Private Association in the Early Twentieth Century
12:30 h Discussion
12:45 h Lunch break
Panel 3: Eternal Egypt?
14:30 h JEAN-MICHEL BRUFFAERTS (Bruxelles), MARLEEN DE MEYER (Leuven & Cairo), JAN VANDERSMISSEN (Ghent): The Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth in Brussels: Neutral little Belgium as the nucleus of Egyptology in the 1920–1940s.
15:00 h STEPHANIE BOONSTRA (London): Fundraising for Amarna: Evidence from the EES archive
15:30 h Discussion
15:45 h Coffee break
Panel 4: Issues and „-isms“
16:00 h PETER ROHRBACHER (Vienna): „The Aryan Orient“: The Research Institute for East and Orient in Vienna 1916–1923
16:15 h THOMAS L. GERTZEN (Berlin): Jews excavating in Egypt? – An Archaeological Endeavour of the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens
16:45 h Discussion
Friday, February 25th
Panel 5: Stocktaking and Absences
10:00 h KATALIN KÓTHAY (Budapest): Hungarian archaeological presence (and absence) in Egypt before World War I
10:30 h HANA NAVRATILOVA (Reading/Oxford): Bohemian absences
11:00 h Discussion
11:15 h Coffee break
11:30 h WILLEMIJN WAAL (Leiden): The Netherlands Institute for the Near East: the early years
12:00 h CAROLIEN VAN ZOEST (Leiden): Overview of societies and initiatives in the Netherlands in the 20th century
12:30 h Discussion
12:45 h Lunch break
14:30 h OLAF MATTHES (Hamburg): The German Orient Society as an early example of a public-private partnership
15:00 h Looking back – closing discussion