Summary details
- Conference dates: Wednesday 15th – Friday 17th December 2021, 10.30am–6.30pm (GMT+1)
- Location: online (via Zoom), hosted by Leiden University
- Public webinar registration: click here (free of charge)
Making and Experiencing Graffiti builds on recent graffiti-themed conferences in ancient and Late Antique Egypt and Sudan (e.g., Emberling and Davis 2019; Ragazzoli, Harmanşah, Salvador, Frood 2018), seeking papers to be presented under two major themes: ‘making’ and ‘experience’. In particular, papers that explore the mode, technique, and performance of graffiti-making are of interest, as are those which consider how textual and figural graffiti intersect with related corpora (e.g., mason’s and quarry marks, rock inscriptions, petroglyphs) along these lines, between the 3rd Millennium BCE – 7th century CE. A narrow definition of graffiti is eschewed, and speakers are encouraged to consider the socio-historical and practical circumstances in which marks and inscriptions were made and how they may respond to each other and other media around them.
Diagnostic features of inscriptions in one textual or inscriptional culture, or historical period, are not expected to apply universally; however, similarities may exist across other frames of reference, such as the aesthetic response to inscribed (or uninscribed) space, bodily convenience and markers of technical ability, self-thematization and display, for example. Participants are encouraged to engage with materiality and theories of practice (which could be approached from a number of disciplinary angles: e.g., textual criticism, anthropology, art history/visual culture studies), or other complementary frameworks of interpretation (such as theories of landscape, senses and phenomenology, archaeology of movement and mobility). Papers that address the conference theme reflecting on contemporary and historical epigraphic practice and archival research, or the intersection and dialog between ancient and more modern graffiti, are also welcome. The wider conference and the subsequent edited volume will reflect collaborative exploration of meaning in ancient inscription-making that is reflexive in methodology and approach.
Keynote talks will be delivered by Dr Johannes Auenmüller (Museo Egizio, Turin); Prof. Elizabeth Frood (University of Oxford); Dr Ben Haring (Leiden University); Dr Paweł Polkowski (Poznań Archaeological Museum / University of Warsaw); Dr Nico Staring (Leiden University); and Prof. Jacques van der Vliet (NINO / Leiden University / Radboud University).
Programme at a glance
Please note that all times are given in CET/GMT+1. Download the full programme and conference abstracts.
Wednesday 15th December – Day 1 |
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| 10.15am | Zoom waiting room opens to public |
| 10.30am | Conference welcome |
| 10.40am | Keynote 1: Paweł Polkowski
Rock art and graffiti in Egypt and Nubia: On the selected aspects of terminology, interpretation, and theoretical developments |
| 11.40am | Comfort break (10min) |
| 11.50am | Session 1: Cooper – Rieger – Refaat Mahmoud |
| 1.15pm | Lunch break (1 hour) |
| 2.15pm | Session 2: Hassan – Morel – Campagno/Maydana |
| 3.40pm | Comfort break (10min) |
| 3.50pm | Session 3: Kaper – Dijkstra – Lazaridis |
| 5.15pm | Comfort break (15min) |
| 5.30pm | Keynote 2: Johannes Auenmüller
The Ellesija Chapel in Turin: A case study in secondary epigraphy |
Thursday 16th December – Day 2 |
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| 10.15am | Zoom waiting room opens to public |
| 10.30am | Conference welcome |
| 10.40am | Keynote 3: Nico Staring
Tomb graffiti and the biography of a cultural landscape |
| 11.40am | Comfort break (10min) |
| 11.50am | Session 4: Den Doncker – Dorn |
| 1.00pm | Lunch break (1 hour 15min) |
| 2.15pm | Session 5: Ragab – Accetta-Crowe/Smerdon – Horbury |
| 3.40pm | Comfort break (10min) |
| 3.50pm | Session 6: Al Taher/Salvador – Hackley – Pestarino |
| 5.15pm | Comfort break (15min) |
| 5.30pm | Keynote 4: Elizabeth Frood
So many worlds in a name: Micro-stories from Karnak |
Friday 17th December – Day 3 |
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| 10.15am | Zoom waiting room opens to public |
| 10.30am | Conference welcome |
| 10.40am | Keynote 5: Ben Haring
The point of making marks |
| 11.40am | Comfort break (10min) |
| 11.50am | Session 7: Brémont – Vymazalová – Nilsson/Ward |
| 1.15pm | Lunch break (1 hour) |
| 2.15pm | Session 8: Olette-Pelletier – Łukaszewicz – Ochała |
| 3.40pm | Comfort break (10min) |
| 3.50pm | Session 9: Navrátilová – Rosenmeyer |
| 4.50pm | Comfort break (10min) |
| 5.00pm | Keynote 6: Jacques van der Vliet
‘Weep with me over my sins!’ Author – recipient interaction in graffiti from Christian Egypt and Nubia |
| 6.00pm | Conference summary and closing |
N.B.: Due to COVID-19 restrictions in The Netherlands, Prof. Jacques van der Vliet will no longer speak at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities), and the final keynote session will be held online.
