Welcome to the website of the Third International Colloquium on Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt. This triennial conference draws together an international field of Egyptologists, archaeologists and anthropologists who specialise in the origins and formation of the ancient Egyptian state (c. 4000–2680 BC). The inaugural meeting entitled 'Origin of the State: Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt' was held in Kraków, Poland, in August 2002. Following the success of the second meeting in Toulouse, France, in September 2005, the third meeting was held at the British Museum, London, from Sunday 27th July to Friday 1st August 2008.
The first day of the colloquium (Monday 28th July) was held in conjunction with the British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan’s one day Annual Egyptological Colloquium 2008* on the topic of:
Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt: Recent Discoveries
BP Lecture Theatre, The British Museum, London
Speakers: Dirk Huyge (Qurta), Matthieu Honegger (pre-Kerma), Deborah Darnell (Rayayna)
Matthew Adams & David O’Connor (Abydos), Vera Müller (Abydos, Umm el-Qa‘ab)
Renée Friedman (Hierakonpolis), Thomas Hikade (Hierakonpolis), Christiana Köhler (Helwan)
Béatrix Midant-Reynes (Kom el-Khilgan), Ulrich Hartung (Buto)
Followed by:
The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation Distinguished Lecture in Egyptology 2008
Krzysztof Ciałowicz: Ivory and gold in the Delta: excavations at Tell el-Farkha
Reception in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery
The deadline for submission of abstracts was Monday 1st October 2007. The complete book of abstracts can be downloaded here.
Photographs of the conference can be viewed here. Additional photographs taken by Colloquium participants would be gratefully received! Please send your photographs as .jpeg files to the Organising Committee at the following address:
On Wednesday 30th July 2008, more than 140 conference delegates attended an evening reception and private viewing of the Egyptian collections in the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford. This event included a special exhibition of Early Dynastic objects created specifically for the Colloquium. Further information can be found here.
Workshops
Information about the conference workshops on Early Dynastic potmarks, chronology and script as material culture can be found here:
Early Dynastic potmarks Chronology Script as material culture
Renée Friedman and Liam McNamara
The Organising Committee
