The new academic year starts with the most important conference in Nubian studies. Since 1972, this conference has been organized every four years for archaeologists, epigraphers, historians, and other scholars working on the ancient and modern history of Nubia (Sudan and Egypt).
The conference programme can be found here.
For Dobrochna and Adam this was also a meeting of longtime friends and colleagues but for me (Gertrud) it was the first time to participate in this conference. It was a time for meeting new colleagues but also old friends from the CNRS and the Coptic department of the Louvre.
Dobrochna presented her work on research on the Meroitic influences on Christian art while Adam’s key note lecture focused on the inscriptions in the Upper Church at Banganarti. I gave a short presentation of the project and concentrated on the church at Naqa el-Oqba in northern Nobadia.
FIRTH, C.M., Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1910-1911, Cairo 1927, pl. 17a.
This small 6th century church was submerged by Lake Nasser/Nubia. Dobrochna had already made an overview of the old documentation (the excavations and photographs by C.M. Firth (1910-1911), Fr. Daumas (1964) and some subsequent studies) in the past. The church had a complete pictorial programme, which has been discussed in the context of Nubian wall painting although it was noticed that some of the themes and compositions were closer to the Egyptian tradition. It turns out that there are not only influences from Egypt (in the compositions, themes and architecture) but also from Byzantium. An article on this church, in cooperation with Alexandros Tsakos (Bergen, Norway) who is studying the inscriptions, is in preparation.
The conference ended with a dinner cruise on the Seine – Wonderful food, good company.