Conference

Making Waves on the Nile? Change and Continuity in Hellenistic Egypt

Date

Thursday 17 September 2026

Time

09:00 - 18:00

Location

Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden

Room

2.60

The conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE has long been considered a watershed moment in the history of the country, and has undoubtedly shaped the parameters of various academic disciplines. Whether or not this moment should be considered a divide, the Hellenistic period that followed certainly produced significant change and innovations across Egyptian society, from large scale economic innovations such as the first widespread coinage in Egypt (Von Reden 2007; Colburn 2018) to highly specialised developments such as the increasing number of hieroglyphs (Wilson 2003; Vandorpe 2010).  Such developments drew on both imported practices and the continuation of indigenous traditions, but to what degree were they also creating a uniquely Hellenistic Egyptian way of life? And how universally was this felt across all layers of society?

The conference will bring together early career scholars from diverse fields with a shared interest in Hellenistic Egypt and in particular the societal developments of the period to both share their own research, and create links with colleagues they might otherwise not get to meet.

Programme

9.00 – 9.30	Arrival and Registration
9.30 – 9.50	Welcome and Introductory Remarks – Manon Post, Leiden University
9.50 – 10.20	Georgios Gkogkolakis, University of Zurich
	The Demosion and the Transformation of Documentary Practices in Hellenistic Egypt
10.20 – 10.50	Andrea Careddu, University of Pisa
	Ptolemaic Officials at Koptos: Self-Representation and Local Dynamics in the Greek Inscriptions
10.50 – 11.15	Break
11.15 – 11.45	Juliette Quatre, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London
	Naukratis’ Religious Landscape: Graeco-Egyptian Cultural Interactions and the Sense of Otherness
11.45 – 12.15	Mary Curwen, Yale University
	Houses of Knowledge and βιβλιοθῆκαι: The multicultural intellectual contexts behind the development of Graeco-Egyptian alchemical literature
12.15 – 13.30	Lunch
13.30 – 14.00	Shaimaa Ahmed, Ain Shams University
	Beyond Survival: Rethinking False Doors in Ptolemaic Funerary Contexts
14.00 – 14.30	Lyla Guthrie, Barnard College
	Shedding Shed: The Horus-Shed Conflation and the Democratization of Divine Power
14.30-15.00	Break
15.00 – 15.30	Arthur Holmes, University of Leeds
	Figuring life out: what can terracotta figurines at the British Museum tell us about changing cultural practices under the Ptolemies?
15.30 – 16.00	Geert Ham, Leiden University
	Sculptures, Symbolism, and Spolia: The case of the dromos of the Saqqara Serapeum
16.00-16.30	Conclusionary Discussion
17.00-18.00	Drinks

 

 

Register

Please register by emailing Manon Post ([e-mail]) or Geert Ham ([e-mail]).

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