“Hieroglyphs in the 21st Century” Conference at the BA
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The BA Writing and Scripts Center, in cooperation with the Institut français d'archéologie Orientale (IFAO) and the Champollion Museum in Figeac, organizes a conference and an exhibition entitled “Hieroglyphs in the 21st Century”, in celebration of the bicentenary of the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. Both events take place from 10 – 13 October 2022, in the BA Conference Center.
The conference begins on Monday, 10 October 2022, at 4 pm, with the opening of the exhibition in the BACC East Exhibition Hall, which will be inaugurated by Dr. Ahmed Zayed, Director of the BA, Dr. Laurent Coulon, Director of the Institut français d'archéologie Orientale, and a number of public figures. The exhibition comprises a collection of panels depicting the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and others that trace the journey of writing in Egypt. The dictionary of Egyptologist Ahmed Kamal Pasha – the first hieroglyphic dictionary to be translated into French and Arabic – will be showcased for the first time in the exhibition. It is worth mentioning that the family of Ahmed Kamal Pasha had donated the dictionary to the BA, to be preserved and restored through the Cultural Outreach Sector’s restoration laboratory, in order to be displayed to the public.
The event will be attended by a host of Egyptian archaeologists who will present their remarkable researches, including the research of the Egyptian scholar Dr. Okasha El-Daly, which reviews the attempts of medieval Arab scientists to discover and understand the symbols of the ancient Egyptian language, which preceded Champollion by almost a thousand years. The conference will also feature the research of Dr. Ola El-Aguizy, Professor of Ancient Egyptian Language and former Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University, which tackles the Rosetta Stone by shedding light on Champollion's methodology in deciphering the hieroglyphs, in addition to the research of Dr. Hani Rashwan, Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the United Arab Emirates University, which deals with the rediscovery of ancient Egyptian literature through Arabic poetry.
The conference ends on Thursday, 13 October 2022, with a visit by the speakers to the Citadel of Qaitbay in Rashid, where the Rosetta Stone was discovered.
The conference and exhibition are open to the public. No prior registration is required.
Conference sessions will be broadcast through the BA webcast service: http://webcast.bibalex.org/home/index.aspx