Conference: The Collapse of the Old Kingdom as a Multidisciplinary Problem

Come and hear the latest findings in the field of Egyptology. We cordially invite you to an international conference organized by the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Charles University and Yale University.

The conference will focus on the collapse of Egypt’s Old Kingdom associated with the 4.2 ka BP event, which occurred approximately 4,200 years before present. The goal of the event is to analyze this problem from archaeological, epigraphic, hydrological, and paleoclimatic perspectives. The full programme is accessible here. The conference will primarily address the following research areas:

• The hydrology of the Nile before, during, and after the 4.2 ka BP event
• Quantification of paleoclimatic proxy data from cave sediments (speleothems), lake sediments, and marine cores during and around the 4.2 ka BP event, with a focus on changes in the Indian Summer Monsoon and mid-latitude westerlies
• Radiocarbon relationships between Indian Summer Monsoon proxy events during the 4.2 ka BP period and the dating of the Old Kingdom collapse
• Economy, agricultural production, and administration during the collapse and the subsequent First Intermediate Period
• The role of Memphis and individual nomes before, during, and after the collapse
• Decline in social and economic complexity reflected in architecture, art, and the regionalization of craftsmanship, trade systems, and routes
• The political role of the 7th and 8th Dynasties
• Evidence of political and military conflicts at the end of the Old Kingdom
• Settlement density, its role and governance in the Delta during the 6th Dynasty and the First Intermediate Period
• Foreign relations at the end of the Old Kingdom and during the First Intermediate Period
• Modeling causal relationships between Nile flow, agricultural production, and emerging political structures at the end of the Old Kingdom and in the First Intermediate Period

The conference will be held on the 3rd floor of Building A from Wednesday, July 2 to Thursday, July 4, 2025.

The organizers of the conference are Prof. Miroslav Bárta from the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Charles University in Prague and Prof. Harvey Weiss from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the School of the Environment at Yale University. Additional information and news are available on the web of Czech Institute of Egyptology of Charles University.

The language of the conference will be English.
Each presentation will be allotted 50 minutes (40-minute presentation + 10-minute discussion). The program will also include open discussion sessions.

Register for the event here.

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