Konferenz:
Disaster and Relief Management in Ancient Israel, Egypt and the Ancient Near East

4.-6.10.2010

International Conference organized by Project B7.

Venue: Villa Tillmanns, Wächterstraße 30, Leipzig
Date: 4-6 October 2010

Convenors: Angelika Berlejung, Ariel Bagg, Gunnar Lehmann

Contact: taeschner@theologie.uni-leipzig.de

Even if kings, pharaos, rulers, and priests promote the illusion of control and order, disasters are and always were part of the usual ebb and flow of everyday life. Disasters are able to overthrow the cultural, social, religious and political systems, but at the same time, “catastrophes are great educators of mankind” (Pitirim Sorokin) and generate different mechanisms of relief management. Thus their impact is both, destructive and productive. The international conference deals with disasters and worst case scenarios in Antiquity, with the focus on the Ancient Near East, Egypt and Ancient Israel. Questions as e.g. „What is a disaster?“, „Were nomadic societies more or less vulnerable to disasters than rural and urban settlements?“, or „How did societies in Antiquity manage catastrophes?“, and „Are there early traces of risk evaluation, social networks, solidarity and relief management?“ will be discussed. Scholars from different sciences will have a close look at the concepts of disasters, their impact on society, possible dynamics and cultural dimensions. They will give insights into their actual research on the destructivity and productivity of disasters, including the possibility, that disasters were used as topoi in ideological, mythological and theological discourses.

Second part of the conference: Plagues in Nomadic Contexts

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Programme

October 4th, 2010
Leipzig, Villa Tilmanns, Wächterstr. 30


I. Theories of disaster

13.00

Angelika Berlejung (Leipzig), Gunnar Lehmann (Beersheva), Ariel Bagg (Leipzig):
Welcome and: "What is a disaster?"

14.00-15.30

Elke M. Geenen (Kiel):
Gesellschaftliche Verfügung über Kapitalien und Vulnerabilität in konzeptioneller Perspektive

15.30-17.00

Jan Dietrich (Leipzig):
Katastrophen und ihre Deutung aus kulturanthropologischer Perspektive

Break

17.30-19.00

Elisabeth List (Graz):
Einbruch ins Selbstverständliche. Katastrophen als Kontingenzerfahrung

II. Disaster and relief management in Israel/Palestine
II.1. Archaeology

19.00-20.30

Public Lecture
Aren Maeir (BIU/Ramat-Gan):
The Judean Shephelah after Hazael: The power play between the Philistines, Judeans and Assyrians in the 8th century in light of the excavations et Tell es-Safi/Gath

20.30

Dinner

 

October 5th, 2010
Leipzig, Villa Tilmanns, Wächterstr. 30

8.00-9.30

Aaron A. Burke (UCLA/Los Angeles):
Coping with the Effects of War: The Archaeology of Refugees in the Ancient Near East

Break

10.00-11.30

Gunnar Lehmann (BGU/Beersheva):
The Archaeology in the Time of Manasseh: Survival and Reconstruction of Judah

11.30-13.00

Ariel M. Bagg (Leipzig):
Water Management in Palestine. Avoiding and Mastering Crises

Lunch

II. Disaster and relief management in Israel/Palestine
II.1. Exegesis

14.30-16.00

Diana Edelman (Sheffield):
Earthquakes in the Ancient Southern Levant: A Literary Topos and a Problem Requiring Architectural Solutions

16.00-17.30

Sebastian Graetz (Mainz):
Gericht und Gnade: Die Fluterzählung im Rahmen der biblischen Urgeschichte

Break

18.00-19.30

Bernd Janowski (Tübingen):
Eine Welt ohne Licht. Zur Chaosschilderung von Jer 4,23-28 und verwandten Texten

19.30-21.00

Thomas Römer (Lausanne/Paris):
The Hebrew Bible as crisis literature - The Babylonian Exile, divine wrath and matrix of new identity

Dinner

 

Oktober 6th, 2010
Leipzig, Villa Tilmanns, Wächterstr. 30

III. Disaster and relief management in the Ancient Near East and Egypt

9.00-10.30

Paul Kruger (Stellenbosch):
Disaster and the topos of the world upside down: example cases from the ancient Near Eastern World

Break

11.00-12.30

Joachim F. Quack (Heidelberg):
Danaergeschenk des Nil? Zuviel oder zu wenig Wasser im Alten Ägypten

Lunch

14.00-15.30

Ludwig Morenz (Bonn):
Der Topos "Hungersnot" und seine Inszenierung in den Selbst-Präsentationen der ägyptischen Elite. Ein (Über-)Lebensproblem zwischen Faktionalität und Fiktionalität

15.30-17.00

Marco Stockhusen (Leipzig):
Die Deutung kosmischer Erscheinungen am Beispiel von Sonnen- und Mondeklipsen. Ein Vergleich zwischen den Kulturräumen Mesopotamien und Ägypten im 1. Jt. v.Chr.

Break

17.30-19.00

Hanspeter Schaudig (Heidelberg):
Erklärungsmuster von Katastrophen im Alten Orient

19.00-20.30

Jörg Klinger (Berlin):
Krankheit und Krieg im Spannungsfeld zwischen mythischer und realer Katastrophe - die hethitischen "Pestgebete"

Dinner/Departure