WEBVTT - generated by WebTV Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry

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From 26 to 30 September 2022,

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the Paul-Valéry University and the National
Centre for Scientific Research,

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through the Mixed Research Unit <i>Archaeology
of Mediterranean Societies</i>

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and its <i>Nilotic and Mediterranean Egypt</i>
laboratory,

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welcomed young researchers from the four cardinal
points of the earth

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to assess the current state of research in
Egyptology,

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throughout the world.

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This event, which is now well established in
the international scientific landscape,

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thus put the city of Montpellier in the spotlight
this year.

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It's an annual congress,

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it's been going on for 22 years.

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It was launched in Oxford in the year 2000.

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The aim of this conference is to bring together

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the largest number of Egyptology students from
all over the world.

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Obviously, a lot of Europeans,

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but also Egyptians

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who work on the discipline of Egyptology,

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and also people who come from the United States,
from Australia, from Japan.

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Get them to meet each other, to have them exchange
ideas,

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but also practices of the discipline

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and then to create links between them, to create
connections

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to get a generation of international Egyptologists

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who know each other and who work together.

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It is up to me, as President of the Paul-Valéry
University,

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to have the honour and the immense pleasure
of welcoming you...

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Celebrating research in Egyptology in Montpellier
was not a foregone conclusion,

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as each year several institutions can claim
this privilege.

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The challenge was successfully taken up

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by the Montpellier organising committee,

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essentially made up of young researchers and
doctoral students

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from the Paul-Valéry University.

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I am really very happy that this event

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bringing together young researchers in Egyptology
from all over the world

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is taking place this year in Montpellier,

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thanks to the initiative of some of the doctoral
students

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of the ENiM team.

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Our opponent was the University of Chicago,

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for the organisation of this congress,

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and we won against them.

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We were very happy, of course,

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because it was already a lot of effort

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before we even started to really organise the
congress,

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and then, as our bid was accepted,

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we could really start working on the organisation
of the congress.

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It took us a whole year,

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and then things were done quite gradually,

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to make a call for papers

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so that the candidates could propose conferences
for the congress...

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The institution then moves from being a candidate
to being a selector.

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We had almost 300 applicants

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for about 100 places on the open conferences.

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The solution that was chosen

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was to establish a scientific council,

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a scientific committee, made up of French and
foreign researchers,

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recognised, in post,

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who evaluated all the proposals sent in,

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who established a classification of these proposals

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and on the basis of this ranking,

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we have selected the candidates retained for
the congress.

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I'm really happy to be here and share my research

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with the larger international community.

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It's a really good experience,

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and I'm really appreciative that the organizing
committee accepted my paper.

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People behave in similar ways across time and
space,

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so if you understand why the ancient Egyptian
culture did something,

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it might help us understand why we do things
today

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that might seem kind of strange

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but probably are fully in line with the human
experience.

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Egyptology is one of the most important fields
of humanities

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that is concerned with the history of Egyptology,

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and the history of Egypt, archaeology,

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and the culture and civilization of ancient
Egypt.

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So, I think from my own point of view,

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it is important to “get in touch”  with
this civilization,

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and to spread it as much as we can,

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and actually get in touch with colleagues and
professors

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from all over the world, in this important
aspect of research.

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2022 is also an anniversary date for Egyptology,

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celebrating a discovery that was marked with
a white stone.

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This is another opportunity for the <i>Nilotic
and Mediterranean Egypt</i> team

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to make it known that the event is not only
for specialists.

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There is a very strong public appetite

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around Egyptological events,

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and one of the major themes of this congress

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is also the commemoration

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of the bicentenary of the deciphering of the
hieroglyphs.

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200 years ago,

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Jean-François Champollion,

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prescribing history, of course,

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as the father of Egyptology, a French passion,

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unlocked the secret

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of one of the most fascinating phenomena of
Egyptian civilization.

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In the 18th and 19th centuries,

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Orientalism spread throughout the Western world.

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It was September 1822.

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In the international competition around the
stakes

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represented by the discoveries in Egypt,

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a young French scientist

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was the first to discover the secret of hieroglyphs.

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It is therefore in this context that Champollion
intervenes,

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who is in fact quite a young man because he
was born in 1790,

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and he makes this discovery in 1822.

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So he is a scholar...

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...who is at the turn of the 19ᵉ century,

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and who combines two aspects which are complementary
in him,

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and which perhaps determined

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the fact that he manages to discover the meaning
of this writing,

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to decipher it.

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It's someone who has the encyclopedic mind
of the 18ᵉ century,

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we remember Diderot's encyclopedia,

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but he is someone who acts in an extremely
rational way.

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The Rosetta Stone is a stele that was discovered

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in the north of Egypt and it has three texts,

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a text in hieroglyphics, another one in demotic

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and a text in Greek.

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We know very well that when you have to describe
a language, you need a bilingual text.

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It's a necessity,

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and here we have this bilingual,

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because there's Greek that we understand.

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And at the same time, you need a related language.

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And that related language is Coptic, and that's
what's going to make the difference,

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because Champollion has a perfect command of
Coptic

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and this knowledge will allow him to go faster
than the other scholars.

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200 years later, the fascination for Egyptology
has remained intact.

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The specialists are not mistaken:

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in the 21st century, the discipline is more
popular than ever.

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It seemed obvious to us

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to take advantage of this opportunity

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to finally bring to light

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these collections of the archives

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and the library of Egyptology of the Paul-Valéry
University.

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With objects and books,

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particularly in the context

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of the bicentenary of the deciphering of the
hieroglyphs.

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It seemed quite natural to us

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to present to a wide public,

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within the Paul-Valéry University

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and even beyond,

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these patrimonial and scientific collections

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of which the Montpellier Egyptology team is
the depositary.

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We have set up two exhibitions,

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a photographic exhibition outside Paul-Valéry,

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an exhibition of objects inside the site,

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and this international congress

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which includes sessions of lectures by researchers,

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from all over the world,

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and lectures by recognised Egyptologists,

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French Egyptologists or Egyptologists working
in France,

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who present the latest advances in their work

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or the latest advances in the discipline,

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in free lectures, which are also broadcast
freely online.

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The stakes are enormous

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because, contrary to what one might naively
believe,

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Egyptology is not closed in on itself.

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On the contrary, it is in full development.

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There has been what we call an Egypto-maniac
tsunami,

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which has caused Pharaonic culture

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to infuse world culture.

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And Egyptology as a science

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is responsible for controlling this infusion
of our knowledge of ancient Egypt

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into world culture.

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So it's a heavy responsibility,

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and fortunately, in Montpellier, I think it's
well taken care of.

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I am absolutely amazed by the enthusiasm,

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the youth and the competence of the whole team
in Montpellier,

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which is very worthy of Egyptology as it should
be now.

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Egyptology in the modern age

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is precisely the credo that drives the Montpellier
laboratory.

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More than 50 years ago,

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the Egyptology library of the Paul-Valéry
University was created.

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Today, the library's collection consists of
nearly 35,000 documents.

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With half a century of experience,

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the laboratory's Egyptologists had time

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to conceive their discipline as evolving,

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i.e. able to rethink its own fundamentals.

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There is a dimension of reflection of the discipline
on itself,

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so there are a lot of conferences

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that are openings on the approaches that are
those of Egyptology,

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on the way also this discipline was born

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and progressed in the 19ᵉ century,

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because it is a really recent discipline,

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and at the beginning of the 20ᵉ century,

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and there is really a whole approach

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of looking at the practices of the discipline.

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This will obviously enrich the themes of our
laboratory.

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Egyptology is opening up to the world,

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global issues such as feminism,

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LGBT, post-colonialism are now taken on by
Egyptology.

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This openness must be encouraged

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and, above all, the tendency to dogmatism must
be combated.

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The doxa must be respected,

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but it must always be questioned,

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know how to question it, revisit the themes,

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when the literature encourages you to do so.

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And so I see that in Montpellier

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this is an imperative that is widely followed,

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and it is really something absolutely exciting

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to see these young Egyptologists who come from
all over the world,

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many Egyptians in particular, but from all
continents,

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and who present a very high level of research.

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I was surprised by the level of these young
people,

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practically at the level of professionals.

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Moreover, many of them are PhD students.

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So for me, this conference is an absolute success.

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I would like to come to Montpellier again,
for sure.

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First, it's a very cosy and nice city,

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with friendly people.

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Also, I like how here I'm developing

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important friendships

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with scholars and professors and sharing experiences
with them,

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getting to know their latest research

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and the latest results of the ongoing research
in the Egyptological community.

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And I think this is important

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because, as far as I know, with my knowledge,

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Montpellier is one of the most important five
chairs of Egyptology in France.

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So, that's why I would like to come here again.

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Egyptology still has much to teach us.

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By shedding light on our past,

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it also sheds light on the evolution of civilizations,

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and knowledge of this evolution helps us to
better understand our future.

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There is no doubt that the discipline will
be able to continue its mission,

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provided that its backers

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never lose awareness of these issues,

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which are sometimes mentioned, somewhat absent-mindedly,

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under the banner of the basic sciences.