20 februari 2025 | Bending the study of ancient societies

20 februari 2025 | Bending the study of ancient societies

Bending the study of ancient societies: using surviving cultures to return to the past

What goes around, comes around. Or does it? This is a story about two of the most peculiar items in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo: Australian boomerangs. What are these (relatively) modern artifacts doing among ancient counterparts like Egyptian throw sticks? It’s a fascinating story of cultural comparison, museums exchanging objects, things getting lost and found, and an attempt to use present knowledge to decipher the past. This curious case of artefact exchange is a great stepping stone to understand whether intercultural comparison and display is valuable.

This lecture will consider the specific case of boomerangs to understand if knowledge of a surviving culture, in this case Australian first nations peoples, can enable better understanding of ancient Egyptian culture. To do so Christel Birkmann-Little will first look at what we know about “boomerangs” in ancient Egypt (are they even boomerangs?) from images, texts and artefacts. She will then consider the knowledge surviving through Australian first nations communities to see if this can be used to fill the knowledge gaps we have from ancient Egypt.

€ 5,00

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Bending the study of ancient societies: using surviving cultures to return to the past

What goes around, comes around. Or does it? This is a story about two of the most peculiar items in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo: Australian boomerangs. What are these (relatively) modern artifacts doing among ancient counterparts like Egyptian throw sticks? It’s a fascinating story of cultural comparison, museums exchanging objects, things getting lost and found, and an attempt to use present knowledge to decipher the past. This curious case of artefact exchange is a great stepping stone to understand whether intercultural comparison and display is valuable.

This lecture will consider the specific case of boomerangs to understand if knowledge of a surviving culture, in this case Australian first nations peoples, can enable better understanding of ancient Egyptian culture. To do so Christel Birkmann-Little will first look at what we know about “boomerangs” in ancient Egypt (are they even boomerangs?) from images, texts and artefacts. She will then consider the knowledge surviving through Australian first nations communities to see if this can be used to fill the knowledge gaps we have from ancient Egypt.