Scholars, Priests and Temples - Babylonian and Egyptian Science in Context

In the last few decades our understanding of scholarship, priesthood and temple institutions during the
late periods of Babylonian and Egyptian history has greatly expanded. However, the results that were obtained in
each area are not always noticed across disciplinary boundaries, and the same may be true for some of the
innovative approaches that were adopted in research. The conference will bring together specialists in
Late Babylonian, Late Egyptian and Egyptian Graeco-Roman science as well as experts in the temple institutions
and the social and institutional contexts in which scholarship was practiced. The conference focuses on
the time between 600 BCE and 200 CE, roughly corresponding to the Neo Babylonian, Achaemenid, Seleucid
and Parthian eras in Babylonia and the Late Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Roman eras in Egypt. During this period
there were significant developments in the sciences as well as major changes in the role of the temples
as loci of scholarship, the notion of priesthood and the practice of royal patronage.

Program