The 69th RAI is scheduled from Monday 8 to Friday 12 July 2024. It will be take place on the University of Helsinki’s campus in the city centre, in the Porthania building (Yliopistonkatu 3, 00100 Helsinki).
Online registration is now open. Detailed instructions, terms, and conditions about registration can be found on the conference website under the heading Registration. Fees include access to all lectures, coffee breaks, and receptions.
Please note that all accepted speakers must register by May 15. For participants not presenting a paper or poster, registration is open until June 15.
Participants are encouraged to reserve accommodation at the earliest possible opportunity. Room quotas at reduced rates have been reserved for conference participants in a number of hotels. For further information, please refer to the registration information linked above.
The 69th RAI is an in-person conference. We will nevertheless strive to keep as much of the event as possible accessible to those who are unable to attend in person. We intend to offer a free live stream of the general session. Further details will be made available in due course.
The theme of the 69th RAI is Politics, Peoples, and Polities in the Ancient Near East. As is traditional, the conference will also host numerous workshops on other themes. We would like to thank all colleagues who have submitted workshop proposals. A list of accepted workshops and their organizers follows in no particular order:
- Digital and Open Assyriology (Tero Alstola)
- Archaeological Fieldwork (Marta Lorenzon)
- Ancient Identities under Empire (Joanna Töyräänvuori)
- Land Management Practices: Migration and Empire (Adrianne Spunaugle)
- Emesal in Third Millennium Texts (Sebastian Fink; Aleksi Sahala; Krister Lindén)
- Another Look at Motherhood in Ancient Western Asia (Laura Battini; Sonia Mzali)
- Helsinki Research from “State Archives of Assyria” to “Ancient Near Eastern Empires” (Saana Svärd)
- King- and Queenship in the Ancient Near East: Maintaining Relations with the Power Base (Melanie Wasmuth; Jessica Nitschke; Emanuel Pfoh)
- Current Research in Third Millennium Studies (Armando Bramanti; Angela Greco; Géraldine Mastelli)
- Intertextuality in Cuneiform Literature and Beyond (Nikita Artemov; Johannes Bach; Selena Wisnom)
- The Ancient Western Asian Image: A Weapon and Victim (Imane Achouche; Eleanor Bennett; Samuel Reinikainen)
- Narrative and Storytelling as a Communication Strategy in Cuneiform Scholarship (Adam Howe)
- Between Anarchy and Hierarchy: Creating Epistemic Order in the Ancient Near East (Paul Delnero; Gregoire Nicolet; Christian Hess)
- The Circulation and Adaption of Knowledge in the Ancient Near East (Shana Zaia; Shiyanthi Thavapalan)
- Hylistic Mythological Research (Annette Zgoll; Gösta Gabriel)
- Textiles in Cuneiform Texts: Recording, Terminology and Techniques (Louise Quillien; Cécile Michel)
- People and Seals in the Ancient Near East (Maria Elena Balza; Paola Poli)
There will also be a poster session.
Submission of abstracts is now closed. Everyone who has submitted an abstract will be notified of the final status of their submission by the end of March 15.