The PCMA UW Research Centre in Cairo and the Institut français d’archéologie orientale (Ifao) have awarded their joint post-doctoral fellowship for the sixth time. This edition’s fellow is Dr. Gabriele Mario Conte. As part of the fellowship, he will organize an international conference “Perceptions of health in the Nile Valley: The social and cultural dimension of healing practice in the Egyptian context from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (4th Millennium BCE–16th Century CE),” which will take place in Cairo in the autumn of 2025.
Dr. Conte studied Egyptology and the ancient Egyptian language at the Universities of Milan and Pisa, where he obtained his PhD with a dissertation on exorcism rituals in ancient Egypt. He completed a research stay at Leiden University and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pisa within the project “GODSCAPES – Modeling 2nd millennium BCE Polytheism in the Eastern Mediterranean,” focusing on Middle Kingdom religion in Serabit el-Khadim. He co-organized the conference “Being Well in Ancient Egypt” and international summer schools on Egyptian magic, astronomy, and mummy studies.
The project that Dr. Conte will conduct as part of the PCMA-Ifao fellowship focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to ancient Egyptian medicine. The planned conference will cover several aspects of health and healing studies: written sources, material culture, data derived from skeletal remains analysis, and, in conclusion, an exploration of how concepts of health and healing influenced Egyptian society from antiquity to the Middle Ages.
The event will bring together international experts from fields such as medical anthropology, sociology, bioarchaeology, archaeology, the history of disability, as well as specialists in healing traditions from the Pharaonic to the Islamic period. The conference aims to integrate diverse approaches to the study of ancient Egyptian medicine, overcoming narrow methodological divisions and fostering a space for collective reflection on the role of health in the socio-cultural context.
As in previous years, the conference will take place in Cairo and will be co-organized by Ifao and the PCMA UW Research Centre.