ICAEM 2027: Oracles, Providence, and Good Counsel in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Cultures

11–13 June 2027

Tartu, Estonia

The conference is organized as an onsite event in Tartu, Estonia, but sessions will also be streamed via Zoom, to give access to a wider audience. There is no conference fee. The organization of the conference is supported by the University of Tartu.

Please send your proposed title together with an abstract of around 150–200 words to the email address caemc@ut.ee. Submissions are welcome from both experienced academics as well as postgraduates and doctoral students. Closing date for submissions is 28 February 2027.

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION

Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern societies relied on different political systems and different strategies for securing divine favour in order to achieve prosperity or survival and to avoid both man-made and natural or supernatural disasters. The equilibrium, however, was fragile, and an appeal to a higher authority was often necessary to solve complex problems, make difficult choices or reshape existing religious or political structures. Such authority could derive from channeling divine will and foresight or from appealing to words of wisdom attributed to a legendary or historical figure, transmitted orally or in writing. Divine will or mortal wisdom could either be sought out by those in power or voiced independently of or in opposition to them, making those who channeled or conveyed such knowledge either highly regarded or persecuted. We are interested in the different ways in which prophecy, omens, oracles, wisdom literature and related traditions were used in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern societies, including but not limited to:

• when and how was divine will or mortal wisdom sought out?
• how were they connected with political and religious systems?
• who were the persons, real or legendary, who channeled divine knowledge or functioned as mortal sources of wisdom, and what was the connection or balance between human and divine authority in different cases?
• how were prophetic, oracular and wisdom traditions transmitted and transformed, and how were they used and referenced in political and philosophical discourse?
• how were oracular, prophetic and wisdom traditions connected to material culture and to specific localities and landscapes?
• how did the language, style and meaning of prophetic, oracular and wisdom texts shape their authority, interpretation and use, both as independent texts and within other texts?

We welcome abstracts exploring the above-described themes in Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures from Iran, Mesopotamia and Egypt to Greece and the Western Mediterranean, from the emergence of civilisations to Late Antiquity. We welcome abstracts from scholars across different disciplines, particularly those adopting interdisciplinary approaches, and encourage submissions from postgraduate students.