New York, October 2–4, 2026
The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) and The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA), New York University
“Signs in Motion” will bring together scholars of Late Period, Hellenistic, and Roman Egypt and scholars of the wider Greco-Roman world to reflect on Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The conference will take place at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) and the Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) at New York University.
“Signs in Motion” examines the changing forms and meanings of hieroglyphic signs from the Late Period through the Roman era, illuminating the intellectual vitality of Egypt’s “last scholars,” their intricate games with signs, and their negotiations with the other cultures active in Egypt. The conference will explore how individual signs developed, disappeared, and were revived; how variations responded to particular monuments, materials, genres, and registers; and how earlier traditions informed the development of Ptolemaic hieroglyphs. At the same time, it will place Egyptian scribal culture within a broader Mediterranean context, asking how Egyptian, Persian, Greek, and Roman linguistic and intellectual traditions interacted within shared imperial frameworks. Particular attention will be given to the transmission of ideas about hieroglyphs, the production of Egyptian writing beyond Egypt itself, and the relationship between local scholarly traditions and Greek and Roman conceptions of the symbolic power of hieroglyphic writing.
Keynote Lectures
Orly Goldwasser
A Window into the Ptolemaic Mind: Woman Classifiers in the Egyptian Script (more about the lecture)
Jean Winand
Why Were Classical Authors So Fascinated with Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs?
Together with papers addressing both the Egyptian evidence and the Greek and Latin traditions that engaged with Egypt’s writing system, these lectures will frame a three-day conversation on the transformation, interpretation, and cultural mobility of hieroglyphic signs between the seventh century BCE and the fourth century CE.
“Signs in Motion” has been made possible through the generous support of The Stanwood Cockey Lodge Foundation of the Department
of Classics at Columbia University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA), and The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University.
