Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean may prompt dialogue in the region today
Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean is the title of a conference held in Cairo, Egypt, at the end of October 2008. During four days several speakers read papers relevant to specialists and the broader archaeological community. Of great importance was the location which allowed a greater participation from scholars based in the southern and eastern Mediterranean.
Archaeologist and Director at Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo Kim Duistermaat stressed the need for archaeology to be relevant to the modern world and how this conference was an example of this. Intercultural contacts are a hot issue of our world, and both the Arab and “Western” cultures historically originated on its shores and have co-existed for millennia. Looking to a common past is therefore a good way to start a dialogue and see how different cultures can coexist. The EU supported this view sponsoring the conference. A few presenters (starting with Susan Sherratt) recalled the recent idea proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy of a Mediterranean Union suggesting that it happened several times in the past, and, at least culturally, the dialogue between different cultures in the Mediterranean never stopped. Maintaining the distances with the current political projects, it seems however that archaeology can make the difference in prompting dialogue and be part of the intercultural contacts that were mentioned so much during the conference.
Excerpted from a posting by Andrea Vianello at Intute
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