Manfred Bietak (born in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, 6 October 1940) is an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
.
[Curriculum Vitae: Manfred Bietak PhD habil PhD h.c.]
at Academia.edu He is professor
emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
, working as the principal investigator for an ERC Advanced Grant Project "The Hyksos Enigma" and editor-in-chief of the journal ''Ägypten und Levante'' (''Egypt and the Levant'') and of four series of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oriental and European Archaeology (2016–2020).
[
]
Specialty
Bietak is best known as the director of the Austrian excavations at two sites in the Nile Delta
The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...
: Tell El-Dab'a, which was identified as the location of Avaris
Avaris (; Egyptian: ḥw.t wꜥr.t, sometimes ''hut-waret''; grc, Αὔαρις, Auaris; el, Άβαρις, Ávaris; ar, حوّارة, Hawwara) was the Hyksos capital of Egypt located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern r ...
, the capital of the Hyksos
Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC).
T ...
period; and Piramesse, which was the capital of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XIX), also known as the Ramessid dynasty, is classified as the second Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1292 BC to 1189 BC. The 19th Dynasty and the 20th Dynasty fur ...
. The site was also most probably the naval base Peru-nefer of Thutmosis III
Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 28 ...
and Amenhotep II
Amenhotep II (sometimes called ''Amenophis II'' and meaning ''Amun is Satisfied'') was the seventh pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few militar ...
. A palace precinct of those kings, furnished with Minoan frescoes was one of the most important discoveries. Bietak has also conducted excavations in western Thebes (Luqsor), where he discovered the huge tomb of Ankh-Hor, Chief steward of the Divine Wife of Amun Nitokris (26th Dynasty). Since 2013 he conducts excavations at the Middle Kingdom Palace at Bubastis.
Career
Bietak studied archeology at University of Vienna, obtaining his Dr. phil. in 1964 and an honorary PhD. in 2009. In 1961–1964, he took part in the archaeological rescue expedition of UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
at Sayala in Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
, and he also supervised excavations there; in 1965 he was the director of the expedition. During 1966–1972, he was the scientific secretary and later the scientific counsellor at the Austrian Embassy in Cairo. In 1973, he founded the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
; he has been the director of the institute until 2009.
Bietak is the founder and director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo 1973–2009. He was chairman of the Institute of Egyptology (1984–2009) and of the Vienna Institute of Archaeological Science (2004–2011) at the University of Vienna and chairman of the Commission for Egypt and the Levant at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. From 1999 to 2011, he was also founder and first speaker of the Special Research Programme (SFB) "Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC – SCIEM 2000" at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1997 and 2006, he was visiting professor at the Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
; in 2004, he was Martha Whitcomb visiting professor at Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
; between 2016 and 2017 he was guest scholar at the Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". at Malibu, California. He is professor emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
at the University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
.[
]
Affiliations
Bietak has been elected to several scholarly institutions: Foreign Honorary Member of the Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...
; Full Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences; Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
; Full Member of German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office of Germany ...
; Membre titulaire de l'Institut d'Égypte; Foreign Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters; Membre associé de l'Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...
; Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; Foreign Member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapssamhället i Uppsala), is a Swedish royal academy in Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and th ...
in Gothenburg; Foreign Fellow of the Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
and Foreign Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
in Rome and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
at Cambridge, Ma. He is also a member of the following: Council of the International Union of Egyptologists (1976–2013); Scientific Committee of the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East; Visiting Committee of the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
of New York.
Additionally, he has supervised or reviewed at least 40 PhD dissertations and at least 18 Masters theses, at the universities of Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
, Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, Helwan
Helwan ( ar, حلوان ', , cop, ϩⲁⲗⲟⲩⲁⲛ, Halouan) is a city in Egypt and part of Greater Cairo, on the bank of the Nile, opposite the ruins of Memphis. Originally a southern suburb of Cairo, it served as the capital of the now de ...
, London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, Vienna
en, Viennese
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.
In 2006, there was a three-volume ''Festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
'' published in his honour. The ''Festschrift'' includes a list of works that Bietak authored or co-authored up to 2006: 21 monographs, 164 research articles, and 17 review articles. Bietak has also edited or co-edited 8 periodicals, including the Egyptological journal ''Egypt and the Levant''.
In 2015, Bietak won from the European Research Council an ERC Advanced Grant "The Hyksos Enigma" and is principal investigator and head of this project which is accommodated at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and at the Bournemouth University, UK. This project explores the origins of western Asiatic populations in the Nile Delta during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1800 BC) and the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1800–1530 BC) and how the Hyksos seized power in Lower Egypt. Research also is focused on the reasons for the decline and failure of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty and its lasting impact on the Egyptian culture of the New Kingdom.
Bibliography
This partial list is taken fro
Manfred Bietak bibliography page
*M. Bietak, “Minoan Wall-paintings Unearthed at Ancient Avaris,” ''Egyptian Archaeology: Bulletin of the Egyptian Exploration Society'' 2(1992) 26–28.
*M. Bietak, “Connections between Egypt and the Minoan World: New Results from Tell el-Dab’a/Avaris,” in W. V. Davies and L. Schofield (eds.), ''Egypt, the Aegean and the Levant'' (London 1995) 19–28.
*M. Bietak, “‘Rich beyond the Dreams of Avaris: Tell el-Dab’a and the Aegean World – A Guide for the Perplexed’. A Response to Eric H. Cline,” ''Annual of the BSA'' 95(2000) 185–205.
*M. Bietak, “Minoan Presence in the Pharaonic Naval Base of Peru-nefer,” in O. Krzsyzkowska (ed.), ''Cretan Offerings: Studies in Honour of Peter Warren'' SA Studies 18(London 2010) 11–24.
*M. Bietak, J. Dorner, I. Hein, and P. Janosi, “Neue Grabungsergebnisse aus Tell el-Dab’a und ‘Ezbet Helmi im östlichen Nildelta 1989–1991,” ''Ägypten und Levante'' 4(1994) 9–80.
*M. Bietak and N. Marinatos, “The Minoan Wall Paintings from Avaris,” ''Ägypten und Levante'' 5(1995) 49–62.
*M. Bietak and N. Marinatos, “Avaris (Tell el-Dab’a) and the Minoan World,” in A. Karetsou (ed.), ''Krete-Aigyptos: Politismikoi desmoi trion chilietion'' (Athens 2000) 40–44.
*M. Bietak, N. Marinatos, and C. Palyvou, “The Maze Tableau from Tell el-Dab’a,” in S. Sherratt (ed.), ''Proceedings of the First International Symposium “The Wall Paintings of Thera” I'' (Athens 2000) 77–88.
*M. Bietak, N. Marinatos, and C. Palyvou, ''Taureador Scenes in Tell el-Dab’a (Avaris) and Knossos'' (Vienna 2007).
*M. Bietak, “Bronze Age Paintings in the Levant: Chronological and Cultural Considerations,” in: M. Bietak, & E. Czerny (ed.), The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC (vol. III), Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000-Euro Conference, Vienna, 2–7 May 2003, in: Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean, ed. by M. Bietak & H. Hunger, vol. VII, Vienna 2007, 269–300.
*M. Bietak, “From where came the Hyksos and where did they go”, in: M. Marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period (Thirteenth – Seventeenth Dynasties): Current Research, Future Prospects, OLA 192, (Leuven 2010) 139–181.
*M. Bietak, „Houses, Palaces and Development of Social Structure in Avaris,” in: M. Bietak, E. Czerny & I. Forstner-Müller, Cities and Urbanism, International Workshop in November 2006 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna, UZK XXXV, Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie LX (Vienna 2010), 11–68.
*M. Bietak, “A Palace of the Hyksos Khayan at Avaris,“ in: P. Matthiae, F. Pinnock, L. Nigro, and N. Marchetti (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (5May – 10 May 2008 »Sapienza«, Università di Roma), vol. II (Wiesbaden 2010), Harrassowitz, 99–109.
*M. Bietak, “Le Hyksos Khayan, son palais et une lettre en cuneiforme,” CRAIBL 2010, 973–990.
*M. Bietak, “Minoan Presence in the Pharaonic Naval Base of Peru-nefer,” in: O. Krzyszkowska (ed.), Cretan Offerings: Studies in Honour of Peter Warren, BSA Studies 18 (London 2010 11–24.
*M. Bietak, “La Belle Fête de la Vallée : l’Asasif revisité”, in: Chr. Zivie-Coche et Ivan Guermeur (eds.), "Parcourir l'éternité", Hommages à Jean Yoyotte, Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Section des Sciences religieuses (Paris 2012) 135–163.
*M. Bietak, “On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Today Can Contribute to Assessing the Sojourn in Egypt,” in T. E. Levy, T. Schneider and W.H.C. Propp (eds.), Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture, and Geoscience (Heidelberg-New York-Dordrecht-London 2015) 17–36.
*M. Bietak, “Harbours and Coastal Military Bases in Egypt in the 2nd Millennium BC: Avaris – Peru-nefer – Piramesse,” in: H. Willems & J.-M. Dahms (Hrsg.), The Nile: Natural and Cultural Landscape in Egypt. Proceedings of the International Symposium held at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 22 & 23 February 2013, (Bielefeld 2016) 53–70.
References
External links
The Hyksos Enygma
Manfred Bietak
at the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Manfred Bietak bibliography page at OEAW.Academia.edu
SCIEM 2000
nbsp; Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.
Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bietak, Manfred
1940 births
20th-century archaeologists
21st-century archaeologists
Academics of the University of Vienna
Austrian archaeologists
Austrian Egyptologists
Living people
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Austrian expatriates in Egypt
Pi-Ramesses