The inter-academic project KIŠIB: Digital Corpus of Ancient West Asian Seals and Sealings cordially invites you to its first conference.

Why Seal? From Sealed Clay to Social Interaction in Ancient West Asia 22–24 July 2026 at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich and online

Inspired by Edith Porada’s 1993 essay ‘Why cylinder seals?’, we now ask ‘Why seal?’ and aim, on the one hand, to get to the bottom of the materiality of sealing and seal impressions and, on the other, to examine the actions and social networks in which they were embedded.

At this conference, international experts from the fields of archaeology and philology will address the fundamental questions: What was sealed, and how? In what spatial context did the sealing and breaking of sealed artefacts take place? Which person or group carried out the sealing? Was the individual acting on their own behalf or on behalf of an institution, and which processes were to be legitimised? And what was the significance of the iconography used; which systems of visual semiotics were employed? By clarifying these questions, the ancient people, norms and actions behind sealed artefacts, seal images and inscriptions will become more visible and tangible.

We look forward to welcoming you to Munich for a lively exchange of data and information, ideas and knowledge.

The conference will take place from 22–24 July 2026 at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Alfons-Goppel-Straße 11, 80539 Munich, in Conference Room 1.

The current programme with abstracts and all further information can be found at https://project.kishib.org/conferences/

The conference will take place in person and will also be streamed online via Zoom. If you would like to attend, please register with Dr Albert Dietz, stating whether you will be attending in person or online: Albert.Dietz@kishib.badw.de

The access link will be sent to all registered participants a few days before the conference begins.