Czech Egyptology and research on complex civilisation and resilience processes

Due to an almost a century-long tradition, continuity, high standard of teaching and specialized research, the Czech Institute of Egyptology is one of the most important Egyptological institutes in the world. The activities revolve primarily around excavations in Egypt and lately also in the Sudan. In the last few years, it has become well-known also for its comparative research of complex civilizations, climate change and resilience processes and their implications for security policies of the state, the European Union and the NATO, which is reflected in numerous conferences and seminars organized at the premises of the Czech Parliament as well as the General Staff of the army of the Czech Republic.  

The activities of the Institute cover practically all aspects of ancient Egypt including archaeology, history, philology, religious studies and art history. Its defining activities center above all on the study of the 3^rd and 1^st millennia BC, based on archaeological excavations at Abusir and in Sudan. The expedition of the Czech Institute of Egyptology in Egypt is the largest Czech scholarly mission abroad. The Institute is internationally acclaimed as a leading interdisciplinary institution: it was the first to have undertaken and published detailed satellite imaging and analysis of the pyramid fields, it sets trends in palaeoenvironmental studies and various applied fields in cooperation with the private sector (3D scanning, geophysics, etc.).

Key collaborators

• Miroslav Verner

• Jiří Janák

Selected outputs

• Bárta, M. a Brůna, V., Satellite atlas of the pyramids: Abu Ghurab, Abusir, Saqqara, Dahshur. Plzeň: Dryada, 2006.

• Bárta, M. a kol., Abusir XIII. The tomb of the sun priest Neferinpu. Prague: Charles University in Prague, 2014.

• Verner, M., The suns of the sun. Prague: Charles University in Prague, 2014.