Abydos Archaeological Science Workshop in Vienna (July 2025)

The workshop was co-hosted by the Institute for Egyptology at the University of Vienna and the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, with generous support from the DFG and the FWF.

One dedicated session focused on the absolute chronology of the tomb of Queen Meret-Neith of Egypt’s 1st Dynasty. We are pleased to report that, following careful analysis of the archaeological contexts and the statistical modelling of new OSL, pOSL, and C14 data, we are now in a position to resolve several long-standing questions regarding this queen’s place in the historical sequence of the 1st Dynasty. The results also contribute to a more refined understanding of the dynasty's overall chronology and offer new insights into the dating of ancient fire events at Umm el-Qaab.

In addition, presentations on the bioarchaeology (including human, faunal, and botanical remains) and materials science (such as petrography and residue analysis) of various finds from Meret-Neith’s tomb provided valuable data and fresh perspectives.

We extend our sincere thanks to all participants, both in person and online, for their contributions and engagement: Dietrich Raue, E. Christiana Köhler, Mathilde Minotti, Edmund Highcock, Mike Dee, Pinar Erdil, Adel Moustafa, Nisa Kirchengast, Amber Hood, Chris Marshall, Allison McCoskey, Mary Ownby, Alexander Haidegger, Gerda Esche, and Hannah Zach!