📣NINO MA THESIS PRIZE: Let’s meet the winner and runner-up in the MA category:

📣🏆NINO THESIS PRIZES The prizes for the best theses on the Ancient Near East (BA and MA, 2025) have been awarded, and we are proud to announce the winners:

We would like to share three important announcements concerning the NINO Annual Meeting: 📣Firstly, in-person registration for the NINO Annual Meeting is no longer possible. However, online registration still is!

Having returned to the office, we wish our colleagues, students, and friends all the best for 2026! • Annual Meeting: Food and Ritual. 29 January • qibīma! Second Millennium Cuneiform Letters and their Language. NINO Postdoc Conference. 5-6 February • Herta Mohr Lecture. 7 April www.nino-leiden.nl

NINO-nieuwsbrief december 2025 – Nieuws van het NINO-onderzoekscentrum, funding reports, even voorstellen, nieuwe subsidie-instrumenten, openingstijden bibliotheek, en meer: buff.ly/p9DJwjv

Registration is open for the NINO Annual Meeting. This year's theme 'Food and Ritual in the Ancient to Early Modern Near East' highlights the vital role of food in religious practice, social organization, and cultural identity.

NINO is happy to inform you about the NINO Annual Conference "qibīma! Second Millennium Cuneiform Letters and their Language", organised by our postdoc dr. Albert Planelles. Registration is now open!

OUT NOW! The Bissing Link The Collections and Network of Egyptologist F. W. von Bissing (1873–1956) edited by Lars Petersen & Ben van den Bercken 📚 Read online for free or purchase your own volume at www.sidestone.com/books/the-bi... #Egyptology #biography #collecting

Op donderdag 4 december presenteert Bert van der Spek het boek “Babylonian Chronographic Texts from the Hellenistic Period”; Mathieu Ossendrijver is respondent. Aansluitend is de jaarlijkse NINO-Sinterklaasborrel. Toegang gratis, s.v.p. aanmelden via buff.ly/km3YwMg

Vandaag in de nieuwsbrief van de Universiteit Leiden: een ode aan de NINO-bibliotheek door Kim Duistermaat. buff.ly/bVq7cZi

ORATIE – Vandaag houdt Lidewijde de Jong, hoogleraar Oost-Mediterrane en West-Aziatische archeologie & Rosalind Franklin Fellow, haar inaugurele rede aan de @rug.nl: 🗝Over grenzen. De archeologie van de Oost-Mediterrane en West-Aziatische wereld🏺 Profielpagina: buff.ly/nnquAic

Please join us on 28 November 2025 for our annual Veenhof Lecture! Prof. Dr Elena Devecchi (University of Turin) – Of Fields, Granaries, and Power: Resource Management in Kassite Babylonia. buff.ly/TwNOM5W

International conference on “Oriental Societies 2.0: Governance of Scholarship, Imperial Agendas, Societal Engagement and Entanglement”, 27-29 November 2025, Berlin. Programme and registration for in-person or online attendance at buff.ly/Wu7DqGI

NINO offers a variety of fellowships, grants, and prizes, in support of researchers and students working on the ancient Near East (incl. Egypt) in the Netherlands and abroad.

Een herinnering dat de NINO-EOL-lezing aanstaande is. Morgen geeft dr. Staring een uitweiding over Sakkara. Hierbij de praktische informatie: Tijd: 15.30-16.30 uur, gevolgd door drankjes (tot 17.30u) Locatie: Leemanszaal, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden Toegang: gratis

We have prolonged the 📢Call for Papers for the NINO Annual Meeting 2026, “Food and Ritual in the Near East”. Submit your abstract for a 25 min. presentation or a 5-10 min. lightning session until 15 November! More information & abstract submission on our website:

🚨 FUNDING DEADLINE COMING UP – Submit applications until 15 November for the following NINO funding instruments: Student Research Assistantship, Mobility Grants, Conference Subsidy. Last round of 2025! More information on our website

1 November 2025: closure Call for Papers for NINO Annual Meeting 2026, “Food and Ritual in the Near East”. More information & abstract submission on our website buff.ly/v8ZkBpf Please note: in-person event held in Leiden; NINO does not offer travel expense refunds to participants.

Over bijna twee weken is het zover! Stichting Zenobia begint aan haar zinderende zwerftocht over de Zwarte Zee. Op zaterdag 15 november vindt in de Thomaskerk te Amsterdam het negentiende Zenobiacongres plaats, met als ondertitel: Scythen en sultans, van Colchis tot Constantinopel.

📅Op 6 November is de NINO/EOL-najaarslezing, die deze keer door dr. Nico Staring wordt verzorgd. Hij geeft een uitweiding over het laatste veldwerk in Sakkara.

🖊The Seleukid Study Day organisation invites graduate students and PhD candidates to participate in this year’s Masterclass of the Seleukid Study Days VIII: The Afterlife of the Seleukids.

Attention students! The call for applications for NINO Student Research Assistantships is open until 15 November. As a BA or MA student in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, you can team up with a senior researcher (both at a university in the Netherlands) and apply for a joint project.

NINO Annual Meeting “Food and Ritual in the Near East”, deadline Call for Papers: 1 November 2025. More information & abstract submission: buff.ly/CLIPYyr The theme highlights the vital role of food in religious practice, social organization, and cultural identity. Food provides a unique lens!

📣CONFERENCE DECOLONIZING ARCHAEOLOGICAL EPISTOMOLOGIES – NINO is exited to support the conference Decolonizing Archaeological Epistemologies by our Visiting Research Fellow Pansee Abou ElAtta.

UITNODIGING EXPOSITIE – De Stichting Suryoyomediafoundation nodigt u van harte uit voor de bijzondere kunstexpositie “Echo’s uit Mesopotamië”.

New article in Nature Scientific Reports by NINO Visiting Research Fellow Hannah Plug et al.: Strontium and oxygen isotope analysis reveals changing connections to place and group membership in the world’s earliest village societies | buff.ly/GdBkTJw

Attended today's @nino-leiden.bsky.social lecture on Iron Age I Moab by Diederik Halbertsma. One of the many takeaways for me: Wadi Mujib, the biblical Arnon, looks *really* dramatic!

Call for Papers: NINO Annual Meeting "Food and Ritual in the Near East", deadline 1 November 2025. This year’s theme, Food and Ritual in the Ancient to Early Modern Near East, highlights the vital role of food in religious practice, social organization, and cultural identity.

UITNODIGING – Egeria-lezing 2025 In deze lezing vertelt prof.dr. Mladen Popović (RUG) over de beroemde Dode Zeerollen en de mensen die ze schreven. De fundamentele vragen die hij behandelt zijn: wanneer zijn de manuscripten geschreven en door wie?

NINO-nieuwsbrief september 2025: Nieuws van het NINO-onderzoekscentrum, even voorstellen, zichtkast in de MEL, en meer – buff.ly/Hzi26FA

Filmpje

Miriam Müller opent het @leidenglobal.bsky.social annual event in @rmoudheden.bsky.social over talen: meertaligheid, identiteit, en onderwijs.

De Week van het Oude Schrift is vanavond afgetrapt door Petra Sijpesteijn! Arabisch en schijn-Arabisch vormen een prima fundament onder de verdere lezingen. Komt u morgen ook terug? www.rmo.nl/uw-bezoek/ac...

📅NINO POSTDOC LECTURE: States or mates? Exploring collective action in early Iron Age Jordan

Introduction week for BA students “Oude Nabije Oosten-studies” at LU: NINO director and librarians welcomed them at Middle Eastern Library; Piotr Zadworny and Mark Eertink showed tablets from our Böhl Collection. NINO wishes all students and staff a great start of the new academic year!

📣📅ORAL TRADITION AND CONTEMPORARY STORYTELLING NINO is happy to contribute to the upcoming conference Oral Tradition and Contemporary Storytelling.

Information session on 18 September offered by Leiden University for staff members in Leiden and The Hague: meet directors of institutes abroad in person. Istanbul + Cairo present! Directors will showcase their institute’s services for staff and students. Register before 15 Sept: buff.ly/NYSHIKl

📅📜Tijdens de vierde editie van de Week van het oude schrift (15 t/m 20 september 2025) staat de rijke schrifttraditie uit Afrika met Egypte, Ethiopië en talen uit de regio centraal. Experts geven zes lezingen over bekende, maar ook minder bekende schriften en de talen waarin ze werden gebruikt.

Op 26 september organiseert Stichting Archeologisch Erfgoed Luxor in samenwerking met NINO een lezing over het TT45 Project in Luxor.

❗FUNDING DEADLINE APPROACHING: 15th of August NINO offers a variety of fellowships, grants, and prizes, in support of researchers and students working on the ancient Near East (incl. Egypt) in the Netherlands and abroad.

With profound sadness we learned that Luc Limme has passed away on 21 July 2025. He was Editor at our journal Bibliotheca Orientalis, where he was in charge of the Egyptology section since 2007. We will miss him.

De Universiteitsbibliotheek en onze andere bibliotheeklocaties houden momenteel aangepaste openingstijden aan. Bekijk ons #zomerrooster via 🔗 edu.nl/mhqeu

𝘚𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘦 Paneldiscussie 𝗘𝗲𝗻 𝗥𝗶𝗷𝗸𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗮𝗻 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻 25 Sept'25 @rmoudheden.bsky.social Tussen thuis, school & straat groeit een generatie op in meerdere talen. Wat betekent dat voor hun ontwikkeling én voor onze samenleving? Register now!👇 ism @nino-leiden.bsky.social & @leidenarchaeo.bsky.social

Call for submissions! Once every year NINO grants two Fieldwork Subsidies of max. €5000 each, to projects in Near Eastern archaeology and connected fields (limited financial support to starting or smaller projects). Application deadline: 20 Aug 2025. Full regulations on our website: buff.ly/gvC30OL

Call for submissions for the NINO Thesis Prizes 2025! Send in your thesis within the scope of NINO’s research areas, graded an 8 or higher at a Dutch university; deadline 1 Oct 2025. Don’t miss the chance to win this year’s prize for Best Bachelor or Master thesis on the Near East! buff.ly/A46ifD5

NINO-nieuwsbrief juni 2025: funding reports, Visiting Research Fellows, zomerrooster MEL, en meer – buff.ly/Gketrvn

19 juni, 19.30u ‪@rmoudheden.bsky.social: avond met met talks over 4000 jaar lichaamsversiering. Fatima Oulad Thami over hedendaagse henna-kunst in Marokko; Sigrid van Roode over o.a. tatoeages en henna in het oude Egypte. Aanmelden via de RMO-website (gratis); geen livestream.

This afternoon Steffie van Gompel successfully defended her dissertation on “Marriage Traditions and the Stem Family in Ancient Egypt”. Our warm congratulations to Dr Van Gompel! buff.ly/LKzkrvA

JAARPRIJS CUIJPERS-OPDENAKKER 2025 – Op 5 juni heeft Milinda Hoo de Jaarprijs Cuijpers-Opdenakker 2025 ontvangen voor haar artikel “The Power to Impress and Impressing to Power”. buff.ly/Kn7w0pS

Op 5 juni heeft Milinda Hoo de Jaarprijs Cuijpers-Opdenakker 2025 ontvangen voor haar artikel “The Power to Impress and Impressing to Power”. De auteur heeft die middag de NINO/EOL-voorjaarslezing gehouden over het onderwerp van haar winnende artikel: koningschap in Baktrië. buff.ly/Kn7w0pS