Annual Meeting
Call for Papers – 7th NINO Annual Meeting 2026
- Date
- Thursday 29 January 2026
- Time
- Address
- Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Rapenburg 28, 2311 TV Leiden
- Room
- Leemans hall
Food and Ritual in the Ancient to Early Modern Near East
The NINO Annual Meeting invites advanced students and researchers in the field of Near Eastern studies – spanning antiquity to the early modern period – to contribute to the 2026 gathering. The meeting offers a lively forum for sharing current projects, discussing new ideas, and connecting with colleagues across disciplines. The event is co-organized by the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University, the National Museum of Antiquities and the Netherlands Institute for the Near East.
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. From offerings and feasts to daily meals and symbolic consumption, food provides a unique lens through which to understand ritual practice and lived experience in the Near East.
The proverb “you are what you eat,” although seen as a cliché, has inspired significant research and influenced our dietary habits. Throughout history, from hunter-gatherer societies to empires, food has played a vital role in shaping our economies and environments. To survive, people require daily intakes of calories and nutrients. How societies gathered, grew, and processed food has always been essential to our understanding of earlier cultures in history and archaeology.
We welcome papers (of senior and junior researchers, especially MA/PhD students and postdocs) that engage with this theme from a wide range of perspectives.
More information can be found on the website of NINO.
Deadline for submissions: November 1st, 2025