Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance II: Cultural Lives of Clothing and Textiles in Ancient Egypt and Beyond

21–23 April 2027 | Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Pałac Staszica, Warsaw, Poland

No registration fee | In person presentations | Full venue livestream

We warmly invite scholars to join us in Warsaw for the second edition of Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance, a renewed and expanded exploration of the cultural lives of clothing and textiles in ancient Egypt and its wider intercultural environments. This installment builds on the momentum of the inaugural conference and the recently published ISACS 15 volume, opening space for fresh dialogue on how garments move, transform, and acquire meaning across ritual, social, and cross-regional contexts.

The conference focuses on the biographies of garments and textiles: their changing functions, symbolic roles, reuse, repair, and ritual transformation. We welcome participants to an international, interdisciplinary meeting dedicated to tracing the material and cultural stories woven into ancient dress traditions.

Selected papers will be considered for a peer-reviewed conference volume. The programme will also include social events and a guided visit to the National Museum in Warsaw, including Egyptian and Graeco-Roman antiquities, and the Faras Gallery.