Budka Julia

Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Art History; PI of ERC Project DiverseNile

MAIN AREAS OF RESEARCH
Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, Egypt and Nubia, Material culture, Settlement archaeology and social relationships, Cultural identities, Funerary culture and mortuary architecture

EDUCATION

2007 Dr phil awarded in Egyptology, University of Vienna, Austria

2000 Mphil in Egyptology, University of Vienna, Austria

1995-2000 Study of Egyptology (Major) and Classical Archaeology (Minor), University of Vienna

CAREER HISTORY

Since 2020 Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant project DiverseNile, LMU Munich

Since 2015 Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Art History, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (since 2020 tenured)

2012-2018 Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant project AcrossBorders, hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences from 12/2012 to 03/2015; transfered to Munich in 04/2015

2012-2017 Principal Investigator of FWF START project “Across ancient borders and cultures”, hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OREA, Egypt & Levant)

2011-2012 Assistant Professor (Universitätsassistentin PostDOC) at the University of Vienna, Institute of Egyptology (granted leave from Humboldt University)

2010 Lecturer at the University of Leipzig, Institute of Egyptology

2004-2012 Scientific Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Egyptology and Northeast African Archaeology

HONORARY POSTS & ELECTED MEMBERSHIP

since 2019 Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

2015-2018 Member of the board of directors of the Young Academy

2014-2016 Member of the Akademierat, Austrian Academy of Sciences

2014-2019 Member of the “Young Academy”, Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna)

since 2014 Member of the managing board of the “Freunde des Naturhistorischen Museums” (http://freunde.nhm-wien.ac.at/)

CV Budka

Publication list Budka (status: 2023)

Publikationsliste Budka (Deutsch, Status 2024)

Neueste Beiträge

Co-presenting the MUAFS project at the SASA virtual conference 2024

Veröffentlicht am 21. Juli 2024 von Julia Budka

Antworten

I am delighted that today there will be a joint presentation by my dear friend and colleague Huda Magzoub and me at the SASA conference. Under the title “The Munich University Attab to Ferka Survey Project 2018-2023: Archaeology, gold, and landscape” we will summarize some aspects of our work in Sudan.

Since Huda is currently having very restricted internet, being displaced with her family in Sudan because of the current war, she sent me a video which I incorporated in the presentation. As much as it hurts not to be able to see her online or in person, it’s a wonderful feeling to present some outcome of our common work and to focus for a change on archaeology & scientific research despite of all the tragedies connected with the war in Sudan.

In our paper today, we will give an overview of the activities and results of the MUAFS project from its start in 2018 until 2023, with a special focus on new findings regarding ancient gold working in the region. In addition, modern gold working and the challenging of preserving cultural heritage in a remote area in times of war will be addressed. Thus, the presentation will follow a comparative approach to analyze gold working throughout the ages. This is especially relevant for Sudan as gold mining has been already in ancient times not just an economic activity but a testament to technological and cultural advancements. Gold has served as a catalyst for cultural evolution, economic prosperity, and sometimes conflict. We will address these aspects and thus highlight some features of the multifaceted story of gold in Sudan, tracing its influence from the dawn of civilization to the contemporary era. Finally, modern concepts of ancient gold working can be critically revisited thanks to the new evidence in the MUAFS concession, making the paper highly relevant for the general theme of the conference.

I am very grateful to the conference organizers for accepting our paper and for giving Huda as a displaced Sudanese archaeologists a forum to share her research in times of war.