Location: Festive Hall of the Language Center (Fabianinkatu 26)
Organisation: Raija Mattila (Finnish Institute in the Middle East), Sebastian Fink (University of Innsbruck)
Monday 14 December
9:00-09:15 Welcome address by the organizers
9:15-10:00 Keynote I: Gabriela Kompatscher (Classics, University of Innsbruck): Human-Animal Studies – Bridging the Hiatus between Academia and Society.
10:00-10:45 Keynote II: Gebhard Selz (Assyriology, University of Vienna): The Pivotal Role of Animals in Early Mesopotamian Theoretical Reflection.
10:45-11:15 Coffee break
Session 1: Humans, Animals, Gods and Things: a Complex Relationship
11:15-12:00 Simonetta Ponchia (Assyriology, University of Verona): Gilgamesh and Enkidu: The Two-thirds-god and the Two-thirds-animal?
12:00-12:45 Tua Korhonen (Classics, University of Helsinki): Approaches to Animal Fables: Aesop, Anthropomorphism and Beyond.
12:45-14:30 Lunch break
Session 1: Humans, Animals, Gods and Things: a Complex Relationship (continued)
14:30-15:15 Raija Mattila (Assyriology, University of Helsinki/Finnish Institute in the Middle East): Idealizing Animals.
15:15-16:00 Peeter Espak (Assyriology/ Comparative history of religions, University of Tartu): Animals and Humans in Mesopotamian and Old Testament Accounts of Creation.
16:00-16:30 Coffee break
Session 2: Human-Animal Relationship in the Old Testament
16:30-17:15 Ingo Kottsieper (Old Testament Studies, Academy of Science Göttingen): Animals – Partners or Subjects of Humans? Thoughts about the Relationship of Animals and Humans in the Traditions of Israel.
17:15-18:00 Sanna Saari (Old Testament Studies, University of Helsinki): Animals are Enemies? Echoes of the Royal Lion Hunt in Judges 14.
Tuesday 15 December
Session 2: Human-Animal Relations in Economics
08:00-08:45 Marcos Such-Gutierrez (Assyriology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid): Man and Animals in the Administrative Texts at the End of the 3rd Millennium BC.
08:45-09:30 Kai Ruffing (Ancient History, University of Kassel): Animal Husbandry in an Irrigation Economy: The Case of Roman Egypt.
09:30-10:15 Michaela Weszeli (Assyriology, University of Vienna): For the Gods or for Money? Animal Husbandry at the Temples in First Millennium Babylonia.
10:15-10:30 Coffee break
Session 3: Animals as a Source of Human and Divine Knowledge
10:30-11:15 Joonas Hirvonen (Assyriology, University of Leipzig): Animal Behaviour as a Source of Knowledge in Mesopotamia.
11:15-12:00 Janne Mattila (Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Helsinki): Animals as a Source for Human and Divine Knowledge in Early Islam.
12:00-14:00 Lunch break
Session 4: Transgressing Category Boundaries: Composite Beings
14:00-14:45 Ann C. Gunter (Assyriology, Northwestern University): Animal Friezes in Orientalizing Greek Art: Issues in Transmission and Meaning.
14:45-15.30 Sebastian Fink (Assyriology, University of Innsbruck): Gods as Animals and Things?
15:30-16:00 Coffee break
16:00 -16.45 Closing of the conference (Raija Mattila, Sebastian Fink)
The IHANE Project: a review of five years of work (Robert Rollinger)