The international conference Global Perceptions and Receptions of Ancient History brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to examine how antiquity is interpreted, reimagined and mobilised across different cultural, social and media contexts. Its central aim is to explore the diverse ways in which ancient worlds continue to shape contemporary identities, artistic practices, academic narratives and public imagination. By analysing the circulation of ancient motifs in popular culture, digital media, education, heritage interpretation, literature, music, film and museum practice, the conference highlights the extraordinary adaptability of antiquity as a global cultural resource.
This is the first conference of its kind in the world, conceived as a platform that systematically connects reception studies with global perspectives on antiquity. Rather than focusing on a single region, medium or historical period, the conference brings these strands into dialogue, demonstrating how ancient history is continuously reshaped through processes of translation, reinterpretation and creative transformation. The contributions presented here reveal how antiquity functions not as a static inheritance, but as a dynamic field of meaning negotiated across continents, disciplines and communities.
By fostering interdisciplinary exchange and encouraging comparative approaches, the conference aims to establish a new framework for studying the global reception of antiquity. It invites participants to rethink established narratives, challenge traditional boundaries and consider how ancient history operates within today’s interconnected world. In doing so, it lays the foundations for future research that recognises antiquity as a shared, evolving and globally resonant cultural phenomenon.
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Global Perceptions and Receptions of Ancient History
Zagreb, 3–6 November 2026 (The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb)
DAY 1 – Tuesday, 3 November 2026
09:00–09:30 – Registration
09:30–10:00 – Opening Ceremony
10:00–10:40 – Keynote Lecture I
Bärbel Auffermann – From Fossil to Icon: Misconceptions and the Popularisation of Neanderthals in Museum Practice
10:40–12:20 SESSION 1 – PREHISTORY
Chair: Bärbel Auffermann
10:40–11:00 Ema Kosnica – Prehistory in a Straight Line: Popular Iconography and Public Perceptions of Human Evolution
11:00–11:20 Antonija Lapaš – Changing the Stone Age: The Paleo Diet Movement and the Reimagining of the Paleolithic Way of Life
11:20–11:40 Marta Rakvin, Ana Đukić & Jacqueline Balen – Tastes of the Iron Age: Bioarchaeology and the Sensory Reception of Ancient Landscapes
11:40–12:00 Maria Nilsson – Rock Art Encountering: Ancient Reception of Prehistoric Imagery at Gebel el-Silsila
12:00–12:20 Ana Pavlović & Tomislav Kiš – Dismantling Pseudoscientific Narratives – Case Study of the Alleged Pyramids in Visoko (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
12:20–14:00 Lunch Break
14:00–14:40 – Keynote Lecture II
Joyce Tyldesley – Seeing Nefertiti
14:40–16:20 SESSION 2 – EGYPT I
Chair: Joyce Tyldesley
14:40–15:00 Hrvoje Gračanin – Queen Cleopatra VII and Her Image in Medieval Latin Chronicles
15:00–15:20 Tomislav Kiš & Smiljana Smolčić – Egyptomania in 21st–century Croatia: Contemporary Reception of Ancient Egypt
15:20–15:40 José das Candeias Sales & Susana Mota – Egyptomania in Portugal: The Egyptian Hall of Braga
15:40–16:00 Katalin Kóthay – Egyptian or Greek? A Particular Aspect of the Use of Egyptianizing Elements in Hungarian Architecture
16:00–16:20 Joanna Popielska–Grzybowska, Assunção Correia de Melo & Sylvie Alves Castro – The Egyptian Boat as an Intercultural Symbol and Artistic Inspiration in Modern Art
16:20–18:00 – Guided Tour: Archaeological Museum in Zagreb
18:00–20:00 – Welcome Reception
DAY 2 – Wednesday, 4 November 2026
09:00–10:20 SESSION 3 – EGYPT II
Chair: Eva Katarina Glazer
09:00–09:20 Patrizia Piacentini – Translating Egypt: The Formation of Giuseppe Parvis’s Style
09:20–09:40 Łukasz Byrski – In the Land of Lost Horizon: The Influence and Reception of Ancient Egypt in Popular and Heavy Metal Music
09:40–10:00 Susanna Moser – From Napoleon to Tutankhamun: The Influence of Ancient Egypt on European Fashion 1800–1920
10:00–10:20 Joachim Östlund – Subterranean Egypt: The Shifting Grounds of Ancient History in Early Modern Sweden
10:20–10:40 – Coffee Break
10:40–12:00 SESSION 4 – EGYPT III
Chair: Ernst Czerny
10:40–11:00 Mladen Tomorad – Reception of Ancient Egypt in Martin Mystère Comics
11:00–11:20 Vesna Kamin Kajfež & Tomislav Kajfež – Egyptian Topics for Young Readers: Two Case Studies of Children’s Literature
11:20–11:40 Daniel Rafaelić – Ancient Egyptian Books of the Underworld on Film
11:40–12:00 Christina Antoniadou – Egyptian Teachings: Brotherhoods in the Film Industry
12:00–13:30 – Lunch break
13:30–15:10 SESSION 5 – EGYPT IV
Chair: Porin Šćukanec Rezniček
13:30–13:50 Jan Ciglenečki – Bernarda Perc’s Newly Discovered Personal Archive as a Source for the History of Egyptology in Yugoslavia
13:50–14:10 Mateja Ravnik – Developing the Slovene Egyptology Database: A Case Study of Architect Milan Kovač
14:10–14:30 Eman Khalifa – The Perception and Reception of Ancient Egypt in the Works of Naguib Mahfouz
14:30–14:50 – Coffee Break
14:50–16:10 SESSION 6 GREECE I
Chair: Susanna Moser
14:50-15:10 – Filip Budić – From Ancient Narrative to Digital Map: Greek Myth on the Eastern Adriatic
15:10–15:30 Ante Franić – “The Strong Do What They Can” – Timeless Laws and Contemporary Misunderstandings
15:30–15:50 Viktoria Franić Tomić – Metamorphoses of the Myth of Helen in Croatian Literature and Art
15:50–16:10 Milana Vuković Runjić – Vladimir Nazor and Pallas Athena in Brač
16:10-16:30 Coffee Break
16:30–18:30 Guided Tour: Zagreb Historical Centre
DAY 3 – Thursday, 5 November 2026
09:00–10:20 SESSION 7 – GREECE II
Chair: Patrizia Piacentini
09:00–09:20 Mladen Tomorad & Lucija Grgić – Reception of Ancient Greece in Computer/Video Games
09:20–09:40 Ichiro Taida – The Battle of Thermopylae in Modern Japanese Children’s Literature
09:40–10:00 Petra Matović & Ana Pavlović – The Reception of Greek Mythology in Croatian Comics
10:00–10:20 Coffee Break
10:20–12:20 SESSION 8 – ROME
Chair: José das Candeias Sales
10:20-10:40 João Paulo Simões Valério – The Fall of the Roman Republic in Late Nineteenth–Century Portuguese Historiography
10:40–11:00 Ernst Czerny – Austrian Painter Heinrich von Angeli and “The Death of Marc Anthony”
11:00–11:20 Ivana Ožanić Roguljić – From Garum to Instagram: Perceptions of Roman Feasting Between Historical Reality and Popular Prejudices
11:20–11:40 Deniver Vukelić – Legio VI Herculia – Late Antiquity Project of the Popularization of History and Archaeology Through Methods of Historical Reenactment and Living History
11:40–12:00 Filip Varaždinec – Representation of the Collapse of the Roman Empire in Croatian High School Textbooks (2010–2020)
12:00–13:30 – Lunch break
13:30–15:20 SESSION 9 – GENERAL ANTIQUITY I
Chair: Katalin Kóthay
13:30-13:50 Marko Marina – From Tyrant to Archetype: The Afterlife of Herod the Great in Late Antique and Medieval Christian Memory
13:50–14:10 Dubravka Botica – Mediating Antiquity in 1818: Imperial Travels, Festivities, and the Reception of Croatian Antiquity
14:10–14:30 Cristina Ruggero – The Visual Mediation of Antiquity as Historical Knowledge
14:30–14:50 Barbara Pavlek Löbl – Ancient History and Modern Identity: Public Uses of the Past in the Wachau
14:50–15:10 Massimo De Grassi – Classical Tradition Put to the Test of Modernity: Episodes in Italian Sculpture After World War II
15:20–15:40 Camilla Persi & Alessia Pilloni – “This is My Roman Empire”: Ancient History Memes Under the Spotlight
15:40 – 16:00 Coffee break
16:00–18:00 Book Presentations
DAY 4 – Friday, 6 November 2026
09:00–10:20 SESSION 10 – GENERAL ANTIQUITY II
Chair: Jacqueline Balen
09:00–09:20 Ljubica Perinić – Star Trek and The Archaeology of the Final Frontier: Public Engagement of the Star Trek Universe and the Politics of Ancient History
09:20–09:40 Iva Kaić & Ana Pavlović – References to Classical Antiquity in the Inspector Morse TV Series
09:40–10:00 Eva Katarina Glazer – From Artefact to Accessory: Replica and Inspired Jewellery in Croatian Museums and the Reception of Antiquity
10:00–10:20 Porin Šćukanec Rezniček – From Indiana Jones to Pub Quizzes: Archaeology, Popular Culture, and Public Engagement in a Museum Context
10:20-10:40 Mila Erceg & Vinko Udiljak – Reflections of Antiquity in Croatian Musical Art
10:40–11:00 – Coffee Break
11:00–12:40 SESSION 11 – BEYOND THE MEDITERRANEAN: GLOBAL ANTIQUITY
Chair: Ana Pavlović
11:00-11:20 Maria Maclennan & John Lawson – Edinburgh’s First Burghers: Revealing the Lives and Hidden Faces of Edinburgh’s Medieval Citizens through Creative Technologies and Multidisciplinary Approaches
11:20–11:40 Katarina Šukelj – Debates on the Paleolithic and Jōmon Periods in Contemporary Japan
11:40–12:00 Eva Katarina Glazer & Ivana Gubić – From Sacred Pilgrimage to Space Opera: Reception and Reinvention of “Journey to the West”
12:00–12:20 Mark Hudson & Claudia Zancan – Kofun Japan and Global Antiquity: Ecology, Pop Culture, and Historiography
12:20-12:40 Joanna Popielska–Grzybowska – Linguistic Experiments and Visual Elaboration of Ancient Symbols in the Art of Jim Cogswell – a Living Reception of Ancient Art and Perception of Modern Art
12:40–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–15:15 SESSION 12 – POSTER SESSION
Iva Adžaga – Women Gladiators: A Step Toward Gender Equality or a Critique of Women’s Roles in the Roman Empire
Ognjen Babić – Roman Themes in the Discography of Symphonic Death Metal Band Ex Deo
Laura Gazdek – Rome as Croatian Heritage: Between Local Identity and Global Tourism
Adela Kavur – Guiding the Dead: The Reception of Psychopomp Figures in Ancient Greek Tradition and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Klaudia Kelemen – Modern Depictions of “The Odyssey” on the Big Screen
Igor Krnjeta – Historiographical Discourse on the Topic of “Black Egyptians”
Filip Kuščević – Playing with the Gods: The Reception of Ancient Mythology in Global Culture
15:15–15:45 SESSION 13 – FINAL DISCUSSION
15:45–16:00 Closing of the Conference
Conference is financed through the NextGenerationEU instrument, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the Recovery and Resilience Facility 581 of the Faculty of Croatian Studies, the fund of Ministry of Culture of Croatia and the City of Zagreb.