On 1-2 December 2025, the conference Local portrait habits in West Asia and Egypt (100 BCE – 500 CE) took place in Copenhagen. It brought together researchers to explore how locally produced portraits from Western Asia and Egypt express identities shaped by shifting imperial regimes. It centered on the core questions of how regional communities engaged with, adapted to, or resisted changing hegemonies through the portraits they created in materials such as stone, plaster, mosaic, and metals. Participants presented case studies—ranging from graves and domestic settings to public spaces—that illuminated how portrait traditions varied across local and regional contexts. The meeting foregrounded overlooked evidence and promoted cross-regional dialogue that reframed our understanding of ancient portrait cultures. Ultimately, the conference challenged traditional views by treating local portraits not as passive reflections of imperial models but as key evidence for understanding the workings and impacts of imperial systems.

Covering a broad range of regions, from Egypt and the Red Sea coast to north-western Arabia, Palmyra, Osroene, Elymais, Cilicia, Zeugma, and Asia Minor, the conference showcased the extraordinary diversity of local portrait practices across Western Asia and Egypt. Speakers explored themes such as how communities negotiated identity under shifting imperial regimes, how local artistic traditions persisted or transformed, how portrait styles circulated across regions, and how images of individuals were renewed, reused, recontextualized, or paired to convey new social and political messages.

Case studies ranged widely: painted and plaster portraits from Roman Egypt; sculptural commissions from the cosmopolitan port of Berenike; Liḥyānite sandstone statues from Dadan; female funerary portraits and the vast corpus of 4000 Palmyrene portraits; Elymaean royal and sacred-site portraiture; mosaic family portraits from Edessa; the richly furnished tomb of Areisteos in Zeugma; Cilician funerary monuments; reused statues in Magnesia, Knidos, and Thera; and late antique panegyric displays from Aphrodisias to Tyre. Together, they highlighted how individuals and communities crafted identities through material and visual choices that blended local habits with imperial frames.

Each paper sparked lively and thought-provoking discussions, prompting the speakers and other attendees to draw new connections across regions, reconsider long-held assumptions, and reflect on the lived contexts in which portraits were made, perceived, and reused. These exchanges underscored the dynamic, and sometimes surprising ways in which local communities shaped and reshaped the visual language.

Read all the abstracts here.

All papers from the conference will be published next year with Brepols in the series The Archaeology and History of Western Asia (300 BCE–750 CE).