66^th Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC)

Göttingen, Germany, June 30, 2024 to July 05, 2024

Hosted by Georg August Universität
in cooperation with
Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen, Lower Saxony
with support by
German Research Foundation (DFG)

Report
by
Oliver Corff

Introduction

The 66^th Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) was hosted by the State and University Library, Georg August University Göttingen in cooperation with the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony from June 30^th to July 05^th 2024. The Meeting was held at the premises of the Academy of Sciences under the leadership of President Johannes Reckel.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony began with welcome speeches by Prof. Dr. Inge Hanewinkel, Vice-President of the University of Göttingen, Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Thomas Kaufmann, Director of the State and University Library, Prof. Dr. Jens Peter Laut, Vice President of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony, and the Secretary General Oliver Corff.

A minute of silence was observed in remembrance of János Hóvári who had passed away in August 06, 2023, and Uta Schöne who had passed away on April 07, 2024. János Hóvári, a Hungarian scholar of Turkish history, while never been a participant of any earlier PIAC Meeting, had been a strong supporter behind the scene and instrumental in facilitating the Annual Meetings of 2022 in Budapest and 2023 in Astana. Uta Schöne, a scholar of Modern Mongolian studies, was a very early participant of PIAC Meetings, first in 1969 at the 12^th Annual Meeting convened in Berlin, GDR.

PIAC Medal

This year, the PIAC Medal Committee found itself unable to cast an unanimous vote for the recipient of the PIAC Medal. Several candidates were on the short list but since it became evident that none of them would attend this year’s Annual Meeting it was decided with great regret that there would not be an award in 2024.

Confessions

This year, the number of participants was nearly twice as much as during the last years, which, of course, could not be considered average years due to the multitude of global events which had a grave impact on the meeting schedule of the PIAC.

In total, there were 57 registered participants from 15 countries: China, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkmenistan, Turkey and the USA, about a quarter of whom joined a PIAC Meeting for the first time. Some of the members were accompanied by their spouses.

Presentations

The communications began with a keynote presentation by Johannes Reckel: “Pictures on stones from the Altai: The centre of the Bronze Age and the Scythian world”. With minor exceptions, all presentations went according to programme. The Meeting featured five sections:

• Inner Asia: History and Culture
• Around the Altai
• Siberia
• Turkic Languages and Cultures
• The world and languages of the Mongols and Manchu

Organizing the programme and schedule of a PIAC Meeting is always driven by several contradicting necessities: All participants should have the opportunity to listen to every presentation, and every presenter should be given some time for discussion. With more than fifty presentations, the schedule was densely packed, offering only 20 minutes to each speaker. However, the session chairs put in their best effort to manage the constraints of time. Lively discussions filled the coffee and lunch breaks which were conveniently organized next to the nearly fully occupied meeting room. Most of the dinners took place in a reserved area of a restaurant nearby, ensuring further opportunities to discuss this year’s presentations. A few topics and presentations were more controversial than usual, but there were also some presentations which offered eye-opening cross-disciplinary insights into their subjects.

Since the birthdays of two famous members of the PIAC coincided with the meeting, Peter Zieme gave a short presentation about the life and scholarly merits of Annemarie von Gabain (July 04, 1901 — January 15, 1993), the eminent turcologist and art historian who was one of the founding members of the PIAC, participating in PIAC meetings for more than 20 years. Barbara Kellner-Heinkele gave a short presentation about the life and scholarly merits of Zeynep Korkmaz (born July 05, 1921), the eminent linguist whose participation in the PIAC also spans nearly 40 years.

Excursion and Guided Tours

Traditionally and typically, a PIAC Meeting offers opportunities for study and informal exchange besides the formal lectures, and this is frequently combined with sightseeing, be it historical and scenic sites or sites with a relation to the central theme. This year was not different. There were two guided tours to Göttingen University library. On Wednesday, July 03, the first tour included the old seat of the library, namely the Historical Building, also known by its German name Kollegiengebäude, with the old SS. Peter and Paul’s Church, now being a large lecture hall adorned with bookshelves and statues of famous Göttingen scholars. The complex also includes the Heyne Hall which was erected at the end of the XIX^th century. During this visit, the participants had the opportunity to study specimens of old Oriental manuscripts in the holdings of the library, including a hand-written trilingual Manju-Chinese-Mongolian dictionary, comparative word-lists of Turkic languages, Persian and Ottoman illuminated manuscripts, etc.

On Friday, July 05, the visit to the Historical Building was complemented by a tour of the new Central Library building (erected in 1992) and its holdings. Specimens shown included rare newspapers from Central Asia in Uighur, Sibe and Mongolian.

In the afternoon of Wednesday, July 03, the PIAC members visited the scenic town of Hann. Münden (short for Hannoversch Münden), a town near the border of Lower Saxony and the State of Hesse which is also at the confluence of the Fulda and Werra rivers joining to form the Weser. The town has a number of buildings some of which are more than 600 years old. The Renaissance Town Hall features opulent clock chimes with puppets displaying the deeds of the travelling surgeon Johann Andreas Eisenbarth. Those who climbed the Tillyschanze, an observation tower built in the late XIX^th century, could enjoy a magnificent view of the town and its surroundings.

Business Meeting

Proceedings

The publication of the Proceedings for the 61^st Meeting (2018 held in Bishkek) is still pending. The Secretary General is in contact with the publishing house DeGruyter who in the past have published PIAC proceedings in their series Studien zur Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur der Turkvölker, founded by the late György Hazai. Since nearly half of the contributions are in Kyrgyz, nobody in Germany is capable of editing this material, and the possible audience will be very small. It is suggested to split the proceedings in two volumes, one in Kyrgyz, possibly published in Kyrgyzstan, the other one containing English, Russian and Turkish contributions published in Germany, each volume acknowledging relationship to the other volume.

The 63^rd Meeting 2021 was held online. Only a very small number of papers was submitted to the editor at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, insufficient to form a volume of proceedings. However, there is the possibility to publish individual papers in the journal Altaica. Those who submitted a paper are asked to contact Zagarperenlei Tumenbayer and confirm that their paper be published in said journal. Also, the editor will be asked to contact the participants of the 63^rd Meeting who are not present in the 66th Meeting.

The 64^th Meeting was held in Budapest in 2022. So far, the editor Ákos Bertalan Apatóczky has only received a very limited number of papers. Those who still intend to submit a paper are requested to inform Ákos Bertalan Apatóczky and submit their paper before the final deadline of November 1, 2024. The proceedings will appear in Studia Uralo-Altaica the editor in chief of which, Sándor Papp, is present at the meeting.

The 65^th Meeting was held in Astana in 2023. The President Uli Schamiloglu will shortly send out a circular to participants.

All contributors for whom English is a foreign language are asked to have their paper proofread as papers with major problems in expression and style will be refused for publication. In general, all submitted papers will be reviewed by two different specialists.

Next PIAC Meeting

Junko Miyawaki-Okada invited the PIAC members to the 67^th Meeting, to be held at the Rinri Institute of Ethics, at the foot of Mount Fuji, from August 26 to 30, 2025.

All potential participants are kindly requested to reply to the upcoming circulars in a timely manner so that the organizers have a reliable foundation for financial calculations.

PIAC Medal Committee

After counting the ballots for the election of the members of the next PIAC Medal Committee, the following persons were elected: Ákos Bertalan Apatóczky, Marcel Erdal and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele. The Secretary General and the President of the next Meeting, Junko Miyawaki-Okada, are ex officio members of the PIAC Medal Committee.

Resolution

Be it resolved that the members assembled in the 66^th Annual Meeting of the PIAC

• warmly thank all our hosts in Göttingen
• express our heartfelt gratitude to Johannes Reckel for all his work and his steadfast and relentless commitment to make this Meeting in Göttingen possible
• thank the DFG for their financial contribution
• congratulate the famous scholar of Anatolian linguistics, Zeynep Korkmaz, on her 103^rd Birthday (July 05, 2024).