Manfred Bietak

Manfred Bietak (born in Vienna, 6 October 1940) is an Austrian archaeologist. He is professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Vienna, working as the principal investigator for an ERC Advanced Grant Project "The Hyksos Enigma" and the founder and editor-in-chief of the 1990 journal Ägypten und Levante (Egypt and the Levant) and of four series of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oriental and European Archaeology (2016–2020). Tell El-Dab'a, which was identified as the location of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos period; and Piramesse, which was the capital of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The site was also most probably the naval base Peru-nefer of Thutmosis III and Amenhotep II. A palace precinct of those kings, furnished with Minoan frescoes was one of the most important discoveries. Bietak has also conducted excavations in western Thebes (Luqsor), where he discovered the huge tomb of Ankh-Hor, Chief steward of the Divine Wife of Amun Nitokris (26th Dynasty). Since 2013 he conducts excavations at the Middle Kingdom Palace at Bubastis.

Career Bietak studied archeology at University of Vienna, obtaining his Dr. phil. in 1964 and an honorary PhD. in 2009. In 1961–1964, he took part in the archaeological rescue expedition of UNESCO at Sayala in Nubia, and he also supervised excavations there; in 1965 he was the director of the expedition. During 1966–1972, he was the scientific secretary and later the scientific counsellor at the Austrian Embassy in Cairo. In 1973, he founded the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo; he has been the director of the institute until 2009.

Bietak is the founder and director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo 1973–2009. He was chairman of the Institute of Egyptology (1984–2009) and of the Vienna Institute of Archaeological Science (2004–2011) at the University of Vienna and chairman of the Commission for Egypt and the Levant at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. From 1999 to 2011, he was also founder and first speaker of the Special Research Programme (SFB) "Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC – SCIEM 2000" at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1997 and 2006, he was visiting professor at the Collège de France; in 2004, he was Martha Whitcomb visiting professor at Harvard; between 2016 and 2017 he was guest scholar at the Getty Research Institute at Malibu, California. He is professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Vienna.

In 2015, Bietak won from the European Research Council an ERC Advanced Grant "The Hyksos Enigma" and is principal investigator and head of this project which is accommodated at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and at the Bournemouth University, UK. This project explores the origins of western Asiatic populations in the Nile Delta during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1800 BC) and the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1800–1530 BC) and how the Hyksos seized power in Lower Egypt. Research also is focused on the reasons for the decline and failure of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty and its lasting impact on the Egyptian culture of the New Kingdom.