Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences
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The Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences (ISIS) was a British scholarly and educational charity set up in 1985 to promote discussion on the history and chronology of the ancient world. The purpose of the Institute was to bring together scholars from many different disciplines so that their collective knowledge could be brought to bear on the problems of chronology and history of the ancient world.
Thus ISIS attracted scholars working in ancient history, radiocarbon dating and other scientific dating methods, astronomical dating, Old Testament Studies, Egyptology, Assyriology and many branches of archaeology. The Institute became international in scope with Research Associates from at least a dozen countries and included representatives and graduates from University College London, and universities in Swansea, Madrid, Belfast, Bristol, Cambridge, Melbourne, Egypt, France, Netherlands, Japan, Oxford, Durham, Nottingham, New Jersey, Michigan, Belgium.
Starting under the directorship of David Rohl, it aimed to sustain a high standard of scholarship while at the same time fostering creative, courageous, international and interdisciplinary approaches to research into the history of the Ancient Near East (ANE). It was not able to maintain its initial ambitious programme of research for very long however. (See Chairman’s Report, JACF Volume 10.)
The acronym ISIS, being the name of an Egyptian goddess, no doubt alluded to the key role played by Egyptology in establishing Ancient Near Eastern chronology, but presumably also harked back to SIS, the Velikovskian Society, from which some members came.
The journal of the Institute was the Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum (JACF) produced in ten volumes from 1987 to 2005. Volume One set out an array of chronological problems surrounding the ‘Dark age’ of the ANE 3,000 years ago. These papers eventually appeared in a book, Centuries of Darkness, (published independently by Jonathan Cape, London) which drawing on a wide range of archaeological evidence tentatively proposed a 250 year reduction in the dates of the Egyptian New Kingdom.
The JACF series extended to ten well-produced volumes over a period of twenty years. They record the history and activities of the society as well as the development of the ‘New Chronology’, which came to focus on a 350 year revision of the date of Ramesses II, from 1279-213 BC to 944–878 BC. This was driven primarily by a new understanding of the synchronisms of the Amarna Letters (see JACF Volume 6).
The publication of the ‘New Chronology’ in 1995 (separately by David Rohl, A Test of Time, Century, Random House, London) caused something of a furore and the Society underwent a further period of re-examination. Successful lectures and conferences continued however, as well as involvement in the pioneering work of the Eastern Desert Survey.
ISIS had made a great contribution to the chronological debate, creating a forum for all the sometimes controversial, but never boring, issues of ANE chronology. The Institute was dissolved in October 2005.
