About me

Miroslav Bárta is a Czech Egyptologist and archaeologist, former long-time director of the Czech Institute of Egyptology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and its Vice-Rector. He leads a Czech archaeological mission at the site of the pyramid builders in Abusir near Cairo. He has received many prestigious international awards for his work in science (Alexander von Humboldt, Fulbright Scholarship, Michel Schiff Giorgini Foundation Award). In 2003 and 2004, he taught at the American University of Pennsylvania, and in 2014, he was awarded the Simpson Professorship at the American University in Cairo. He has also worked at many universities in Western Europe and overseas. In 2023 he became member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to Egyptology, where his research interests include the period of the pyramid builders and the history and archaeology of the 3rd millennium BCE, he has long been involved in the multidisciplinary study of the phenomena of collapse, the rise and fall of complex civilizations, and their comparative study over long time series. As a result of his work in this field, he has co-authored and edited publications entitled Something Beautiful is Ending. Collapses in Nature and Society (in Czech, with Petr Pokorný; Prague 2008), Collapse and Regeneration. Past, Present and Future of Complex Societies (in Czech, together with Martin Kovář; Prague 2011; Rector's Award for Creative Achievement of the Year), Civilization and History. The History of the World through the Eyes of Twenty Czech Scientists (in Czech, together with Martin Kovář; Prague 2013), People and History. On the Role of Personality in History in a Multidisciplinary Perspective (in Czech, together with Martin Kovář; Prague 2017), The Nature of Change. Security, Risks and the State of Today's Civilization (in Czech, together with Martin Kovář and Otakar Foltýn; Prague 2015) and On the Crossroad. Crises and Transformations of the Contemporary World (in Czech, together with Martin Kovář and Otakar Foltýn; Prague 2016). This book predicted nearly six years in advance the nature of the crisis phenomena of 2022 (including the war in Ukraine).

Bárta's theories and their applications have also attracted great interest at international OECD forums, in the business community, in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and in the Czech public and private media, he regularly communicates with. Most recently, he organized a seminar for the American security think tank Potomac Institute on Punctuated Equilibria and Contemporary Global Risks. He is a co-founder of the Equilibrium think tank and founder of the Complex Societies platform.

He is a member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, the International Egyptological Association, the American Schools of Oriental Research, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the New York Explorer's Club. In 2019, he was awarded the highest scientific award in the Czech Republic - the Czech Head. In 2023, he became international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

His most recent works include the monograph Analyzing Collapse. The Rise and Fall of the Old Kingdom (in English, American University in Cairo Press, 2019) and an edited collection of studies (with Martin Kovář) entitled Civilisations. Addressing the Nature of Change and Transformation in History (in English, Academia, Prague, 2019). In 2021, he published Seven Laws. How Civilizations Rise and Fall /(Brno, Jota, 2021), which became a bestseller in its category.

In October 2022, the film Civilization - Good News about the End of the World was released in cinemas based on this book, produced in collaboration with director Petr Horký (available through Amazon). The end of 2022 then saw the publication of Tutankhamun. One Hundred Years of Mystery and Discoveries (Brno, Jota, 2022) is dedicated to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.