{"id":30824,"date":"2025-03-31T17:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iaw.uni-mainz.de\/research\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T20:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:26:18","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iaw.uni-mainz.de\/en\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/jgu-base-pageheader>\n \n<\/jgu-base-anchornavigation>\n
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The Institute of Classical Studies (IAW) encompasses a remarkable range of research activities, grounded in a combination of specialized fundamental research, individual projects, and collaborative research initiatives. This diversity is further strengthened by interdisciplinary and cross-epochal cooperation\u2014an outstanding characteristic in both national and international comparison, which benefits young scholars already during their studies and into their postgraduate education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through their fundamental research, the members of the IAW distinguish themselves as recognized specialists in their respective fields. The research strength of the individual departments\u2014reflected, among other things, in the substantial acquisition of third-party funding\u2014provides a solid foundation for the development of inter- and transdisciplinary collaborative projects. These are initiated not only within the broad spectrum of disciplines at Johannes Gutenberg University, but also on a regional, national, and even international scale. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/jgu-base-section>\n

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With regard to its numerous collaborative research projects, the Institute benefits from a wide-ranging network of partnerships with non-university institutions and research consortia. Equally important are the national and international contacts and research networks in which the individual disciplines are embedded, as Classical Studies belong to a field where the international nature of research has always been both a prerequisite and a defining principle.Excavation campaigns, archaeological surveys and restoration work, research collaborations with antiquities authorities, museums, theaters, and research institutions, as well as a wide variety of academic colloquia, are vivid expressions of this international and cooperative engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A list of current research consortia and cooperation partners can be found here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Mainz Academy project “Ancient Egyptian Cursive Manuscripts (AKU). Digital palaeography and systematic analysis of hieratic and cursive hieroglyphs” is planned to run from 2015-2037. The aim is to palaeographically process the cursive manuscripts in order to be able to research their origin, development and dating in the context of ancient Egyptian writing culture. To this end, various digital methods for documentation and analysis will be developed and applied for the first time. In addition to the character forms, the investigations will also focus on the materiality of the writing carriers, the varying characteristics of the scribes’ hands between calligraphy and economy, as well as the social functions, applications and combinations of the different fonts over the millennia. The specific character list compiled by the project corresponds to the character repertoire of hieratic and cursive hieroglyphs and contains over 700 graphemes. The facsimile characters of selected manuscripts are provided with extensive metadata and linked to illustrations and other databases. The online palaeography AKU-PAL, which emerged from the project database, has been available open access since 2022. Methods and results of the investigations are published in “Hieratic Studies Online (HSO)” and “Beitr\u00e4gen zu Alt\u00e4gyptischen Kursivschriften (BAKU)”, among others. In 2024, the fifth international academy conference of the series “\u00c4gyptologische ‘Binsen’-Weisheiten” took place in Mainz, the files of which will again be published by the project. The blog “HieratischAKUell” offers tools, guidelines, reports, teaching materials and much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project page: https:\/\/aku.uni-mainz.de\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AKU-PAL: https:\/\/aku-pal.uni-mainz.de\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HSO: https:\/\/aku.uni-mainz.de\/hieratic-studies-online\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rushes IV: https:\/\/openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de\/handle\/20.500.12030\/7173<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blog: https:\/\/aku.hypotheses.org\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ursula Verhoeven-van Elsbergen (project manager) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Svenja A. G\u00fclden M.A. (Head of department) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tobias Konrad M.A. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Kyra van der Moezel <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Leuk <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHK Tabitha Kraus M.A. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHK Pascal Siesenop M.A. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Andrea Rapp, TU Darmstadt <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-image>\n\n<\/jgu-base-modal><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The results of the long-term project “The Ancient Egyptian Necropolis of Assiut: Documentation and Interpretation” have been published in the publication series “The Asyut Project (TAP)”, in German or English, and partly also in Arabic. The 19 volumes already published cover a wide range of topics and issues: History of research, travelogues, various types of objects and features from different periods, ethnological and zooarchaeological investigations, paleography, processing of texts and decorative elements as well as tomb publications. The series will be continued with results from follow-up projects on Assiut, in particular at the FU Berlin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The preliminary reports on the annual campaigns appear regularly in the “Studien zur Alt\u00e4gyptischen Kultur (SAK)”. In addition, all participants have also published articles internationally in various contexts, see for example: https:<\/a>\/\/www.aegyptologie.uni-mainz.de\/publikationenpublications\/. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-image>\n\n<\/jgu-base-modal><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Since 2021, a team led by Prof. Dr. Kathrin Gabler has been researching the tomb of Ipuys (TT217) in Deir el-Medina. As part of the “Mission d’\u00e9tude et de conservation Deir el-M\u00e9dina<\/a>” (Institut fran\u00e7ais d’arch\u00e9ologie orientale du Caire), the tomb, which is located on the upper terrace of the western necropolis, is being re-examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complex consists of a courtyard, from which at least one shaft leads into an underground structure, and ten chambers carved into the rock. Built in the early reign of Ramses II (1279-1250 BC) and later reused (several times), it is particularly known for its colorful murals in the chapel. These depict scenes from everyday life – from carpenters and gardeners to fishermen and washermen. Several of these depictions are unprecedented or have very few parallels in the 3000-year history of ancient Egypt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the tomb has already been examined by earlier researchers such as Norman de Garis Davies and Bernard Bruy\u00e8re, there is still a lack of complete scientific documentation. The aim of the project is to close this gap through a complete re-examination and documentation of TT 217. The results will be published in a series of publications covering both the architectural development and the epigraphic and iconographic analysis of the Painting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project serves as the basis for the development of the open access research platform ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina. This platform enables the seamless collection, documentation, analysis and publication of complex data from Deir el-Medina with a single tool. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Kathrin Gabler (project manager)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mission d’\u00e9tude et de conservation Deir el-M\u00e9dina(https:\/\/www.ifao.egnet.net\/archeologie\/deir-el-medina\/)<\/a>, IFAO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

German Department of Archaeology, Cairo Division<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-image>\n\n<\/jgu-base-modal><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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ResearchSpace is an innovative digital platform that is being developed to provide researchers with a unique, powerful tool for the administration, use and analysis of heterogeneous data. Using the Egyptological special case of the ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina as an example, all associated data sets will be comprehensively collected, documented, analyzed and published for the first time – each at a central location, the ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is currently in a pilot phase, which was funded between March 2022 and June 2023 with the support of the Research Fund Junior Researchers of the University of Basel. The project has been based at JGU Mainz since 2024. Tomb TT 217 serves as a case study for building the platform. The tomb offers an impressive variety of data: from digitized archival materials to objects discovered during (recent) excavation campaigns, museum pieces and even newly created 3D models. This mix makes it the perfect test case for the development and optimization of ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A preview was launched during the XIIIth ICE in Leiden (August 2023), ThinkingFrames [Deir el-Medina ResearchSpace] (kartography.net).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Kathrin Gabler (project manager)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mission d’\u00e9tude et de conservation Deir el-M\u00e9dina(https:\/\/www.ifao.egnet.net\/archeologie\/deir-el-medina\/)<\/a>, IFAOResearchSpace (ResearchSpace – representing knowledge with context)Kartography Community Interest Company (D. Oldman, D. Tanase, A. Kozlov, C. Giancristofaro. https:\/\/kartography.org\/)<\/a>N. Spencer as well as M. Lehmann (ResearchSpace Amara-West. https:\/\/amara-west.researchspace.org\/resource\/rsp:Start)<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-image>\n\n<\/jgu-base-modal><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The city of Haft Tappeh (Kabnak) is located about 15 km southeast of the important city of Susa, in the present-day Iranian province of Khuzestan. Due to its geographical location on the edge of the Mesopotamian plain and at the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, the region represents an important contact zone between Mesopotamia in the west and the Iranian highlands in the east. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ezatollah Negabhan’s excavations, which were carried out between 1965 and 1978, unearthed monumental building structures as well as numerous clay tablets, most of which shed light on administrative processes and thus indicate the importance of the city at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The archaeological investigations in Haft Tappeh were continued by Behzad Mofidi-Nasrabadi from 2001 onwards. During the excavation campaigns of 2005 and 2007, a building complex was uncovered in which a further 634 clay tablets and tablet fragments were found. The texts are also of an administrative nature and written in Akkadian. They thus represent the last diplomas of Akkadian-language administration in the region before Elamite prevailed as the language of administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This important text find is being processed for the first time as part of the DFG-funded project “Digital Edition of the Cuneiform Texts from Haft Tappeh (Iran)”. Based on 3D images, the editio princeps<\/em> will be carried out completely digitally in an innovative approach. As part of this project, the Ancient Near Eastern Philology working group is cooperating with the Mainz \/ Mainzed higher education institution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff<\/strong>Prof. Dr. Doris Prechel (JGU Mainz; Project Leader) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Kai-Christian Bruhn (i3Mainz; Project Leader) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Tim Brandes (JGU Mainz, Research Associate) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timo Homburg (i3Mainz, Research Associate) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Behzad Mofidi-Nasrabadi (JGU Mainz) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Zalaghi (JGU Mainz, Research Assistant) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lukas Martin Ahlborn (JGU Mainz, Research Assistant) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperations<\/strong>Prof. Dr. Hubert Mara (FU Berlin) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financing<\/strong>DFG <\/strong>(2019-2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-image>\n\n<\/jgu-base-modal><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A new project has been based in Ancient Near Eastern Philology since October 2022: Akkadian and Hittite Emotional Terms in Context (subtitle: Towards a Lexicon of Emotions in Cuneiform Texts from Ancient Mesopotamia and Asia Minor). The project is a cooperation with the university in Tel Aviv, Israel – the Mainz team, headed by Prof. Dr. Doris Prechel and Dr. Ulrike Steinert, is working on Akkadian, the Israeli team under Prof. Dr. Amir Gilan on Hittite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research project prosecutes a comprehensive study of the semantic domain of emotions in both Akkadian and Hittite. It will systematically explore how emotions have been linguistically and contextually differentiated and delimited in the two spokespersons; the investigations will include the semantic properties, similarities and relationships between different emotion terms, their usage and developments in different text genres, periods and contexts. With its thematic focus and its comparative, corpus-linguistic approach, the proposed project will open up new possibilities for collaboration with other philological and historical disciplines, further expanding the scope of Ancient Near Eastern Studies and emphasizing its relevance by making an important contribution to a recent and extremely lively field of research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Doris Prechel (Project Leader) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Ulrike Steinert (Project Leader) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonas Kl\u00f6ker B.A. (2022-2023, Research Assistant) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letizia Savino M.A. (seit 2023, Research Assistant) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financing<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DFG (since 2022) <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-image>\n\n<\/jgu-base-modal>\n\n\n

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The more than 30.000 clay tablets and clay tablet fragments in cuneiform script from the archives of the Hittite capital \u1e2aattu\u0161a (Central Anatolia) as well as from other Hittite sites include texts in Hittite, the oldest documented Indo-European language, as well as in other Anatolian and non-Anatolian languages (Luwian, Palaic, Hattic, Hurrian, Akkadian, Sumerian) and represent one of the richest and most important textual traditions of the ancient Near East. The transliterations of the various texts and fragments are currently mainly available in the Hittitological specialist literature, and only to a lesser extent in the form of digital editions. However, the challenges of modern research require a comprehensive digital collection that functions as a searchable database of texts in transliteration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This desideratum of Hittitology will be fulfilled by the DFG-funded project Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis<\/em> (TLHdig<\/sup>), in which the universities of Mainz, W\u00fcrzburg, Marburg and the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz are involved. The aim of the project is to create a digital, open-access and annotated repository of transliterations of all accessible cuneiform texts from the Hittite archives, which will be integrated into the digital infrastructure “Hittitologie-Portal Mainz<\/a>” (HPM) and enable complex search functions. An online creator interface will allow the thesaurus to be regularly updated by the Hittitological community beyond the planned duration of the project. TLHdig<\/sup> will thus open up new access to the Hittite primary sources in transliteration and offer sophisticated research opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gerfrid G. W. M\u00fcller (ADW, Project Manager) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doris Prechel (JGU, Project Manager) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elisabeth Rieken (UMR, Project Manager) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Schwemer (JMU, Project Leader) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fabio Bastici (JGU, Research Associate) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birgit Christiansen (UMR, Research Associate) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bj\u00f6rn Eyselein (JMU, Research Associate) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Herdt (UMR, Research Assistant) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gudrun Samberger (JMU, Research Assistant) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letizia Savino (JGU, Research Assistant) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financing<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DFG (2020-2023) <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-image>\n\n<\/jgu-base-modal><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to the German-Tunisian excavations led by Stefan Ritter and Sami Ben Tahar, archaeologists from the universities of Mainz and T\u00fcbingen, construction researchers from the Technical University of Berlin and geologists from the University of Bochum carried out an architectural and sculpture survey in Meninx between 2017 and 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim of the work was to gain insights into the original construction and statuary of the ancient city based on the architectural elements of the ancient city area visible above ground and the unpublished building elements and sculptures from Meninx in the Bordj el Ghazi Mustapha in Houmt Souk. This is because decontextualized finds can also be used to draw conclusions about the minimum number, size, wealth and functions of ancient buildings and their furnishings. Furthermore, a stylistic analysis offers the possibility of dating the buildings and sculptures as well as shedding light on workshop issues and related communication channels in the Imperium Romanum. Finally, the monuments obtained through the documentation of the building elements will be compared with the results of the geophysical investigations and the excavations. On this basis, the architectural-historical position of Meninx is to be claused against the background of its location between the Tunisian interior and the rest of the Mediterranean world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Johannes Lipps (project manager)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooperations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The publishers are J. Kahl, M. El-Khadragy, A. Kilian and U. Verhoeven. https:\/\/www.harrassowitz-verlag.de\/series_412.ahtml.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n