This course introduces students to the study of Mediterranean material culture by focusing on the development of ancient Greek and Roman architecture from the Late Bronze Age to the beginning of Late Antiquity. The survey begins in the Greek world, examining the formal and technical development of Greek architecture. Topics considered will include…[Read more]

The Plague of Justinian began in 541 and quickly spread over the area of the late antique Mediterranean. There it continued in more than a dozen plague waves until the middle of the 8th century, causing much suffering and a great number of deaths. Academia traditionally debates it as the end of Antiquity. Isochronal, the effect of climate change…[Read more]

Interior design of medieval and modern pubs.

Durch die immer schneller voranschreitende Stadtentwicklung reichten Straßenbezeichnungen bald nicht längei aus, um sich ähnelnde Häuser zu unterscheiden. So musste ein Wirt sein Gasthaus den Einheimischen und Fremden kenntlich und attraktiv machen. Diese Kennzeichnung erfolgte mit diversen Hilfsmitteln, die sich im Laufe der Zelt entwickelten und…[Read more]

Computergestützte Methoden ermöglichen es, Informationen zv Raumnutzung und Bewegungsabläufen in architektonischen Strukturen zu gewinnen. Dies kann bei der Interpretation ergrabener Wirtshäuser hilfreich sein. Ein geeignetes Werkzeug hierfür ist die Space-Syntax-Analyse. So kann mit der angewandten Software UCL Depthmap 10 (Turner/Friedrich 2011…[Read more]

The modern names for the Hebrew vowels (qameṣ, pataḥ, segol, ṣere, ḥiriq/ḥireq, ḥolem, shuruq/shureq, qibbuṣ/qubbuṣ) are derived from a variety of medieval sources. The pair of qameṣ and pataḥ are the oldest, both having evolved in the earliest stages of Masoretic analysis of vocalisation. The remaining names are products of three different…[Read more]

Medieval Hebrew and Syriac scribes both indicated vowels by placing dots above or below their consonantal writing. These vowel points were created in the Late Antique and early Islamic periods to disambiguate the vocalization of important texts, especially the Bible. The earliest step in this process was the implementation of the Syriac ‘diacritic…[Read more]

Dawid bar Pawlos’ Letter on Dots is an eighth-century text that purportedly describes the introduction of some of the dots used in Syriac writing. It also sheds light on the life of a certain Rāmišoʿ of Beṯ Rabban, apparently the same man as the master of pointing named in MS BL Add. 12138. However, most studies of Syriac dots either neglec…[Read more]

Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts with complete vocalisation are rare, a problem which makes reconstructing the pronunciation of the medieval language challenging. This study presents an edition of a Judaeo-Arabic translation of Ecclesiastes from the Cairo Genizah with full Tiberian vocalisation. This manuscript exhibits noteworthy features of dialectal…[Read more]

This article presents new data on links between the various medieval vocalisation traditions of Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. These include the identification of overlaps in the Aramaic terminology used by Jewish Masoretes and Syriac Christian grammarians and in the phonological theories that underlie them, as well as connections between Syriac and…[Read more]

MS T-S Ar.5.58 is a translation glossary from the Cairo Geniza that contains a list of Judaeo-Arabic glosses for Hebrew words from the biblical book of Samuel. These Arabic words are fully vocalised with the Tiberian Hebrew pointing system, providing more precise phonetic information about the scribe’s native Arabic dialect than could be e…[Read more]

Discusses the fragmentary poem Inna hinada at the end of Lebor na hUidre

Book review

Peter Shoeffer’s book-list is usually dated to the year 1470. The author challenges this dating, however, supplying a detailed analysis of the content of the list and suggested when it was printed and under what circumstances.

This course explores key themes related to the archaeology of urbanism and urban centers in the ancient Mediterranean world. The development of urban culture in the Mediterranean world and western Asia will provide an opportunity to discuss cultural interactions and the development of the framework of urban culture in the ancient Near East, while…[Read more]

Single finds are often neglected in the analysis of Bronze Age depositions, since their context is often unclear or even completely unknown. It is often assumed that single finds originally belonged to hoards, graves or settlements. But do they really belong to other contexts, or are they an autonomous context category that deserves more…[Read more]

Geomagnetic research and drillings provide new results regarding settlement organisation and population size of three small settlements from the Pre-Cucuteni and the Cucuteni A-B period of Suceava County in Romanian Bucovina. In these settlements from different stages of the Cucuteni-Tripolye complex, domestic dwellings can be distinguished from…[Read more]

Destruction is an element of human behaviour that is universally present throughout our history. But what are the driving forces behind these violent acts? Can an underlying motivation be recognised in the archaeological record? This article focuses on the destruction and mutilation of monumental architecture and figurative works, and puts them…[Read more]