The following successfully completed projects are currently in the drafting or writing stage and will be published in one of the series of the Department of Classics at the OeAI.

DiAGRAM – Digitising Aspects of Graphical Representation in Ancient Music

Since the rise of the internet, the scholarly community has been struggling to find ways of presenting the heritage of ancient culture in ways that take full advantage of the new technical possibilities. A special challenge is posed by presenting more complex traditions – for instance the fate of ancient texts handed down through many generations by manual copying, so that none of the resulting copies are identical. The present project tackles a particularly fascinating topic: ancient musical scores, which cannot be straightforwardly represented by a series of letters, but may show a complex two-dimensional layout including lyrics, pitch notation and rhythmical signs. We define computational standards for encoding these structures, create appropriate software, and will present all known musical fragments from the Hellenistic and Roman periods in an online edition. It will supply not only transcriptions to modern stave notation and a commentary, but also allow listening to these examples of a long-past musical culture at the correct ancient pitch, and with the subtle pitch modifications reported by ancient theorists. At the same time, a full database of ancient music will form an invaluable basis of future research. In addition, we will provide a new edition of an ancient musical schoolbook, probably from the second century CE – one of the few examples that use musical notation quite freely, presupposing its widespread knowledge. Working on the respective software routines will also force us to define with precision which aspects of an ancient performance were encoded in writing, in contrast to those that were granted to be supplied by the ancient readers’ familiarity with styles – or their own creativity as performers. Will it, for instance, prove possible to write a computer program that makes convincing sense of all extant rhythmical notation, or must we conclude that the ancient composers had indeed not created a very coherent system?

Responsible:Stefan Hagel
Series: -

Byzantinischer Palast von Ephesos

The »Byzantine Palace« in the lower city of Ephesos was already extensively exposed by F. Miltner in the 1950s. It was interpreted as a governor's palace respectively as the residence of a high official. Beginning with 2005 follow-up investigations were carried out by A. Pülz. Furthermore, in 2008 geophysical prospections have been performed. On the basis of the numerous new results the building today can be dated in the 5th century AD and an interpretation of the representative building as a central part of the Ephesian Episcopeion is very likely. The publication of this building – together with the episcopal residence of Side/Pamphylia -- currently is in preparation.

Responsible:Andreas Pülz
Series: Forschungen zur antiken Religion

Rom: Domitilla-Katakombe

Die Domitilla-Katakombe ist mit einer Ausdehnung von 12 km unterirdischer Gänge nicht nur die größte Katakombe Roms. Zugleich bietet sie einen umfassenden Einblick in alle Phasen und Phänomene dieser frühchristlichen Nekropolen: Aus vereinzelten heidnischen Grabkammern und ersten anonymen Gemeindebestattungen des frühen 3. Jhs. wuchs im Verlauf des 4. Jhs. ein riesiges Galerienetz zusammen. Eine unterirdische Basilika bildete, nach dem Ende der Bestattungstätigkeit im 5. Jh., bis ins Mittelalter hinein ein Pilgerzentrum um die Gräber der verehrten Martyrer Nereus und Achilleus. Mit rund 80 ausgemalten Grabräumen bewahrt die Domitilla-Katakombe zudem einen der größten Bestände an Katakombenmalerei überhaupt. Die Katakombe wurde in den Jahren zwischen 2006 und 2014 im Rahmen eines START-Projektes (N. Zimmermann) eingehend untersucht. An der Drucklegung der Forschungsergebnisse, im Besonderen des ‚Repertoriums zu den Malereien‘ wird derzeit gearbeitet.

Responsible: Norbert Zimmermann
Series: Roma Sotterranea Cristiana | Forschungen zur antiken Religion

Das Palastmosaik von Konstantinopel

The focus of the workgroup “Mosaic Research in Asia Minor” lies in the completion of the publication of the project “Palace Mosaic of Constantinople”. This mosaic adorned the floor of a peristyle hall which had been uncovered in the course of excavations by the Walker Trust (University of St. Andrews) in 1935-1938 and 1952-1954. The Palace Mosaic belonged to the décor of the Byzantine Imperial Palaces. About 250 m² of the mosaic was excavated by the British researchers which are only about 15% of the peristyle hall; the floor had to its entirety been covered by a mosaic. The mosaic was of the highest artistic and technical quality, composed of millions of tesserae of valuable material.

Responsible:Werner Jobst
Series: Sonderschriften des ÖAI (SoSchr)

Carnuntum: Der Tempelbezirk des Iuppiter Heliopolitanus in den Canabae

From 1978-1991 rescue excavations due to the building of single-family houses were necessary in the so-called Mühläcker in the western area of the town Bad Deutsch-Altenburg. On an area of about 40.000 m² not only an important section of the canabae of Carnuntum was uncovered, but also two temple districts, of which the smaller one was dedicated to Liber and Libera, the larger one to Iuppiter Heliopolitanus.  After a lengthy pause the work on the publication of the temple district of Iuppiter Heliopolitanus resumed several years ago and is currently being continued in collaboration of various institutions.

Responsible: Verena Gassner
Series: Forschungen zur antiken Religion

Ars critica numaria: Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798) and the Transformation of Ancient Numismatics

Dieser Sammelband enthält 21 Beiträge zu Werk und Wirken von Joseph Eckhel, der mit seiner achtbändigen »Doctrina numorum veterum« (Wien, 1792–1798) nach dem Urteil der Zeitgenossen die antike Numismatik als Wissenschaft neu begründete. Der Band stellt Eckhel in den Kontext der Entwicklung der Altertumswissenschaften in der Zeit der Aufklärung und bietet wichtige Einblicke in die numismatische Methodengeschichte.

Responsible:Bernhard Woytek
Series: Veröffentlichungen zur Numismatik

Carnuntum – Vindobona (Carvin): Steindenkmäler und Steingewinnung

Hauptziel des CarVin-Projektes war die Erfassung und archäologisch-geologische Untersuchung und Auswertung der aus lokalen und regionalen Gesteinen gefertigten römischen Denkmäler aus den Siedlungsgebieten von Carnuntum und Vindobona sowie dem Wiener Becken und dem Leithagebiet. Durch die Herkunftsbestimmung des in der Antike verwendeten Steinmaterials wurden neue Einblicke in die Gewinnung und Verarbeitung von Stein sowie in die Siedlungs-, Transport-, Wirtschafts- und Kulturgeschichte des Untersuchungsgebietes gewonnen. Geplant ist die Publikation der Ergebnisse in drei Bänden mit den Schwerpunkten Kult- und Weihedenkmäler des Untersuchungsgebietes = CSIR Carnuntum/Wien Suppl. 2 (HauptResponsiblee: G. Kremer), Siedlungsraum Wiener Becken (HauptResponsiblee: M. Kronberger/M. Mosser) und Geologische Grundlagen (HauptResponsiblee: A. Rohatsch/B. Moshammer).

Responsible:Gabrielle Kremer
Series: Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani - CSIR

An Egyptian Official in War and Peace - The first complete critical edition of the archive of the strategus Apollonios

The project aims at the first complete critical edition of the archive of the strategus Apollonios which is the most important dossier of papyrus documents from Egypt for the first two centuries CE. It comprises some 230 Greek documents. The most prominent person appearing in it is a man named Apollonios. He originated from Hermopolis in Middle Egypt and functioned between ca. 113-120 CE as head of the civil administration (strategus) of the nome (district) Apollonopolites Heptakomias in Upper Egypt. Besides the official correspondence Apollonios is the addressee of most of the private letters in the archive, written by family members, friends, employees, and business partners. These documents are of paramount importance for the history of Roman Egypt. This is particularly the case for the administrative history of Upper Egypt, since the nome Apollonopolites Heptakomias is solely known from the archive. On the other hand the documents shed some light on the uprising of the Jewish diaspora in Egypt (116-117 CE) and the impact of this war on the local population of the country. Finally the texts provide illuminating information for the social, economic and cultural background of a family of the local hellenised municipal elite of Egypt and their level of education and literacy. A complete edition of the archive is an urgent desideratum because its texts are scattered over sixteen different collections and are only available in editions of sometimes considerable age and different quality. Some texts are also still lacking a scholarly edition. These issues have until now significantly hampered a scholarly reception of the documents which would have been commensurate with their importance. All texts shall be re-edited with a critical apparatus, a commentary, a bibliography, an image and a translation. An elaborate introduction to the volume shall embrace the relevant historical and philological aspects of the dossier.

Responsible:Thomas Kruse
Series: -

Documentary Fayumic Papyri in Vienna: Reedition of Texts from CPR II and IV

Fayumic is one of the dialects of the Coptic language, alongside the two main dialects: Sahidic (south of Egypt) and Bohairic (north). The reason for studiyng Fayumic documentary texts is twofold: the material is marked by a linguistic specificity and the documents share a common and precise place of origin : the oasis of the Fayum, a region known to have yielded thousands of documents. It is however interesting to note that the two realities (linguistic and geographic) are not always the same. A little over 100 Coptic Fayumic texts of the Viennese collection have been published in two volumes of the Corpus Papyrorum Raineri, first by Jakob Krall, Koptische Texte. Band I: Rechtsurkunden, CPR II, Wien 1895, then by W. C. Till, Die koptischen Rechtsurkunden der Papyrussammlung der Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek. Texte, Übersetzungen, Indices, CPR IV, Wien 1958, who republished the legal documents. Both editions however are missing a full commentary. Besides, many of the Fayumic texts published (or rather mostly only transcribed and given a short commentary) in CPR II have not seen republication in CPR IV, especially the letters. The aim of this project is also to find unpublished Fayumic documents in the collection. The Fayumic dialect only appears in documentary texts after the Arab conquest of 641, although it exists in literary texts as early as the 4^th-5^th century. The first securely dated document is from 745. The majority of the texts date from the 8^th to the 11^th century. A more thorough study of these documents will certainly allow to be more precise in the dating of the documents and to push back the first documents by a few years. The Coptic documents dating from after the Arab conquest also have to be studied in the light of documents written in other languagues, namely Greek (until the end of the 8^th century) and Arabic, to better understand the position Coptic occupied. The specific features of the Fayumic dialect have not yet been extensively studied. The phonetic features are the most well know and the most easily recognizable. For example, one predominant characteristic is the exchange of the liquid consonants (/l/ instead of /r/). A difficulty is added by the fact that in documentary texts, we are faced with a non-standardized version of the dialect (or “vulgar Faijumisch” as Till called it). The project is expected to add to our understanding of the functioning of the grammar and semantics of this dialect. A lot of words that we find in Fayumic documentary papyri are not attested elsewhere and have sometimes not even been identified. Fayumic texts also have their own peculiarities concerning the formulaic parts of correspondences as well as legal questions

Responsible: Fritz Mitthof
Series: -

Local Courts in Roman Egypt

As soon as the Hellenistic kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 30 BCE, the courts of Egypt became venues for Roman jurisdiction. Like most Roman governors, the Roman prefect of Egypt (praefectus Aegypti) ruled in an itinerant fashion and took an annual tour of his province, during which he held assizes (in Latin, conventus, in Greek, dialogismos, dikaiodosia) in major cities. At each assize, the governor (along with other imperial officials) conducted administrative business and received petitions and adjudicated civil and criminal cases. Fortunately, the arid climate of Egypt has preserved many hundreds of documents on papyrus that attest to the Roman assize system and to the activity of imperial and local courts. In addition to hundreds of petitions to officials, the papyrological record has preserved several hundred records of court hearings conducted by imperial officials, local officials, city councillors and army officers who were on a more or less formal basis delegated the task of settling local disputes. These extraordinary testimonia for the legal process in a province of the Roman Empire are the object of the current investigation. This project is dedicated to jurisdiction at the local level, beyond the immediate framework of imperial assizes, which is a subject that has received much less attention than the jurisdictional activity of Roman imperial officials. In particular, detailed treatment is given to the jurisdictional activity of district officials (strategoi), military officers, and (after 200 CE) city councils. Looking beyond the courts of imperial officials provides important insight into the impact of the Roman assize system, as we observe the aftermath of judicial sentences issued by officials at the conventus. The focus on local jurisdiction also sheds light on the choice of individuals to engage with formal justice, as opposed to arbitration and private settlement. One important aspect of the investigation is to what extent legal procedure appears to have been standardized, or whether procedure at the local level departed in significant ways from the way hearings were conducted by imperial officials. Close attention is paid to the actors involved (judges, legal advisors, forensic orators, witnesses, notaries, armed personnel, etc.) and their interaction in the courtroom. Another focus of the project are the factors determining the delegation of jurisdiction by imperial officials, often to military officers, as well as the involvement of local officials and soldiers in conducting the investigation of cases on the ground. The first goal of the project is the analysis of all relevant texts from high-quality digital images, checking lacunae and problematic readings in the published editions. The second goal is legal-historical analysis of jurisdictional activity at the local level, addressing key historical questions: 1) the relationship between the imperial assize system and local instances of jurisdiction; 2) legal procedure in imperial vs. local courts; 3) the activity of legal practitioners inside and outside the courtroom; 4) the admission of cases to upper-level courts vs. their delegation to the local level. This project aims to fill an important gap in the existing research, which tends to focus on the jurisdictional activity of Roman governors and other imperial officials. Accordingly, this study dedicates its attention to the large number of district and local officials in whose courts much of the practical business of jurisdiction took place. The results of this project are anticipated to be an important contribution to our understanding of the administration of justice in the Roman Empire, and of the institutional and cultural impact of Roman imperial rule.

Responsible: Bernhard Palme
Series: -

Texts and Textiles in Late Antique Egypt

The production of textiles was a large, important and highly specialized sector of the economy and trade of the ancient Mediterranean world. While, in most regions, organic material from antiquity has not survived, the arid climate of Egypt has preserved thousands of fragments of ancient textiles from the Late Antique period (ca. 300–800 CE), which provide important information about various aspects of textile production, such as the materials and dyes used. The Nile Valley has also preserved many thousands of papyrus documents from the same period. These texts, which are a unique window into everyday life in antiquity, contain crucial information about the manufacture and style of textiles, and also about the terminology for different types of garments. Egypt is a unique region of the ancient world where both texts and textiles have survived in very substantial quantities.  The aim of this project is to conduct a comprehensive study of the papyrological evidence for Late Antique textiles and to systematically confront it — for the first time — with the surviving textiles from Egypt. This project envisions that the great variety of materials and designs, decorations and colors found in the preserved textiles will correspond with and illuminate the diversified technical terminology of textiles and garments found in papyri from the same period. An integrated study of the preserved textiles together with the relevant texts on papyrus will shed light on various aspects of textile production as well as the exact meaning of the approximately 400 attested specific terms used for different types of textiles and garments. This holistic approach will make a new and important contribution to our understanding of ancient textiles and of the textile industry in the Later Roman Empire. The project will thereby bridge the gap between the fields of papyrology, archaeology, and textile studies, combining the different approaches and methods issuing from these fields for a thorough examination of this centrally important sphere of ancient material culture.

Responsible: Bernhard Palme
Series: -

Epidauros: Ein Bauprogramm für Asklepios

Neuedition und -kommentierung der antiken Bauabrechnungen aus dem Asklepiosheiligtum in Epidauros (400–300 v. Chr.). Die Texte werden in neuer Lesung mit Kommentar und Übersetzung vorgelegt. Wichtige Anliegen sind die Frage, auf welche Gebäude in Epidauros sich die Texte beziehen, unter welchen Bedingungen Tempel und profane Bauten errichtet wurden und wie die Bauarbeiten organisiert wurden.

Responsible:Sebastian Prignitz
Series: -

Archäologische Kontexte von Inschriften im privaten Bereich

The project addresses archaeological contexts of all kinds of inscriptions and their bearers used in private dwellings. The houses which will be investigated are mainly located in mainland Greece and the Greek islands (modern day Greece) and in the southern Balkans. The aim is to examine where, when, how and why inscriptions occurred in everyday life. Among other aspects we will study the spatial distribution, the exact placements, the meaning of inscriptions on moveable objects, the connection between inscriptions and the objects they were related to, the role of inscriptions within household religion, and the targeted audience. It also will be studied if changes concerning the epigraphic habit of the examined periods exist. By this diachronic examination it will be possible to determine socio-cultural, religious and other alterations of households. As to put the results in a sharper relief, the results of the house contexts will be matched with predecessors and contemporary inscriptions of the public and sacred spheres as well as with contemporary contexts in dwellings of the Roman West. The study will be based on the examination of inscriptions in their spatial and temporal archaeological contexts. Therefore it offers the possibility to achieve new results concerning the history of living. The results will contribute to a differentiation of functions and uses of rooms, and of particular areas, and they also will shed a light on the role of all the people who frequented the houses. Thus, the project will be vital concerning the social structure of houses, whereby the diachronically approach will further our knowledge about socio-cultural conditions and changes of households. The results of the project shall be published in a monograph comprising a catalogue, a comprehensive analysis and plates. The latter includes plans on which the findings spots of the inscriptions and their bearers shall be marked as well as 3D-models of selected contexts of inscriptions for a better visualization.

Responsible:Elisabeth Rathmayr | Veronika Scheibelreiter-Gail
Series: -

Alinda: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und städtebaulichen Entwicklung

Die weitläufigen Ruinen von Alinda wurden zwischen 2007 und 2011 mittels zerstörungsfreier Prospektions- und Dokumentationsmethoden im Rahmen eines Oberflächensurveys systematisch aufgenommen. Ziele der Unternehmung waren die konsequente Erfassung und Periodisierung der erhaltenen baulichen Strukturen sowie die Analyse der städtebaulichen Entwicklung und Transformation der Siedlung bis in byzantinische Zeit. Die Ergebnisse befinden sich in Vorbereitung zum Druck.

Responsible:Peter Ruggendorfer
Series: Sonderschriften des ÖAI (SoSchr)

Antike Textilien — Moderne Hände

The goal of the »Ancient Textiles – Modern Hands« project is to makehistorical textile research accessible to the general public, and at the same time to invite practitioners to contribute expertise through empirical analysis of ancient textiles. Building upon a research programme which is focused on Late Antique textiles from Egypt, »Ancient Textiles – Modern Hands« advances scholarship by recruiting participants from the large global community of professional and leisure textile practitioners to apply their talents through experimental participation. The production of textiles was an important and highly specialised sector of the economy and trade of the ancient Mediterranean world. While, in most regions, organic material has not survived, the arid climate of Egypt has preserved thousands of ancient textile fragments from the Late Antique period (ca. 300–800 CE). These materials provide important information about various aspects of production and the overall structure of the textile industry. This region has also preserved many thousands of papyrus documents from the same period. These texts contain crucial information about the manufacture and style of textiles and include a diverse set of terms for different types of garments. While the main project evaluates the papyrological evidence for Late Antique textiles, the »Top Citizen Science« (TCS) expansion project establishes contact between scholars and the worldwide community of textile producers. Their practical experience and skills are essential to recreate ancient production methods. A first step for active involvement of citizens in our research has already been accomplished by the interactive online »Spiral Textile« platform, which invites textile artists from around the world to produce a design found on a single ancient papyrus. »Spiral Textile« serves as a pilot-project for the proposed expansion project, which intends to establish communication between scholars and practitioners on a significantly larger scale. The integration of textile research with crowdsourced experimental production represents a fresh interdisciplinary approach. The proposed project would be the very first global collaboration between historians, papyrologists, textile researchers and experimental archaeologists on one side with textile artists, professional weavers and leisure practitioners on the other. Thus, the project would raise the visibility, outreach and dissemination of historical textile research by integrating expertise through citizen science.

Responsible: Bernhard Palme | Ines Bogensperger
Series: -