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Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Ancient Civilizations

Projects & Collaborations

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EGRAPSA: Retracing the evolutions of handwritings in Greco-Roman Egypt thanks to digital palaeography

Research Project  | 4 Project Members

Papyri preserved by the dry climate of Egypt are an unparalleled source of information on the Ancient World. Around 80,000 papyri written in ancient Greek have already been published, covering a millennium between the time of Alexander the Great and the Arab conquest of Egypt (end of 4th c. BCE to early 8th c. CE). However, their large number, their diversity and their current dispersion have impeded a comprehensive grasp of their nature and content. In particular, palaeography, as the study of handwritings that has the potential to unveil who, where and when a text has been written, still relies on experts' assertions which rarely reach consensus. New technological advances in Computer Science allow now building the big picture of the writing culture of Greco-Roman Egypt and developing scientific analyses of scripts. The goal of EGRAPSA project (literally "I have written" in Ancient Greek) is to provide a new theoretical framework to the palaeography of Greek papyri. Starting from sound evidence, it aims at retracing the evolutions of handwritings, generating a model that, in turn, can contribute at organizing the papyrological documentation in a coherent panorama, improving the solidity of dates and writer identifications made on palaeographical grounds. The ground-breaking dimension of the project is not only in its scope that encompasses the entire papyrological documentation in its complexity, and in its conceptual approach to make sense of the plurality of scripts by discerning evolution phenomena but also in its methodological choice to measure similarities and explain evolutions by focusing on the reconstruction of the dynamics of writing, thus to literally re-trace handwritings.

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The Albanian Language in Antiquity

Research Project  | 4 Project Members

Within the Indo-European language family, to which most of the languages of Europe belong, Albanian forms a branch of its own. Along with Greek and the Romance languages, Albanian is the only direct descendant of those languages spoken in the Balkans in ancient times. Content and aim of the research project Albanian has only been known from written sources since the 16th century AD. Therefore, we do not know exactly what the language looked like in ancient times and in the early Middle Ages. It is also disputed in which region of the Balkans the precursor of Albanian, called Proto-Albanian, was spoken. Our project tries to find an answer to the questions of what the precursor of the Albanian language looked like between 1500 and 2000 years ago, and where this precursor was spoken. This can only be answered indirectly. The linguistic-historical comparison of words and the grammar of Albanian with other related languages allows certain conclusions about the earlier linguistic state of Albanian. In addition, the project is investigating the extensive ancient Greek and Latin vocabulary that Proto-Albanian borrowed, as well as the Proto-Albanian words that were incorporated into early Romanian. This will also allow us to determine the shape of Proto-Albanian more precisely. Scientific and social context The project aims first and foremost at the linguistic and cultural history of Albanian. The results will also be relevant for Greek, Latin, Romance and Indo-European linguistics. Furthermore, our results will contribute to a more balanced linguistic and cultural history of the Balkan Peninsula.

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Antinoopolis: an Urban Biography of the Roman and Late Antique Worlds

Research Project  | 1 Project Members

The project aims to integrate textual and material data and develop new digital tools to bring back into life the sights and smells of Antinoopolis, a city from ancient Egypt in the Roman and late antique periods. By ancient historical standards, the evidence for this city is voluminous, with more than one thousand texts-inscriptions and texts from the manuscript tradition as well as papyri. Besides, continuing archaeological excavations at Antinoopolis make it one of the currently most prolific sites for Greco-Roman and Byzantine Egypt. In this documentation, the late antique data hold pride of place, with great potential for historical analysis in the longue durée . Cities and their people, from the Pharaonic to Islamic periods, have often been considered cogs and gears in the administration of Egypt and denied meaningful agency in the country's long-term evolution. At a series of workshops and international conferences, the project team will analyze the parameters for urban development in Roman and late antique Egypt so as to reverse this general perspective. More specifically, the PI will write an "urban biography" of an important site, in which all the available evidence will be brought to bear on broader questions of political, economic, cultural, and religious change-beyond the theme of the classical city's demise in Late Antiquity. In addition to a book monograph, peer-reviewed articles, and edited volumes, the tools for the integration, analysis, and visualization of the data pertaining to people-digital urban prosopography-and places-a GIS platform for the contextualization and interpretation of archaeological data-will make the results of the project easily searchable and widely accessible. Virtual exhibitions hosted on the project's homepage will finally expose the broader public to two fascinating aspects of the project: the history of excavations at Antinoopolis and schools and literacy in the cities of late antique Egypt.

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Climate Science & Ancient History Lab

Research Project  | 1 Project Members

The Basel Climate Science and Ancient History Lab is a pioneering interdisciplinary collaboration between ancient historians and climate scientists and bridges the traditional gap between the natural sciences and the humanities. Climate science has started to expand the spectrum of historical evidence to an extent inconceivable just a few years ago. The time is ripe to make use of this new evidence for elucidating the Graeco-Roman world whose study has relied so far largely on the written and archaeological record. The combined analysis of various materials promises an entirely new perspective on the ancient Mediterranean: paleoclimate archives literary sources biological evidence archaeological remains coins papyri Compared with most parts of the world, the Mediterranean region offers a wealth of natural proxies including lake sediments, speleothems, and many more that resolve parts of the past hydrological cycle, historical, and archaeological evidence. Egypt in particular provides a unique historical laboratory in which to study social vulnerability and responses to abrupt hydroclimatic change based on historical evidence, including Nile flooding data. The climate conditions may be caused by the influence of external factors, such as changes in solar and volcanic activities, or by purely internal variations in oceanic and atmospheric circulation. By using novel palaeoclimate model simulations in tandem with hydroclimate reconstructions climate variability and climate change can be connected to economic, social, and political transformations. The interaction between climate change, environmental stress, and socio-political systems is increasingly attracting the interest of the scientific community and the general public, as contemporary concerns about global warming grow. Climatic fluctuations are rarely the only contributor to major societal collapse, but they can impact political structures, economic relationships, and cultural habits to varying degrees. Historical and scientific analytical and quantification techniques and statistical applications can be used to understand causes and effects and to link socio-economic developments to climate and environmental changes.

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NOMAD – Naher Osten, Mesopotamien, Ägypten im Diskurs

Research Networks of the University of Basel  | 22 Project Members

Das universitäre Forschungsnetzwerk «NOMAD – Naher Osten, Mesopotamien, Ägypten im Diskurs» vernetzt Forschungen zum östlichen Mittelmeerraum, Mesopotamien und Ägypten an der Universität Basel und fördert den Austausch mit der Öffentlichkeit. Im westasiatischen Raum (ca. 10. Jt.v.u.Z. bis 7.Jh.u.Z.) entstanden sesshafte Lebensweisen, Ackerbau, Viehzucht, urbanes Leben, Schriftsysteme, Industrien und Wissenschaften sowie die religiösen Traditionen von Judentum, Christentum und Islam. Ohne Berücksichtigung der Geschichte Westasiens lassen sich relevante Prozesse der Weltgeschichte nicht verstehen. Themen aus dem Bereich des Nahen Osten sind seit Jahrzehnten in Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft relevant, national und international omnipräsent und werden es weiterhin bleiben.

In der Region Basel setzen sich zahlreiche Forschende und Institutionen mit Kulturen, Zeiten, Regionen, Religionen und Sprachen des Nahen Ostens, Mesopotamiens und Ägyptens auseinander. NOMAD hat zum Ziel, diese Kompetenzen und Angebote zu bündeln. NOMAD fördert den für Wissenschaft wie Öffentlichkeit wichtigen Austausch über kulturhistorische, aktuelle und fachübergreifende Themen zwischen (Nachwuchs-)Forschenden, Studierenden und der breiteren Öffentlichkeit.

Am Forschungsnetzwerk beteiligt sind Forschende der Theologischen Fakultät, des Departements Altertumswissenschaften, der Nahoststudien, des Zentrums für Jüdische Studien und der Integrativen Prähistorischen und Naturwissenschaftlichen Archäologie (IPNA) der Universität Basel sowie das Antikenmuseum Basel.


The university research network «NOMAD – Near East, Mesopotamia, Egypt in Discourse» connects research at the University of Basel focused on the Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, and promotes dialogue with the public. In West Asia (approx. 10th millennium BCE to 7th century CE), key developments emerged, including settled ways of life, agriculture, animal husbandry, urbanization, writing systems, industries and sciences, as well as the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Understanding major processes in world history is impossible without considering the history of West Asia. Topics related to the Near East have long played a crucial role in politics, economics, and society – both nationally and internationally – and will continue to do so.

In the Basel region, numerous researchers and institutions engage with the cultures, periods, regions, religions, and languages of the Near East, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. NOMAD aims to bring together these areas of expertise and offerings. The network fosters interdisciplinary exchange on cultural-historical, contemporary, and academic topics among (early-career) researchers, students, and the wider public – an exchange essential to both scholarship and society.

The research network includes researchers from the Faculty of Theology, the Department of Ancient Civilizations, Near and Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies, the Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPAS) at the University of Basel, and the Antikenmuseum Basel.