University of Heidelberg

Researcher: Dr. Philipp W. Stockhammer  

In my project, I focus on the processes of appropriation of pottery of Aegean origin in the Southern Levant (Israel, Lebanon) in the Late Bronze Age between 1400 and 1100 BC. I analyze why people in the Southern Levant acquired this pottery, which criteria were crucial for its selection and how people appropriated these vessels. This poses the question whether the acquisition of those pottery vessels was combined with the acceptance of practices that were connected with them in the Aegean, whether people integrated the foreign objects into their local procedures or whether they created new social practices that combine the familiar with the foreign. My methodological approaches are rooted in the current discourses on globalization, especially in the phenomena of hybridization and appropriation, in studies on performance and in consumer studies. I focus on hybridization – i.e. “entanglement” in my terminology – because it helps us understand the transformative powers of intercultural interaction. At the same time, it reveals the historicity of present-day transcultural phenomena and the necessity of a historical and cultural anthropological perspective in order to understand the dialectial relationship between man, materiality and social practice. 

Researcher: Sarah Cappel, M.A.

My PhD project is concerned with the emergence of sealing administration in Minoan Crete at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. While archives containing a whole range of administrative documents are found in the Protopalatial palaces, the origin of this sealing practice is still debated, with explanations ranging between the two extremes of wholesale importation from the Near East after the palaces had been built and earlier indigenous invention. While the evidence for seal use in the period leading up to the formation of the palaces is scarce it is still extant in the form of a few sealings and seal impressions on other media (e.g. jar handles). My thesis will focus on the study of the process of appropriation of sealing practice in Minoan Crete during these periods with special regard to the impact on the local development of an administrative system and to possible foreign influences.
My methodological approach draws on the concepts of transculturality and materiality in order to take into account not only the social and material context of the sealings but also their potential for explaining the possible transcultural transfer of a distinct form of social practice. Furthermore, the criteria for the evaluation of the process of appropriation as conceptualised for modern consumer societies will be used in a modified form to reconstruct as much of such a process as possible in a prehistoric setting.
 

Researcher: Dr. Michèle Maggio 

The research project deals with some material aspects of the amalgamated religious traditions of Ancient Mesopotamia by focusing on artefacts identified as property of deities in cuneiform texts from the early 2nd millennium BC. We will try to identify possible processes of transcultural exchange, re-interpretation, and re-contextualization of artefacts within cultic practices and to discover if such practices might have been subject to change through the integration of 'foreign' artefacts.The study is based on a catalogue of designations of pertinent artefacts in various languages, primarily Akkadian and Sumerian, from cuneiform sources of such distant sites as the city of Ur in Southern Mesopotamia and the city of Mari in Northwest Mesopotamia.  

Researcher: Dr. Erika U. Fischer 

My project deals with a group of ivory carvings classified as “Levanto-Mycenaean” or “Myceno-Levantine” works. This descriptive terminology refers to several components of different origins, characterizing these ivories and making them an outstanding example of the “internationalism” of the Eastern Mediterranean during the late 2nd millennium B.C.
With the help of these objects I will examine how traditional motifs and topics were changed by the introduction and adaptation of foreign elements, and whether this was accompanied by a change in their meaning. Thus, my research is based upon a detailed art historical analysis to exploit the full potential of dating and regional classification. Using these results, I will examine several scenarios of interaction in order to identify the situations and media of intercultural contacts and their agents and beneficiaries. I attempt to determine the motivations of the craftsmen and their clients by studying the functional context of the ivories, the intended audience as well as the role of the raw material and the design in the use of these works.