Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ELEPHANTINE (Localizing 4000 Years of Cultural History. Texts and Scripts from Elephantine Island in Egypt)
Teaser
The aim of this project is to write a cultural history of 4000 years, localized on Elephantine Island in Egypt. Elephantine was a militarily and strategically very important island in the river Nile on the southern border of Egypt. No other settlement in Egypt is so well...
Summary
The aim of this project is to write a cultural history of 4000 years, localized on Elephantine Island in Egypt. Elephantine was a militarily and strategically very important island in the river Nile on the southern border of Egypt. No other settlement in Egypt is so well attested over such a long period of time. Its inhabitants form a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multi-religious community that left us vast amounts of written sources detailing their everyday lives from the Old Kingdom to beyond the Arab Conquest. Today, several thousand papyri and other manuscripts from Elephantine are scattered in more than 60 institutions across Europe and beyond. Their texts are written in different languages and scripts, including Hieroglyphs, Hieratic, Demotic, Aramaic, Greek, Coptic and Arabic. 80% of these manuscripts have not been published or studied before. The great challenge of this project is to use this material to answer three key questions covering:
1) Multiculturalism and identity between assimilation and segregation,
2) Organization of family and society,
3) Development of religions (Polytheism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam).
Thus, access is gained to these texts, making them publicly available in an open access online database. Links could be identified between papyrus fragments from different collections and an international ‘papyrus puzzle’ undertaken, incorporating cutting-edge methods from digital humanities, physics and mathematics (e.g. for the virtual unfolding of papyri). Using this database with medical, religious, legal, administrative, even literary texts, the micro-history of the everyday life of the local and global (i.e. ‘glocal’) community of Elephantine is studied within its socio-cultural setting in Egypt and beyond. It will be linked back to macro-historical questions and benefit from newly-introduced methodologies of global history: Elephantine can thus be used as a case study and a model for the past, present and future.
Work performed
On July 1, 2015 the project started as planned. All members of staff could be recruited and hired in time, so that the project could begin. A research fellow for Digital Humanities (Schwarz), for Demotic (Moje), and a conservator (Siopi) could be hired. Together with the new research fellows the PI selected then two qualified student assistants (Takasz, Gerlach). They started in November 2015. The second phase of recruitment also worked out as planned: On July 1, 2016 the research fellows for Hieratic (Grünhagen) and Aramaic (Cleath) were hired. A third phase or recruitment followed in the middle of 2017: The research fellows for Greek (Duttenhöfer) and Aramaic (Moore/replacement for Cleath) and the guest scientist for Physics (Mahnke), as well as the research fellows for Coptic (Hasznos), and Arabic (Kamal) could be included.
The first aim was to create together the ERC-database with 100 research fields, which was achieved in constant team discussions quite effectively. A thorough bibliographic research was undertaken at the same time. 60 museums and institutions in 20 different countries were contacted and the first results included in our database. First papyrus joins could thus be identified. Methods for the virtual unfolding of the papyri have also started to be developed in cooperation with the Zuse Institute and the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. 3-D Imaging techniques for ostraca have also been developed.
The new ERC-database was filled with 5000 relevant objects, all this in accordance with the XML-Standard of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). For the official opening event of the project the founder of TEI Michael Sperberg-McQueen visited the team and gave the respective key note speech. For the future encoding of the texts the XML-Editor oXygen was developed and changed for our concrete project needs. So many texts were encoded and help to further develop the editor.
The project conservator (Siopi) could isolate and restore some 3780 new papyrus fragments from the Elephantine boxes in Berlin. We implemented a special grid system how best to handle and document the many papyrus fragments in the collections. This system is now used also by our colleagues in Paris and New York.
The PI held regular meetings within the team, in addition some 20 Elephantine Salons and 8 interdisciplinary workshops with local and international guests were conducted, tackling the key questions of the project (text genres, multiculturalism, religions, family) . The PI also co-organized two workshop meetings with another ERC-grantee (Popovic) in the Netherlands.
Intense discussions about concrete measures of cooperation started with the relevant major collections and institutions. The PI visited the collections in Paris, New York and Rome and could gain access to all relevant materials and objects. Also the visit in Cairo at the Ministry of Antiquities was carefully prepared and conducted successfully.
The PI spent five weeks at the collection in New York and was supported there by the project conservator (Siopi). The PI could study there some 1000 Hieratic Elephantine Fragments. Siopi could unroll two larger papyrus scrolls with the help of the local colleagues.
In Rome the PI could find and identify the supposedly lost Elephantine excavation archive and received permission for publication. This greatly helps us to locate the findings of the Vatican excavations in 1918.
The PI was invited to give more than 40 papers and lectures about the ERC-project, both nationally and internationally (including the Library of Congress and the UNESCO). The research fellows of the project were also encouraged and attended several international conferences.
The PI helped the National Contact Point for the ERC in Germany in their trainings for future candidates (witness reports, women in the EU etc.) and attended ERC networking events in Germany. Here the PI presented the project also to the ERC-President.
There was quite an intense media coverage
Final results
\"Within the Project we collected for the first time papyri from Elephantine island in ten different languages and scripts from all over the world. Joins between papyrus fragments could be identified. Methods for the virtual unfolding of the papyri have also started to be developed. We were able to virtually unfold and unroll a papyrus package and read its text. We are the first Egyptological project using the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) for the encoding of texts, and the feasibility study (with 1000 objects) is online already: http://elephantine.smb.museum/?lang=en
The whole ERC-database will go online in 2020.
When reconstructing the cultural history of Elephantine we focus on some key questions (females in society, religions, multiculturalism). As a lot of foreigners lived on Elephantine island, the aspect of migration in Ancient Egypt was tackled. The project is based in Germany, where migration is currently a central issue, and thus interesting dimensions opened for the project: The expected potential impact was reflected by the national and international media.
Also invitations to speak at renowned research institutions (Harvard, Princeton, Library of Congress, Collège de France, La Sapienza etc.) and Science Policy Institutions (UNESCO) demonstrate this. In addition the PI organized several workshops and Elephantine Salons with external Speakers.
Media Reaction about the PI and the ERC-Project:
Papyri als Computer-Puzzle. [Rolf Brockschmidt]. Tagesspiegel, 15.11.2017.
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/mathematik-und-archaeologie-papyri-als-computer-puzzle/20582076.html
Renommierte Auszeichnung für Verena Lepper vom Ägyptischen Museum und Papyrussammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. Pressemitteilung der SMB, 01.06.2017.
http://www.smb.museum/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail/61310.html
Bonn, Oxford, Harvard – Wo sind die Vorbilder für junge Frauen? Inge Kloepfer empfiehlt in unserer neuen Serie eine kluge Ägyptologin. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 01.02.2015, S. 18. http://www.genios.de/presse-archiv/artikel/FAS/20150201/namen-und-nachrichten-bonn-oxford-h/SD1201502014485875.html
\"\"Über Texte sprechen die Ägypter zu uns - durch Poesie oder Verträge\"\". taz, 02.07.2016.
http://www.taz.de/!5315074/
Von Aachen über Harvard nach Berlin: Ägyptologin Verena Lepper. [Hermann-Josef Delonge]. Aachener Zeitung, 14.03.2015.
http://www.aachener-zeitung.de/lokales/region/von-aachen-ueber-harvard-nach-berlin-aegyptologin-verena-leppe-1.1046068
Die Antike dekodieren. MUSEUM, Beilage zum Tagesspiegel, S. 4-5 [März 2016?].
http://ww2.smb.museum/smb/media/news/57016/SMB_Museumszeitung_April_Mai_Juni_2016.pdf
X-Rays Reveal the Secrets of Egyptian Scrolls. [Megan Gannon]. Newsweek, 17.01.2016.
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/29/x-rays-reveal-secrets-egyptian-scrolls-papyrus-416719.html
Wie puzzeln Sie Elephantine zusammen, Frau Lepper? SPK Magazin, Ausgabe 1/2015, S. 14-15 [Juni 2015?].
https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/spk-magazin/SPK_Mag_2015_01/Vollversion/SPK_Magazin_1_2015_deu.pdf
Die Juden hatten einen zweiten Tempel – im Nil. [Berthold Seewald]. Welt.de, 20.05.2015.
https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article141206252/Die-Juden-hatten-einen-zweiten-Tempel-im-Nil.html
Das Elephantine-Gedächtnis. Porträt der Ägyptologin Verena Lepper. Tagesspiegel, 02.03.2015.
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/portraet-der-aegyptologin-verena-lepper-das-elephantine-gedaechtnis/11446774-all.html
Tausende antike Geheimnisse werden entschlüsselt. [Berthold Seewald]. Welt.de, 30.01.2015.
https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article136945789/Tausende-antike-Geheimnisse-werden-entschluesselt.html
Von der Rolle. [Berthold Seewald]. Welt.de, 25.01.2015.
https://www.welt.de/print/wams/wissen/article136743036/Von-der-Rolle.html
Beispiele für erfolgreiche deutsche ERC-Grantees in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. NKS WSG
http://www.nks-swg.de/de/beispiele-fuer-erfolgreiche-\"