Julietta Steinhauer gives a working paper on 'Women, migration and the sacred. The evidence from the sanctuary of the Syrian gods on Delos (166-88 BCE)'

Demographic statistics from Greek cemeteries reveal that up to half of the migrant population in the Hellenistic period was female1. Yet the only comprehensive studies of the migration of individuals in antiquity are of male adults. In fact, the current communis opinio seems to assume that women, due to the dangers of mobility and ‘social cageing’ were much more constrained in their mobility than male individuals. This, while being partly true, has dissuaded scholars from examining more closely the material recording female migrants. In this article I propose reassessing the evidence by conducting a case study on the migrant experience of women on Delos during the second period of the Athenian occupation (166-88 BCE).

"Resonant Self–World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices" - introductory videos

The new International Graduate School Erfurt-Graz on

 "Resonant Self–World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices"

has produced 10 exciting introductory videos which speaks to you to invite you to join our work.

While the infrastructure is now being secured through two generous grants by the BMBF and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Austrian Science Foundation, we are looking to attract further grant resources to foster the research in this stimulating research field.

Maik Patzelt is going to present a working paper on 'The 'Freedom' of the Widows: Late Antique Inheritance Hunting as Focal Point Networks and Agency of Late Antique Widows'

My paper targets the relatively unknown dynamics of legacy hunting in late antiquity through the eyes of a multidimensional network-agency-approach. By following the paths of economic, socio-political and religious networks, which all culminate in the scenes of legacy-hunting, I am able to reveal the complexity and the various ramifications of networking processes that common network analyses are unable to detect. Given the prominent presence of widows in the variety of legal, historical and ecclesiastical sources, these ramifications especially concern the transformations and thus conflicts of norms and moral codes. A complex context appears, in which late antique widows set up networks that compete with those of local elites and bishops.

Anna-Katharina Rieger is going to present a working paper on 'Division of labor or excess supply? Water, healing and oracles in temples of Roman Syria'

The majority of inhabitants of the Roman Empire lived in villages, living off the agricultural capacities of the land around. In this, the Roman Western Asian Provinces are not different to other parts of the Roman Empire. However, even if not based on counted numbers, the density of religious institutions in and around villages, in the open land between them, seems to be extremely high in the areas of the Eastern Mediterranean. But why? What are the religious needs and demands that are reflected in the many architecturally structured places, the objects offered and in use there? How regional, then, are certain developments, manifestations and their material outcomes – how are general trends of the wider Mediterranean / Roman Empire taken over into a local tradition?

In particular, I look at oracular and healing services, offered in sacred places along the ridge of the Libanon and on Mount Hermon as well as in the Syrian steppe – taking this as a point of distinction of the numerous sacred places.[1] With a choice of several sanctuaries (Niha, Hosn Niha, Temnine el-Fouqa, Afka, Banias, Baitokaike, Isriye and Ain el-Fije) whose phases correspond roughly to a Hellenistic foundation and one or two Roman rebuilding phases (with a peak in the 2^nd c. CE) I revise certain takes on the sanctuaries and their functions by applying a spatially oriented methodology, and offer new interpretations of how they were embedded into a social topography in the rural areas of the Lebanon mountains and Mount Hermon, acknowledging their relatedness to the urban places like Sidon, Berytus, Tyros, Baalbek, Damascus or Palmyra, as well as their independent social and spatial position. The consolidation of the Roman administration in the 2^nd c. CE as the political background in the region as well as the cultural backdrop of the 2^nd c. CE in the wider Mediterranean allows for the questioning their impact on the appearance and activities reflected in dedications by visitors or neighbours, in rebuilding measures by religious specialists, or reshaping entire places by civic authorities.

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[1] Other features one could look for to have a closer perspective are f. e. dedicants and their offerings, relation of elite people to other agents in the sanctuaries, on the way gods are conceptualised at the sites etc.pp.

New International Graduate School of the Max-Weber-Center jointly with the University of Graz, Austria

The Max-Weber-Kolleg working together with the University of Graz have set up a joint international graduate school on resonant world relations in socio-religious practices of antiquity and the present.

What do ancient rituals such as the placing of marble noses in front of god images or common banquets with the deceased have in common with today's practices such as the setting up of teddy bears for young victims of an amok run or weddings of atheistic couples in cosy chapels of Saint Mary? - They represent socio-religious practices that define, express the important relationships of people to their worlds - that is, to other people, to things, to nature, to their own selves, to heaven or to gods or god. The nature of world relations tells a lot about the culture that characterizes them. It can, on the one hand, provide information about our cultural heritage, as well as on the other hand, about our own practices in order to create resonant - ie, responding - relationships with the world.
The question of world relations in antiquity and the present is raised in the context of a joint international graduate school, which the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz with the Max-Weber-Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Sciences at the University of Erfurt has taken. The school is planned to train young scholars in a joint research and study program in interdisciplinary projects that bring together scholarship of antiquity and late antiquity on the one hand and cultural and social sciences with a focus on the present on the other. From this interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly innovative results are expected for both fields of research. A special focus is placed on concrete socio-religious practices as objects of investigation, ie the sometimes peculiar rituals yesterday and today. Through this approach, the all too easy-going view of foreignness as the outflow of a polytheistic world image can be avoided and the foreign culture can be taken seriously in its peculiarity.
One of the specifics of this two-country-school will be that PhD students will enjoy a temporary stay in the partner country and, from the start, will be supervised by two supervisors, one from Austria and one from Germany - moreover, the students from both countries will form a community where exchange of knowledge and social cross-country relations are fostered.
After the German Research Foundation (DFG) endorsed the promotion of the joint international graduate school at the end of autumn of 2016, the Science Fund of Austria (FWF) has now also agreed to the funding of the new graduate school. 'We are looking forward to working together and would like to see many international applicants to the soon-to-be-advertised doctoral bursaries', says Jörg Rüpke, spokesman for the Graduate School at Erfurt.