Projektdetails
Abstract
MCB proposes to investigate data from first millennium BC Babylonia with a view towards achieving a comprehensive understanding of the material culture of the period. Pride of place in research will be given to the exceptionally rich textual data. These not only document types of objects that have perished from the archaeological record, they also allow reconstructing manufacturing processes which cannot be recovered from the material remains. Through a dialogue between these findings and the available archaeological information a synthesis of hitherto elusive completeness and complexity will be achieved.
The reconstruction of the material environment, defined as the sum total of man-made objects, implies studying the physical nature of these objects, but also an understanding of the identity of who made them, of the social status of the craftsmen and of their working conditions and technologies, and of the origin of the raw materials. The focus on the 1st millennium BC will allow the dialogue between archaeology and epigraphy to clarify the innovations which took place at the crucial juncture of the advent of the Iron Age.
The project will also focus on the various uses objects were put to, in daily life and in the more specific context of the palaces and temples. The latter in particular are a major source of information on material culture. This approach will not only elucidate how furniture, tools, weapons, means of transport, garments, etc. were employed, it will also demonstrate the socio-economic setting of these objects, their social meaning and the symbolic dimension of some of their forms of use.
Our focus on ‘objects in society’ stands in close relation to our choice of research period. Iron Age Babylonia experienced major socio-economic transformations: our period is arguably the earliest in which the impact of money and markets on production and consumption patterns for consumer goods can be studied. Our working hypothesis is that material culture not only sheds light on the technological changes brought by the Iron Age, but also elucidates the consequences of monetization and wide-spread reliance on market exchange especially during the long sixth century, probably the most prosperous century of the millennium in Babylonia (and certainly the best-documented).
The project’s coordinator, Francis Joannès (Sorbonne), and the principal investigator of the Viennese subproject have a long track-record in pertinent research and in directing third-party funded projects; after years of informal collaboration, the present project establishes for the first time a formal cooperation between the two leading centres of Late Babylonian studies. The team consists of philologists and archaeologists.
The reconstruction of the material environment, defined as the sum total of man-made objects, implies studying the physical nature of these objects, but also an understanding of the identity of who made them, of the social status of the craftsmen and of their working conditions and technologies, and of the origin of the raw materials. The focus on the 1st millennium BC will allow the dialogue between archaeology and epigraphy to clarify the innovations which took place at the crucial juncture of the advent of the Iron Age.
The project will also focus on the various uses objects were put to, in daily life and in the more specific context of the palaces and temples. The latter in particular are a major source of information on material culture. This approach will not only elucidate how furniture, tools, weapons, means of transport, garments, etc. were employed, it will also demonstrate the socio-economic setting of these objects, their social meaning and the symbolic dimension of some of their forms of use.
Our focus on ‘objects in society’ stands in close relation to our choice of research period. Iron Age Babylonia experienced major socio-economic transformations: our period is arguably the earliest in which the impact of money and markets on production and consumption patterns for consumer goods can be studied. Our working hypothesis is that material culture not only sheds light on the technological changes brought by the Iron Age, but also elucidates the consequences of monetization and wide-spread reliance on market exchange especially during the long sixth century, probably the most prosperous century of the millennium in Babylonia (and certainly the best-documented).
The project’s coordinator, Francis Joannès (Sorbonne), and the principal investigator of the Viennese subproject have a long track-record in pertinent research and in directing third-party funded projects; after years of informal collaboration, the present project establishes for the first time a formal cooperation between the two leading centres of Late Babylonian studies. The team consists of philologists and archaeologists.
| Akronym | MCB |
|---|---|
| Status | Abgeschlossen |
| Tatsächlicher Beginn/ -es Ende | 1/03/19 → 28/02/22 |