Archaeology of Ancient Libraries: Religion, Representation, Storerooms of Knowledge (A01)

The sub-project investigates the archaeological and literary sources for Greco-Roman libraries by virtue of a new and comprehensive approach and interprets them with respect to both the contextualization of storerooms of knowledge within sanctuaries and imperial representation. In doing so, the question arises whether the localization, e.g., of Hellenistic libraries in sacred contexts served as prefiguration of the relationship of libraries and Christian cultic practices in Late Antiquity and medieval times. Also the integration of thermal baths as a pre-cursor of the interconnection between bath and library in the Middle Ages will be discussed. Thereby it will be clarified whether ancient libraries - considering their functioning - should be regarded as a preliminary stage for later ensembles of storerooms of knowledge or whether they should rather be studied following a transcultural comparative approach.

DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Subproject of SFB 1136:  Education and Religion in Cultures of the Mediterranean and Its Environment from Ancient to Medieval Times and to the Classical Islam

Applicant Institution Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Project Head Professor Dr. Johannes Bergemann