The Transformation of the Micro-region Pergamon between the Hellenistic Period and the Roman Imperial Age

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Felix Pirson; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Thekla Schulz-Brize; Professorin Dr. Brigitta Schütt
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Physical Geography
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 419349690

The relationship between humans and the natural environment is an increasingly relevant topic in the study of history. However, the study of interactions between the ecosphere and the socio-cultural sphere requires new forms of cooperation between the humanities, engineering and natural sciences. For only an interdisciplinary research design adequately reflects the complexity of the topic and, overcoming reductionist and deterministic approaches, can enrich our understanding of the ancient world with hitherto neglected ecological aspects. Unlike the 'big narratives', the project, which is scheduled to run for twelve years, chooses the path of a multi-layered, diachronic analysis of the transformation of a micro-region. It thus meets the demand for micro-scale investigations with an interdisciplinary spectrum of questions and methods, which has been repeatedly formulated recently. At the same time, extensive basic research on the micro-region of Pergamon in the longue durée is carried out within this framework. Transformation phenomena are primarily investigated for the particularly well-documented period from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD; basic research focuses on the Roman period, which has so far been less researched. As a working hypothesis of TransPergMikro, the lower basin of the Kaikos (Bakır Çay) including its estuary and the adjacent mountains have been defined as the Pergamon micror-egion. Within this framework, the dynamic interactions between cities, rural settlements and the landscape are being studied systematically and diachronically for the first time at the levels of resource use, construction, production and consumption, lifestyles, and the design and perception of the natural environment. A particular challenge is the organisation of the interdisciplinary exchange and the integration of the heterogeneous data with the aim of joint syntheses. This purpose is served by a social-ecological model that is continuously being developed.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Fabian Becker; Professorin Dr. Ursula Quatember