The Medieval Academy Blog

Call for applications

Interdisciplinary Summer School 2024

“Bridging Archaeogenetics and Medieval Studies: Using aDNA as a source for migration, demographics, kinship and pathology”

Date: September 23-27, 2024

Venue: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jägerstr. 22-23, 10117 Berlin (with a day trip to MPI EVA, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, on 25 September)

Conveners: Center for Medieval Studies at Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) & Department of Archaeogenetics at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (MPI EVA)

Organizers: Dr. Jörg Feuchter (BBAW) and Dr. Stephan Schiffels (MPI EVA)

Application deadline: April 30, 2024

Target group: M.A. students and junior PhD/doctoral students from History, Biology, Archaeology and other Natural Sciences and Humanities

Teaching language: English

Concept: In the age of the „ancientDNA-revolution“, archaeogenetic research institutes are nowadays routinely analysing samples from all periods of the human past, not the least from medieval times. Sometimes the scientific objective of the analysis resides primarily in the realm of History/Archaeology; sometimes the questions asked are of a biological nature; in other instances there is a mix of both. A rapidly growing and highly promising field of more or less intertwined genetic, historical, and archaeological knowledge production is developing, and the Middle Ages have become relevant to Genetics, as well as vice versa. Yet, true interdisciplinary cooperation remains rare, and there is much mutual distrust, misunderstanding and lack of knowledge. The Interdisciplinary Summer School „Bridging Archaeogenetics and Medieval Studies“ will bring together students from History, Biology, Archaeology and other relevant disciplines in order to familiarize them with the use of a(ncient)DNA as a source for migration, demographics, kinship and pathology in the Middle Ages. The Summer School will provide a general introduction to the scientific methods, both in theory and practice. In addition, participants will be given the opportunity to learn about a particular ongoing research project, „Migration and Urban Demographics in the Berlin-Brandenburg Area during the High Middle Ages“, in which many among the teaching staff are involved. Participants will be able to learn how the methods are applied to a concrete case study, to discuss with scientists cooperating in an ongoing research project, and to participate in interdisciplinary exchanges around specific problems. This interaction will help to develop critical engagement with the sometimes fundamentally different general approaches of scientists and scholars in the humanities.

Fees: There is no fee for participation. However, participants must cover their own accommodation and travel expenses for travelling to and from Berlin, as well as for the day trip to Leipzig. A number of inexpensive accommodations are available at the guesthouse of Humboldt University. They can be booked through the organizers.

Application details: Your application should include the following:

1. Letter of motivation (one page, outlining why you are interested in participating in the Summer School and what you are expecting from it)
2. Curriculum Vitae (one page)
3. Scan of B.A. or M.A. diploma (or equivalent)

All three elements must be merged into a single PDF document

Please let us know in your application if you are interested in residing at the guesthouse of Humboldt University during the Summer School (single bedrooms with shared bathroom facilities, cost: about 300 EUR for six nights from September 22 to 27)

Please send your application to medieval.summerschool@bbaw.de.

Preliminary Program:

Some of the topics to be taught at the Summer School:

Introduction to population genetics
Detecting migration and kinship through aDNA;

Introduction to the questions and methods of medieval history and to the challenges of interdisciplinary research on the Middle Ages

Introduction to the archaeology of migration, kinship and gender

Field trip to excavation site in Berlin

Detecting pathogens through aDNA

Speakers include:

Jörg Feuchter (BBAW, https://www.bbaw.de/die-akademie/mitarbeiterinnen-mitarbeiter/feuchter-joerg)

Patrick Geary (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; https://www.ias.edu/scholars/geary)

Claudia M. Melisch (Melisch Archäologie, Berlin; https://melisch-arch.de/ueber-mich)

Michael Nothnagel (University of Cologne, https://ccg.uni-koeln.de/research/statistical-genetics-and-bioinformatics-group/group-members/prof-dr-michael-nothnagel)

Stephan Schiffels (MPI EVA; https://www.eva.mpg.de/archaeogenetics/staff/stephan-schiffels)

The Summer School will begin on September 23, 9.30 a.m. and end on September 27, 3 p.m.

Contact: medieval.summerschool@bbaw.de

Web: https://www.bbaw.de/die-akademie/mitarbeiterinnen-mitarbeiter/feuchter-joerg/summer-school

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the final lecture in our 2023–2024 lecture series.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
Recycled Cities: Sardis and the Fortifications of Early Byzantine Anatolia
Jordan Pickett, University of Georgia

The largest standing architecture at the ruined city of Sardis is not its famous Temple of Artemis, the fourth largest Ionic temple of antiquity, but is instead the massive but little-published fortification that sits on its Acropolis. This paper delivers preliminary results from new study of the Byzantine fortifications on the Acropolis at Sardis, part of the larger Harvard-Cornell Exploration of Sardis ongoing since 1958. Composed entirely of thousands of architectural blocks and sculpture recycled from older Iron Age and Roman monuments of Sardis, our understanding of the Acropolis fortifications hinges on three questions considered here. How has the Acropolis, composed of extraordinarily friable loose conglomerate subject to erosion and earthquake, changed since Antiquity? When were the Acropolis fortifications constructed? Possibilities range from c. 550 during the reign of Justinian to as late as c. 850. And, how and by whom were the Acropolis fortifications constructed? Set at a remarkably steep elevation, the labor for transport and construction with reused materials was extraordinary. No minor monument of the “Dark Ages”, the fortifications on the Acropolis at Sardis stand as a remarkably well-preserved complex of defensive architecture that sheds light on the priorities and capacities of communities in Byzantine Anatolia.

Jordan Pickett is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Georgia and co-PI, with Benjamin Anderson (Cornell University), for Acropolis investigation for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, Turkey, under the direction of Nick Cahill (University of Wisconsin).

Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/recycled_cities

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.