Migration narratives in Ancient Near Eastern Studies (ca. 1870-1930)

• Applicant: Dr. Felix Wiedemann
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; History of Science
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 243151705

In the classical and ancient studies of the 19th and 20th centuries migrations were always used to ex-plain cultural and historical change: They acted as historical landmarks or epochal thresholds and played a key role in the construction of geo-historical areas. This model has been called migrationism and cannot simply be explained on the basis of the history of individual disciplines, but must be seen in its complex interaction with scientific and historical contexts. Migrationism does not relate to fixed political and scientific positions or movements. For this reason, it cannot be explained adequately by using a historical or ideological based approach. In contrast, the project sees migration models in ancient studies as narratives: Relying on narratological approaches to the history of science and historiography it will be shown that their persistence and persuasiveness depend very much on how migrations are actually depicted. The focus is on recurring narrative patterns that are used to describe historical groups as migratory or sedentary, to describe geo-historical areas as the point of departure or the point of arrival for migrations and finally to link them into coherent historiographical accounts.The project should be seen as a baseline and exploratory study and focuses on the origin and trans-formation of migration narratives in a particular historiographical context. Migration motifs have always played a special role in the religious and cultural interpretation of the Near East up to anti-Jewish constructions of history. Furthermore, oriental studies in Germany around 1900 were closely linked to contemporary geopolitics. For that reason, the study focuses on the constituent Ancient Near Eastern Studies between ca. 1870 and 1933. This includes the philological and the material-based branch of contemporary research on the ancient Near East (assyrology and archaeology) as well as school books and museum representations. Based on textual methods as well as on new approaches in visual studies and museology, the interplay between the narrative varieties of the representative modi is in focus. In view of the transnational character of modern sciences, parallel developments in other European countries will also be researched. Subsequently, the project´s aim is to gain insights into the context of migration narratives: On the one hand, the linkage with geopolitical concepts and, on the other hand, the relation between oriental studies and the debate on the so called Jewish question.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants