Project Details
Projekt
EXC 264: Topoi - The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilisations
Subject Area
Ancient Cultures
Term
from 2007 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 39235742
The cluster of excellence TOPOI pursues the goal of researching the interdependence of space and knowledge in the civilisations of the Ancient Near East, the Mediterranean and Black Sea region and parts of the Eurasian steppe from the 6th millennium BC to around AD 500. This is to serve the more fundamental purpose of investigating the spaces, spatial systems and various types of space-related knowledge as intertwined factors in the development of ancient cultural systems. These differences will be studied with respect to large-scale spaces, such as the various ideas of the cosmos as a whole or the boundaries and control of large empires; to medium-sized spaces, such as the proximate environments in which we live and their specific spatial orders; and to the micro-spaces by which we map the interior of our bodies or the location of our mental capacities.
Within an interdisciplinary framework, TOPOI will work out a theory of space as a constitutive element in the formation and transformation of cultures and societies of antiquity. Space is to be examined as an object of perception, designed, defined and controlled by human action. Knowledge is to be examined insofar as it is oriented towards space in its diverse individual and collective forms or enabled and informed by space or presented and received through various notions and models of space.
The cluster of excellence is based on the concentration of the research capacities of all of the disciplines concerned with the ancient world, to be achieved through the close collaboration of the Freie Universität Berlin and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, the German Archaeological Institute, the Berlin State Library/Prussian Cultural Heritage, the Federal Museums of the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage and, finally, the Department l ("Structural Changes in Systems of Knowledge") of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science along with further partners.
Within an interdisciplinary framework, TOPOI will work out a theory of space as a constitutive element in the formation and transformation of cultures and societies of antiquity. Space is to be examined as an object of perception, designed, defined and controlled by human action. Knowledge is to be examined insofar as it is oriented towards space in its diverse individual and collective forms or enabled and informed by space or presented and received through various notions and models of space.
The cluster of excellence is based on the concentration of the research capacities of all of the disciplines concerned with the ancient world, to be achieved through the close collaboration of the Freie Universität Berlin and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, the German Archaeological Institute, the Berlin State Library/Prussian Cultural Heritage, the Federal Museums of the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage and, finally, the Department l ("Structural Changes in Systems of Knowledge") of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science along with further partners.
DFG Programme
Clusters of Excellence
Applicant Institution
Freie Universität Berlin; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Participating Institution
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften; Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz; Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin e.V.
Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
Spokespersons
Professor Dr. Gerd Graßhoff; Professor Dr. Michael Meyer
Participating Researchers
Professor Dr. Markus Asper; Professor Dr. Jonathan Beere; Professor Dr. Cilliers Breytenbach; Professorin Dr. Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum; Professor Dr. Ricardo Eichmann; Professor Dr. Philip van der Eijk; Professor Dr. Stefan Esders; Professorin Dr. Johanna Fabricius; Professorin Dr. Friederike Fless; Professorin Dr. Therese Fuhrer; Professor Dr. Markham Geller; Professor Dr. Klaus Hallof; Professor Dr. Frank Kammerzell; Professorin Dr. Sybille Krämer; Professorin Dr. Verena Lobsien; Professor Dr. Christoph Markschies; Professor Dr. Hermann Parzinger; Professor Dr. Dominik Perler; Professor Dr. Jürgen Renn, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Bénédicte Savoy; Professor Dr. Wolfram Schier; Professorin Dr. Brigitta Schütt; Professorin Dr. Friederike Seyfried
