Research Hub: Debating Early Rome

The Early Roman Republic has experienced a flurry of activity and lively debates in the last decade. Organized by Hans Beck and Marian Helm in collaboration with Jeremy Armstrong (University of Auckland) and Simon Lentzsch (Université de Fribourg), “Debating Early Rome” engages in these debates and aims to bring together different perspectives, approaches, and academic cultures in a joint group to broaden the discussion and mutual exchange on this fascinating period.

The cultural body in ancient Egypt

The question of conception, meaning and reception of the cultural body in the ancient Nile Valley (Egypt and Nubia) on different levels (regional, hierarchical, chronological) is a current research focus of Prof. Dr. Angelika Lohwasser. The comparison with other ancient and recent cultures as well as the inclusion of non-ancient scientific methods can lead to further new insights.

Completed Projects

Pentateuch models in discourse

In the last 20 years, the state of research in the area of Pentateuch/Hexateuch (Gen-Dtn/Jos) has significantly shifted. This projects aims to develop new models to understand the formation of the Pentateuch/Hexateuch.

History of the Reception of the Hebrew Bible

A first focus in the project is on the problem of Christian anti-Judaism in dealing with the Old Testament, another on the reception of the Hebrew Bible by selected contemporary philosophers, and a third line pursues the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the "melee" of social or political movements.

Religious Politics in the Ancient Persian Empire


Comparative Cultural and Legal Historical Studies on the Situation of the Jews in the Multireligious Society of the Achaemenids

Gender relations in the literature of Hellenistic Judaism

The Hellenistic period is of particular interest for gender-related research, as it seems to have been the first time that an explicit gender discourse developed.
The research project "Gender Relations in Hellenistic Judaism" deals with the spectrum of questions that arise from feminist or gender/gender-related approaches.

Roman building ornamentation in Asia Minor: work process and work tradition

The project is concerned with the investigation of Roman building ornamentation in Asia Minor and concentrates on the period of the 2nd century A.D. The starting point of the investigation is a polygonal building, which has been partially excavated so far and which adjoins the forum area of Alexandreia Troas and to which various building elements made of marble (capital, architrave, consolgeison) can be assigned. Detailed observations of the sculpture work of the ornamentation allow conclusions about the organization of the active stonemasons and the manufacturing process of the components.

The Rhetoric of Monotheism in the Roman Empire

Christian monotheistic rhetoric of demarcation from pagan conceptions of God

The aim of the project is, by challenging the dichotomy poly-/monotheism, which is a linguistic construct in specific contexts with specific intentions, to open up divisions, demarcations, and classifications of different concepts of God (and associated carrier groups) that are more appropriate to the complex constellations of the controversial late antique debates in the diverse situations than simplifying antitheses, without thereby creating a new system of categories.