The aim of the new group “Xenocracy on site. Administration and Cultural Interdependence in the premodern era”
is to provide a perspective on the much-discussed phenomenon of foreign rule that is tailored to the premodern period. On the one hand, the participating researchers focus on the localization of xenocratic rule, its modes of functioning, modes of mediation and forms of symbolic representation on site. On the other hand, they shed light on the administration, its representatives and administrative practices.

Seven subprojects and one Mercator project are researching forms of xenocracy in northern Alpine Europe, Latin America, the Mediterranean, China and India. Experts from the fields of history, art history, coptology, sinology and papyrology are working together. This enables a comparative study of geographical areas and historical constellations that are rarely discussed together.