Transcultural Urbanity in the Syrian steppe-desert Resafa from the 1st to the 13th century within its regional and overregional context

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Michaela Konrad; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Dorothée Sack
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Ancient History ; Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 322407976

In the 5th and 6th c. AD, Resafa, holy site of the martyrship of Saint Sergios, developed from a Late Roman frontier post to one of the most important pilgrimage sites of the Eastern Mediterranean. In the 2nd quarter of the 8th c. the Umayyad caliph Hisham b. Abd al-Malik founded a residence in the area south of the byzantine city. Throughout the period of its existence the site profited from its position at the crossing of two important caravan routes. The main research topics of the application result from this specific historical und environmental disposition. The project aims to analyze the development of the site from its formation until its abandonment in the 13th c. As Resafa and its surroundings were in the focus of systematic archaeological fieldwork from 1952 until the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, research conditions at the site are exceptionally favorable (since 1975 as project of the DAI). The actual application aims to interpret the results of 50 years of research under superordinate scholarly aspects. The first step of research will be the analysis of the urban development of the site from the Roman fortification to an urban pilgrimage site and caliphal residence. For the first time research will also integrate the systematic inventory and interpretation of the latest structures until the Crusades. Synchronously to research referring to the structures intra muros, all remains in the wider area of the city will be integrated into the analysis. With this layout the applicants create a project that will deliver substantially new results to the following main aspects: 1. The urban construction phases and the development of the city and its surroundings, 2. Protagonists in the development of the urban space, 3. Spaces of transcultural development. Research within the project will summarize all material-based work that has been done until now and interpret it diachronically, regarding all written sources to each topic. Superordinate questions of the project will analyze the reasons and consequences of the urban development, differentiating between endogenous and exogenous factors of the development. Furthermore intercultural and transcultural processes will be discussed considering environmental, political, social, economic and religious conditions. The discussion will be extended to theoretical models and actual debates of Zentralortforschung in geography, history and cultural history. Without any doubt the results will exceed the geographical frame of Northern Syria. Due to the extraordinary status of knowledge and a rich pool of material sources the results of the project will become paradigmatic for transformation processes in peripheral spaces. The team will bring together archaeologists, building historians, historians, and philologists. International workshops that are dedicated to the main research topics of the project aim to optimize scholarly exchange consulting experts from outside the project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants