EXC 2176:  Understanding Written Artefacts

• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies ; Chemical Solid State and Surface Research ; History ; Art History, Music, Theatre and Media Studies ; Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390893796

Writing is one of the most important cultural techniques to have shaped the world’s societies. For most of human history, writing has been handwriting and has been part of diverse and complex manuscript cultures. Written artefacts have been continuously produced up to our own day, though the invention of printing with moveable types marginalised some while at the same time prompted new ones, not least digital media.Over the past three decades, scholarly interest in written artefacts has increased significantly. Enhanced possibilities for the production, storage, circulation, and analysis of images and texts have stimulated historical and systematic inquiry. Material sciences provide methods for asserting the biological and chemical identities of written artefacts. In Asia and Africa manuscripts and inscriptions are increasingly relevant to cultural heritages, and the vast quantities of manuscripts have begun to be catalogued and made accessible.The time has come to develop a truly global framework for the study of all written artefacts from the beginning of writing to the present day and from all regions having produced such artefacts in a way only possible because of Hamburg’s unique combination of expertise. Universität Hamburg has a long history of excellence in manuscript studies. In addition to the Sonderforschungsbereich "Manuscript Cultures in Asia, Africa and Europe", three European Research Council (ERC) grants, two long-term projects (Akademienprogramm), the large-scale project "Safeguarding the Manuscripts from Timbuktu" and a number of smaller research projects are currently conducted.The proposed Cluster of Excellence "Understanding Written Artefacts" includes altogether forty investigators from the humanities representing twenty-three disciplines and ten from biology, chemistry, computer science, mineralogy, neurocognitive psychology, physics and radiology. They will establish a unified, comparative and comprehensive approach for studying how writing has shaped human societies and cultures, and how these in turn have adapted writing to their needs. Finally, they will produce insights immediately relevant for the preservation of objects belonging to the cultural heritage of all humankind.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
• Applicant Institution: Universität Hamburg
• Participating Institution: Helmut-Schmidt-Universität; Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg; Technische Universität Hamburg; Universität zu Lübeck
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr. Alessandro Bausi, until 11/2023; Professor Dr. Aaron Butts, from 11/2023 until 12/2023; Professor Dr. Michael Friedrich, until 9/2022; Professorin Dr. Kaja Harter-Uibopuu; Professor Konrad Hirschler, Ph.D., since 10/2022; Professor Dr. Christian Schroer, since 1/2024
• Participating Researchers: Dr. Dmitry Bondarev; Professor Dr. Christian Brockmann; Professor Dr. Philippe Depreux; Professor Dr. Frank Fehrenbach; Professor Dr. Markus Fischer; Professor Dr. Markus Friedrich; Professor Dr. Volker Grabowsky; Professor Dr. Oliver Hahn; Professor Dr. Stefan Heidemann; Professor Dr. Oliver Huck; Professor Dr. Harunaga Isaacson; Professor Dr. Thomas Jacobsen; Professorin Dr. Margit Kern; Professor Dr. Roland Kießling; Professorin Dr. Gabriele Klein; Professorin Dr. Cécile Michel; Professorin Dr. Boriana Mihailova; Professor Dr. Ralf Möller; Professor Dr. Jörg B. Quenzer; Professor Dr. Gerold A. Schneider; Professor Dr. Giuseppe Veltri; Professorin Dr. Eva Wilden