CSMC Newsletter

Manuscript albums are oftentimes contradictory objects: ephemeral yet monumental, coherent yet inviting change. Collecting items made by others, owners form their albums as representations of their selves, their worlds, and their traditions. Manuscript Albums and their Cultural Contexts: Collectors, Objects, and Practices – whose contributors come from musicology, European history, English literary studies, and Islamic art history – explores a set of these challenging manuscripts while addressing questions of manuscript studies through their respective disciplinary lenses. It was edited by Janine Droese and Janina Karolewski. 

Wherever people learn how to write, they eventually use this ability to claim their voice in the visual landscapes that surround them. The resulting written artefacts – known as graffiti – are the subject matter of the volume Graffiti Scratched, Scrawled, Sprayed: Towards a Cross-Cultural Understanding, edited by Ondřej Škrabal, Leah Mascia, Ann Lauren Osthof, and Malena Ratzke. Aiming to place graffiti in a global perspective, the volume deals with both historical and contemporary graffiti from Africa, Asia, America, and Europe.

Throughout history, manuscripts have been made and used for religious, artistic, and scientific performances. Situated at the juncture between manuscript studies and performance studies, which is still a widely uncharted area, the case studies in this volume of SMC unravel, explore, and study the complex processes in which performances are shaped by manuscripts and vice versa. Following different approaches, ranging from codicological, philological, and art-history methodologies to more ethnographical ones based on direct observation, the volume addresses the functions manuscripts can have before, during, and after a performance, and when they can be regarded as performers themselves. It was edited by Antonella Brita, Janina Karolewski, Matthieu Husson, Laure Miolo, and Hanna Wimmer.

During a one-day event on 24 November at the Āśā Archives in Kathmandu, pupils learned about preservation measures for written artefacts and digitisations techniques in an interactive and playful way. Overall, the programme was attended by 26 pupils from the 9th grade and three teachers. The programme was run by Bidur Bhattarai, who is the project coordinator of ‘Preserving the Written Cultural Heritage of Nepal’.

At the 10th International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation and Neutrons in Art and Archaeology (SR2A 2023) in Munich, CSMC researchers presented current research projects that they carry out in collaboration with Deutsches Elektronen-Synchroton (DESY). Sylvio Haas (DESY) and Agnieszka Helman-Ważny (CSMC) gave a talk on the application of small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering, a method they currently employ to investigate the structure of paper and pigments in Tibetan tsakali objects. Małgorzata Grzelec (CSMC) presented a poster summarising the first stage of a project on using X-ray scattering methods to characterise the materials and production technologies of paper. And Samaneh Ehteram (CSMC/DESY) presented a poster on ENCI, a portable high-resolution X-ray tomographic scanner that makes it possible to read enclosed cuneiform clay tablets. Her presentation won the 3rd prize in the poster competition.

Two researchers, one hour, one topic: by bringing together different areas of expertise, the Digital Lunch Seminar Series brings the idea of cross-disciplinary research to life. On four Mondays in December and January, two researchers from CSMC and collaborating institutions will deliver one-hour presentations on a joint research topic. On 18 December, Jörg Fromm and Marina Creydt open this semester’s edition of the series with a presentation on ‘Wood Profiling: Examinations of Wood in the Context of Artefact Analyses’. 

How can we pin down the meaning of a broad general concept like ‘written artefact’? The ‘Theory and Terminology’ Working Group has devoted extensive discussions and reflections to this question. They have now published their considerations in an Occasional Paper, which is available for download on our website. In this paper, they argue that ‘a written artefact is any artificial or natural object with visual signs applied by humans’.

It is November of the year 103 CE in the Fayyum oasis in Middle Egypt. The setting is perhaps the porch of an official building or the portico of a temple in one of the settlements of the region. An official of the Roman army is checking the documents of a man in his mid-forties. One of these documents, which we can still imagine in this officer’s hands almost two thousand years later, is now kept at the Hamburg State and University Library. The papyrus P.Hamb.graec. 294 is written in an ink with an unexpected colour, but this is just one of the many aspects that make this written artefact so interesting. Why did the scribe select this unusual ink? What was the purpose of this document?