CSMC Newsletter

When we study written artefacts, we frequently encounter the phenomena of multilingualism and multiscriptism. Still, scholars often relegate them to the status of exceptions. The new volume of Studies in Manuscript Cultures challenges this viewpoint. Adopting a broad perspective that focuses not on individual written artefacts but rather on cultures of writing and their contributions to the realm of multilingual manuscripts and inscriptions, it strives to shed light on the interplay between languages and scripts and to offer valuable insights into the dynamic nature of linguistic expression in diverse societies. Exploring Multilingualism and Multiscriptism in Written Artefacts is available open access on our website.

After retunring from the first succesful field trip to the Louvre museum this February, we had the pleasere of officially introducing ENCI - the first mobile computer tomograph that makes it possible to read sealed cuneiform tablets - to a couple of invited guests at the CSMC. Among them were Senator Katharina Fegebank and UHH president Hauke Heekeren, who both emphasised the exemplary interdisciplinary nature of the project in their welcome notes. People in Hamburg will soon have an opportunity to see the device themselves: we will present it on the Science City Day on 1 June, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. 

This summer semester, Suzanne Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) is guest professor for ‘Gender in Manuscript Cultures’ at the CSMC. A highlight of her stay with us will come on 30 May, when she will deliver a public lecture on ‘The Book as Living Relation: Collaborative Study of Lenape (Delaware) Belongings with Indigenous Communities of Origin’. The lecture will be followed by a ceremony to congratulate her on the award that come with the guest professorship. Everyone is welcome. The talk will also be accessible via Zoom. 

In 2023, ‘Artefact Profiling’ was formally established as an ‘Emerging Topic’ at PIER (Partnership for Innovation, Education and Research), which institutionalises the cooperation between Universität Hamburg and DESY. CSMC and DESY researchers have been working together on several innovative pilot studies, ranging from the material analysis of palm leaves to Asian paper documents and ancient clay tablets. On 29 April, we gathered at DESY for our first joint PIER workshop to take stock of the progress that has already been made in our joint projects and to discuss potential ideas for further common projects. 

Two researchers, one hour, one topic: Using concrete examples from our research, the Digital Lunch Seminar Series shows how experts from the humanities, natural sciences, and computer sciences cooperate at the CSMC. This summer semester, the series is back with four lectures, starting on 13 May. Once again, the organisers have put together a varied lunch menu, including insights into fragments from Qur’anic codex from Cairo, sealed cuneiform tablets, Georgian palimpsests that we can only read with the help of AI, a study on ancient Egyptian scarabs at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe.

The al-Jazzar Mosque of Akka once housed one of the largest mosque libraries in Palestine. Today, only part of the collection is still on site – and was at risk of destruction. Since September 2023, the CSMC has been carrying out an emergency project, funded by the ALIPH Foundation, in the library. After months of intensive work, our trainees and the team at the mosque could eliminate the immediate threat to the document collections and create long-term conditions for preserving the collection on-site. In the future, these important documents will also be accessible to researchers.

Since 2021, scholars from the Department of Chinese Literature of National Taiwan University (NTU) and the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) have been co-organising a series of conferences on central aspects of written artefact research. On 12 and 13 April, the third instalment of this collaboration, devoted to ‘Writing and Material Culture in East Asia’, took place in Taipeh, this time also in cooperation with the École française d’Extrême-Orient and Université PSL (Paris Sciences & Lettres). 25 scholars from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, France, Switzerland, Australia, and Germany presented their latest research on written artefacts.

After the successful first edition last year, the CSMC took part in the nationwide Girls’ Day and Boys’ Day again this year, offering one of a total of over 33,000 opportunities for school children to explore exciting jobs. Our researchers in the making spent the day learning about archaeometry, cuneiform writing, and what ChatGPT has to do with magical medieval manuscripts.

A few weeks ago, our mobile CT scanner ENCI had its appearance on the ARD quiz show ‘Wer weiß denn sowas?’. Comedian Elton and actress Eva Haberman had a tough time figuring out what it might have been used for... If you want to know if the managed in the end, watch the video! (Starting from 33:00 min; available until 16 May 2024). 

Our ‘Artefact of the Month’ series is back with an essay by Yukiyo Kasai: he writes about a fragmentary scroll with the shelfmark ВФ-4203 in the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin. Although not itself an amulet, it is an exceptional example of the use of such objects and their distribution across cultural boundaries. What was the purpose of this manuscript and how did it originate?