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History / Archeology - 28.10.2021

Team of archaeologists finds monumental antique temple: Münster researchers investigate a previously unknown sanctuary from the Roman era
Last summer, archaeologists from the University of Münster discovered a previously unknown sanctuary from the Roman era during excavation work in the ancient town of Doliche in south-eastern Turkey. Over a period of nine weeks, the team - headed by Prof. Engelbert Winter and Prof. Michael Blömer from the Asia Minor Research Centre -uncovered parts of a large temple notable not only for its size but also for its unusual form.

History / Archeology - 22.07.2021

Stone tool tells the story of Neanderthal hunting
65,000 years ago Neanderthal from the Swabian Jura hunted horses and reindeer with hafted leaf-shaped stone points. A newly discovered leaf point from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hohle Fels Cave documents the evolution of hunting. A team under the direction of Professor Nicholas Conard for the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in southern Germany recovered the artifact underlying a layer dating to 65,000 years ago, which represents a minimum age for the find.

History / Archeology - 29.06.2021

Bronze Age: how the market began
researchers investigate the spread of weighing systems across Western Eurasia 4,000 years ago Knowing the weight of a commodity provides an objective way to value goods in the marketplace. But did a self-regulating market even exist in the Bronze Age? And what can weight systems tell us about this? A team of researchers from the University of Göttingen researched this by investigating the dissemination of weight systems throughout Western Eurasia.

Environment - History / Archeology - 21.06.2021

Environmental pollution as far back as antiquity: Finds in the ancient city of Jerash provide evidence of heavy metal contamination
Current research shows that environmental pollution is a phenomenon found not only in modern times. Even in ancient times people suffered from lead poisoning. The Romans widely used this heavy metal as a material for their water pipes and sometimes even for sweetening wine. There is a fair amount of evidence for the extent and the influence of this contamination, and its impact on the global atmosphere can be tracked on the basis of Arctic ice core analyses.

History / Archeology - Earth Sciences - 02.06.2021

Early Medieval Egyptian blue in laser light
Research team elucidates complex spectrum of trace compounds in the first artificial pigment of mankind Art technologist Dr. Petra Dariz and analytical chemist Dr. Thomas Schmid (School of Analytical Sciences Adlershof SALSA at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung BAM) identified Egyptian blue on a monochrome blue mural fragment, which was excavated in the church of St. Peter above Gratsch (South Tyrol, Northern Italy) in the 1970s.

History / Archeology - 25.05.2021

Researchers unearth oldest gold find in southwest Germany
Archaeologists working in the district of Tübingen in southwest Germany have discovered the region's earliest gold object to date. It is a spiral ring of gold wire unearthed in autumn 2020 from the grave of an Early Bronze Age woman. It is about 3,800 years old, according to analyses. Precious metal finds from this period are very rare in southwestern Germany.

History / Archeology - 05.05.2021

Scrap for cash before coins
Researchers including Göttingen University show Bronze Age witnessed revolution in small change across Europe How did people living in the Bronze Age manage their finances before money became widespread? Researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Rome have discovered that bronze scrap found in hoards in Europe circulated as a currency.

History / Archeology - 14.04.2021

Revealing the routes of the Hanseatic era online
Research team led by University of Göttingen reconstructs late medieval trade routes digitally The Hanseatic League was a confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe, which came to dominate trade in the region for three hundred years. A digital platform has now been built which reveals the long-distance trade routes in Northern Europe between 1350 and 1650.

Earth Sciences - History / Archeology - 20.01.2021

New Data about the structure of the Pyramid of Cheops
An interview with Prof. Christian Große about his pyramid research Measuring a height of 139 meters (455 ft.), the largest of the three pyramids of Giza is one of the oldest edifices in the world. Yet, even after 4,500 years, this architectural masterpiece still leaves some questions unanswered.

Religions - History / Archeology - 23.11.2020

Early Christian fish: excavations provide insights into church construction
Archaeologists of the University of Münster have uncovered an early Christian basilica in south-eastern Turkey. The team of researchers led by Prof. Engelbert Winter spent eight weeks exposing richly ornamented mosaics with images of fish as well as painted marble reliefs. "These finds cast a new light on the development of church building in the Near East between the 4th and 7th centuries AD," explains Engelbert Winter, professor at the Minor Research Centre in the Department of Ancient History at the University of Münster.

History / Archeology - 09.07.2020

New method solves old mystery: Hafnium isotopes provide the key
For a long time, it was not possible to establish the precise origin of high-grade transparent glass from imperial Rome (3rd century CE) - glass which was used for example for vessels and as window glass. Historical sources strongly suggested that the glass originated in Egypt - on the basis of the term "Alexandrian" found in these sources - but this could not so far be confirmed.

History / Archeology - 25.05.2020

The Banner of Péronne - a political matter: Tenacious and clever
As journalists traditionally say: real-life stories are the best ones. In the case of Dr. Daniel Stracke, 46, an historian and research assistant, his real-life story presented itself in the corridor of the Institute of Comparative Urban History (Institut für vergleichende Städtegeschichte, IStG) at the University of Münster.

Social Sciences - History / Archeology - 10.09.2019

9,000-Year-Old Grave with Rich Grave Goods in Jordan Yields New Insights into Early Hierarchies
Prospective Students Students and Doctorate Alumni and Supporters Continuing Education International research team led by Freie Universität publishes results of a two-year study No 263/2019 from Sep 10, 2019 An international team of researchers led by a team from Freie Universität Berlin has excavated a 9,000-year-old grave and its contents in the south of Jordan and interpreted the findings.

History / Archeology - Religions - 28.08.2019

German Research Foundation awards funding to a University of Münster excavation project
For more than 20 years, the staff of the Asia Minor Research Centre at the Department of Ancient History of Münster University has been investigating the cultural legacy of the ancient city of Doliche in south-eastern Turkey. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is now funding the project with around 800,000 euros for a further three years.

Health - History / Archeology - 12.06.2019

To the Spa for Research
International Research Project Studies Social Significance of Health Resorts No 169/2019 from Jun 12, 2019 A team of researchers from the universities of Amsterdam and Lund, Queen Mary University in London, and Freie Universität Berlin is starting a research project on health resorts as a location of transnational encounter and debate.

History / Archeology - Computer Science - 17.05.2019

Historian Prof. Torsten Hiltmann aims to make use of machine learning for medieval research
Centuries-old manuscripts, documents and heraldic images: at first glance, medieval research and artificial intelligence seem to be a contradiction in terms. After all, historical studies and the like were long seen as being subjects greatly removed from the world of IT. However, methods such as machine learning on the part of computer programmes, which learn new things and correct themselves, open up new opportunities for historians doing research.

Religions - History / Archeology - 27.03.2019

Voices from Beyond
The voice is a fleeting medium. As the primary means of human communication, it also plays an important role in religion. And yet it is difficult to grasp and seems to elude discussion. But a research project at the Cluster of Excellence has nonetheless approached the voice in a religious context: scholars from various disciplines have studied the voice as a medium of religious communication, and have discovered in historical testimonies, as well as in literature and artwork from various religions and cultures from antiquity to the present day, what can be called "voices from beyond".

Economics / Business - History / Archeology - 12.09.2018

Works of Art Called "Degenerate Art" from Collections of Art Dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt Were Catalogued
Published in Scholarly Database at Freie Universität Berlin No 236/2018 from Sep 12, 2018 The works acquired by the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt during the period of National Socialism in Germany that were officially ostracized as "degenerate art" have been fully catalogued in a database.

History / Archeology - 14.07.2018

Gilded mummy mask
German-Egyptian team presents the latest findings from Saqqara excavations Researchers at the University of Tübingen have discovered a gilded mask on the mummy of a priest in Saqqara, Egypt. It is from the Saite-Persian period (664-404 BCE). The head of the German-Egyptian team, Dr. Ramadan Badry Hussein, reported on Saturday that the mask was found in an extensive tomb complex which Tübingen archaeologists have been investigating since 2016, using the latest methods.

History / Archeology - Environment - 04.05.2018

New Research Project on Household Communities of the Living and the Dead in the Neolithic Period
Excavations continue in Ba'ja in the south of present-day Jordan No 089/2018 from May 04, 2018 A new research project based at Freie Universität's Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Archeology is investigating Neolithic households and burial culture at the Ba'ja site in the south of present-day Jordan.