dept1_brentjes–book_on_teaching

Explanation of lunar phases by Abu l-Rayhan al-Biruni (d. after 1048) for Lady Rayhana from Khwarazm, MS London, British Library, Or. 3849, f. 31b; al-Biruni, Book of the Stars, copied in 1435.

Working Group (2017-2027)

Visualization and Material Cultures of the Heavens in Eurasia and North Africa (4000 BCE–1700 CE)

Note

Contact: Stamatina Mastorakou

Astral practices left their imprint on material culture in many ways: instruments were used and knowledge was inscribed on diverse mediums such as buildings, manuscripts, everyday objects, and objects of art. These artifacts, now scattered globally, constitute the focal point of this working group. To facilitate research and enable cross-cultural comparisons, an annotated image database has been developed by an international team of researchers during the first and second phase of the project, that now holds over 8000 entries. While issues of mobility and provenance were in focus in these phases, from 2024 to 2027 research will explore the spatial and intellectual relation between objects, especially how people from different social strata surrounded themselves with celestial imagery of the heavens in different phases of their lives in historical cultures in Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

An overarching theme involves investigating the relationship between the development of cosmologies and objects of cosmic representations, such as the Chinese shi-model, the Western astrolabe, or various star maps. Rather than taking these artifacts as mere reflection of established cosmological systems, we place them in networks of ideas, actions, expressions, and institutions and study how the acts of designing, seeing, and using these objects shaped cosmological thinking in different cultures.

Starting with an examination of metal objects, particularly economic items like coins, the project investigates not only materiality in connection to astral imagery but also production centers and exchanges. Coins with astral depictions play a central role in enhancing our comprehension of religion, political and diplomatic life, economic institutions, literacy, art, knowledge transfer, and objectscapes in the ancient and medieval world. Additionally, celestial globes are explored in terms of their creation and iconography in relation to textual sources and canonical images found on objects of art. Astral depictions also manifest themselves in ritual contexts, particularly within funerary art and tombs. Archaeological excavations enrich our insight into cultural interactions, facilitating comparative studies on funerary art across various cultures. The project offers interpretations on newly discovered material, adding new approaches to well-established ones. Examples include the analysis of the astral mural at the tomb in Pella, the so-called Egyptian Star Clocks, the zodiacal motifs in East Asian tombs, and the celestial deities in Central Asia.

Spanning multiple disciplines including history, history of science, archaeology, and art history, the project also challenges conventional interpretations and methodologies of studying astral imagery in material culture.

Selected material and textual artifacts will be analyzed and contextualized addressing the following questions:

  • What were the different traditions for depicting the heavens? And in which ways did they differ?
  • What were the meanings and functions of celestial representations in each cultural context?
  • Are there similarities, differences, or ruptures across these traditions within the same region and period as well as across cultures?
  • How were astral practices embedded within educational, religious, and artistic contexts, and how were these negotiations framed and carried out?
  • How did local and global practices interact in forming astral imagery, and what role did economic, political, and diplomatic relations play in those interactions?
  • How did the materiality of artifacts influence the development of astral knowledge and historical narratives?
  • In what ways can the archaeological context in which artifacts displaying astral imagery are found help us trace usages, routes, and mobility in ancient and medieval landscapes?

In collaboration with the Research IT Group, an interactive research tool, the Heavens map, has been developed and will become available in the fall of 2024 to assist researchers in filtering, navigating, visualizing, and exploring data stored in the VoH database in an intuitive manner. Big data requires powerful analysis tools—one of the main goals in this phase is to use state-of-the-art image processing methods that allow us to conduct large-scale comparative analyses, addressing and expanding our research questions.

Current and future research projects related to the themes and goals of the working group aim to broaden the international team of scholars with diverse expertise through different formats of collaboration and cooperation.

Postdoc Call

We have a current vacancy for a Postdoctoral Scholar to lead a three-year project focused on an East Asian context until 1400 (pre-Ming). Applications close at 23:45 CET on April 7, 2024. This postdoctoral position is in partnership with Jinsong Guo from the Center for Ancient Chinese History at Peking University.

Current Activities

Starting in March 2024, we are launching a series of meetings titled “Objects Revealed.” The goal is to explore objects featuring astral imagery, engaging in discussions about their features, materiality, culturally specific and intercultural contexts, and potential meanings.

We are delighted to have Francesca Rochberg, John Tresch, and Melissa Nelson join us in April 2024. They will participate in the "Approaching, Translating, and Engaging Cosmology" Roundtable at the MPIWG Institute’s Colloquium on April 16, 2024. For additional details, please refer to the information available here.

In partnership with the Research IT Group, we will host a Digital Humanities lecture series to draw insights and experiences from other international Digital Humanities projects.

In the fall of 2024, we will launch a new platform for publishing and promoting digital projects and a blog to expand the project's public outreach.

 

Past Events

Thematic Cluster: Visualizing Cosmologies

MORE

Visualization of Heavens I

MORE

Visualization of Heavens II

MORE

Visualization Project Meeting

MORE

The Book of Felicity: Time and Fortune at the Ottoman Court

MORE

Local Gazetteers Research Tools (LoGart)

MORE

The Chinese Reception of Islamic and European Astronomy: Starmaps Produced by Jesuits in China

MORE

The Unicorn-Lion Law: Affirming the Correct Standard of Comparison for Scholarship in the Humanities

MORE

Sound & Science: Digital Histories—a Database in the History of Acoustics

MORE

Diagram Diversity in the Light of Digital Humanities: Types and Ambiguous Cases

MORE

Imagining the Stars in Premodern Eurasia: Intercultural Comparisons Between East and West Asia

MORE

The Grand Zodiacal Tablets and the Papyri Graecae Magicae: Which Connection between Magic and Astrology?

MORE

Science in Practice: Astronomical Instruments in the Islamic World

MORE

Orientation and Organization of the Zodiacal Image in the Roman Empire

MORE

Constellations and Celestial Globes from the Islamic World: The Use of Virtual Reality Technology as a New Interpretative Tool

MORE

Visualizations of the Heavens—The Database as a Research Tool

MORE

A Globalised Visual Culture?: Towards a Geography of Late Antique Art

MORE

Tombs and Astral Knowledge from Egypt to China (1000 BCE–1000 CE)

MORE

Publications

Brentjes, Sonja and Dagmar Schäfer, eds. (2020). Imagining the Heavens: Historiographical Challenges and Eurasian Perspectives. Special issue, NTM 28 (3). Basel: Birkhäuser. https://link.springer.com/journal/48/volumes-and-issues/28-3.

Read More

Brentjes, Sonja (2018). “Visualization and Material Cultures of the Heavens in Eurasia and North Africa.” In Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1935–2018, ed. S. Schmidtke, 134–153. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press.

Read More

Brentjes, Sonja (2014). “Safavid art, science, and courtly education in the seventeenth century.” In From Alexandria, through Baghdad : surveys and studies in the ancient Greek and Medieval Islamic mathematical sciences in honor of J. L. Berggren, ed. N. Sidoli and G. Van Brummelen, 487–502. Berlin [u.a.]: Springer.

Read More

Brentjes, Sonja (2009). “The Interplay of Science, Art and Literature in Islamic Societies before 1700.” In Science, Literature and Aesthetics, ed. A. Dev and P. Bhadury, 453–484. New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations.

Read More

Projects