Freie Universität Berlin

Über die Kooperation “Berliner Zentrum für Wissensgeschichte” der Freien Universität Berlin, der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, der Technischen Universität sowie dem Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte werden mehrere Stipendien für den Bereich Wissensgeschichte als auch Wissenschaftsgeschichte ausgeschrieben.

Die Themenwahl der eigenen Forschungsvorschläge sollten im Bereich der beiden Hauptschwerpunkte (1.) „Praktisches Wissen“ und (2.) „Fieldworks of Knowledge“ liegen. Von den erfolgreichen BewerberInnen wird zudem erwartet, dass sie neben ihren eigentlichen Forschungsprojekt Arbeitskreise als auch Workshops und Kolloquien organisieren.

Die Beendigung der Promotion sollte zwischen einem und höchstens fünf Jahren liegen. Der Beginn der Stelle ist für den 1.9.2016 (oder früher) vorgesehen.

Bewerbungen können elektronisch noch bis zum 31.1.2016 eingereicht werden (Link zur elektronischen Bewerbung). Weitere Informationen auf Englisch wie auch auf Deutsch finden sie hier.

Eric Schmidtchen

The Archaeology and Material Culture of the Babylonian Talmud

Edited by Markham J. Geller
Publication Date: November 2015

Brill Publishers

The Babylonian Talmud remains the richest source of information regarding the material culture and lifestyle of the Babylonian Jewish community, with additional data now supplied by Babylonian incantation bowls. Although archaeology has yet to excavate any Jewish sites from Babylonia, information from Parthian and Sassanian Babylonia provides relevant background information, which differs substantially from archaeological finds from the Land of Israel. One of the key questions addresses the amount of traffic and general communications between Jewish Babylonia and Israel, considering the great distances and hardships of travel involved.

Table of contents

Introduction: The Archaeology and Material Culture of the Babylonian Talmud, Markum. J. Geller

Land behind Ctesiphon: the Archaeology of Babylonia during the Period of the Babylonian Talmud, St John Simpson

‘Recycling economies, when efficient, are by their nature invisible.’ A First Century Jewish Recycling Economy, Matthew Ponting and Dan Levene

The Cedar in Jewish Antiquity, Michael Stone

Since when do Women go to Miqveh? Archaeological and Rabbinic Evidence, Tal Ilan

Rabbis in Incantation Bowls, Shaul Shaked

Divorcing a Demon: Incantation Bowls and BT Giṭṭin 85b, Siam Bhayro

Lilith’s Hair and Ashmedai’s Horns: Incantation Bowl Imagery in the Light of Talmudic Descriptions, Naama Vilozny

The Material World of Babylonia as seen from Roman Palestine: Some Preliminary Observations, Yaron Eliav

Travel Between Palestine and Mesopotamia during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: A Preliminary Study, Getzel Cohen (z’’l)

Shopping in Ctesiphon: A Lesson in Sasanian Commercial Practice, Yaakov Elman

Substance and Fruit in the Sasanian Law of Property and the Babylonian Talmud, Maria Macuch

Rabbinic, Christian, and Local Calendars in Late Antique Babylonia: Influence and Shared Culture, Sacha Stern

‘Manasseh sawed Isaiah with a Saw of Wood:’ an Ancient Legend in Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Persian Sources, Richard Kalmin

Biblical ‘Archaeology’ and Babylonian Rabbis: On the Self-Image of Jews in Sasanian Babylonia, Isaiah Gafni

Loanwords in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: Some Preliminary Observations, Theodore Kwasman

The Gymnasium at Babylon and Jerusalem, Markham J. Geller

and D. T. Potts Index

posted by: Agnes Kloocke

In Hemmaberg, Austria, archaeologists excavating a cemetery associated with an early Medieval church discovered the remains of a middle-aged man whose left foot had been amputated. In its place, a unique foot prosthesis was found.

Read the full article here.

Marius Hoppe

Das Treffen des Interdisziplinären Arbeitskreises „Alte Medizin“ wird von Prof. Tanja Pommerening ausgerichtet. Es findet am 2. und 3. Juli 2016 im Institut für Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Medizin der Universität Mainz, Am Pulverturm 13, Untergeschoss (Hörsaal U1125) statt. Der Arbeitskreis ruft einerseits zu Vorträgen zu einem festgelegten Oberthema auf, andererseits gibt es aber auch die Möglichkeit laufende Arbeiten vorzustellen.

Das Oberthema der Tagung lautet: „Medizin und Tod in der Alten Welt“. Wie verhielt sich die Medizin der Antike zur Sterbebegleitung? Wie wurde aus Sicht der ÄrztInnen der Tod des Menschen gesehen? Wie beeinflussten Todesvorstellungen der Alten Welt das Handeln und die Rituale der MedizinerInnen? Wie sind die Themen Leben und Tod in ihren Bezügen zueinander in medizinischen Theorien dargestellt? Wie prägten Vorstellungen und Rituale im Zusammenhang mit dem Übergang von Leben zu Tod den medizinischen Alltag?

Meldungen für Panels oder Einzelvorträge werden ab sofort bis spätestens 17. Januar 2016 erbeten. Bitte senden Sie Ihre Meldung an Frau Dr. med. Madeleine Mai (m.mai@uni-mainz.de).

Weitere Informationen finden sie hier.

Tanja Hidde

23-28 May 2016, Greece

The “Interdisciplinary Centre for Aristotle Studies,” of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki announces World Congress “Aristotle 2400 Years” which is to be held at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Aristotle, who was born in 384 BC, is the universal philosopher, whose work has left an indelible mark on the Classical, Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman world, on the Byzantine scholarly tradition, on the Arab world, on the Medieval Europe and continues to exercise influence on the intellectual life of contemporary Western civilization. His work spreads over the broadest range of topics, covering all major branches of Philosophy into areas related to all fundamental scientific disciplines: such as Physics, Biology, Zoology, Botany, Taxonomy, Mathematics, Meteorology, Astronomy et cetera, but also Medicine and Health Sciences. The aim of the Congress is to advance scholarship on all aspects of Aristotle’s work.

Paper submission: January 31, 2016

For further information please klick here.

Tanja Hidde

In the Wake of the Compendia: Infrastructural Contexts and the Licensing of Empiricism in Ancient and Medieval Mesopotamia (Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Cultures)

Ed: Johnson, J. Cale

Contributors: Badalanova Geller, Florentina; Bhayro, Siam; Geller, Markham J.; Lehmhaus, Lennart; Ossendrijver, Mathieu; Raggetti, Lucia; Rochberg, Francesca; Steinert, Ulrike; Wee, John Z.

Publisher: DeGruyter, Berlin
https://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/456368

In the Wake of the Compendia presents papers that examine the history of technical compendia as they moved between institutions and societies in ancient and medieval Mesopotamia.

This volume offers new perspectives on the development and transmission of technical compilations, looking especially at the relationship between empirical knowledge and textual transmission in early scientific thinking. The eleven contributions to the volume derive from a panel held at the American Oriental Society in 2013 and cover more than three millennia of historical development, ranging from Babylonian medicine and astronomy to the persistence of Mesopotamian lore in Syriac and Arabic meditations on the properties of animals. The volume also includes major contributions on the history of Mesopotamian “rationality,” epistemic labels for tested and tried remedies, and the development of depersonalized case histories in Babylonian therapeutic compendia. Together, these studies offer an overview of several important moments in the development of non-Western scientific thinking and a significant contribution to our understanding of how traditions of technical knowledge were produced and transmitted in the ancient world.

Introduction (pp. 1-28) — Johnson, J. Cale
Encyclopaedias and Commentaries (pp. 31-46) — Geller, M. J.
Compendia and Procedures in the Mesopotamian Astral Sciences (pp. 47-58) — Ossendrijver, Mathieu
Listenwissenschaft and the Encyclopedic Hermeneutics of Knowledge in Talmud and Midrash (pp. 59-100) — Lehmhaus, Lennart
‘Tested’ Remedies in Mesopotamian Medical Texts (pp. 103-146) — Steinert, Ulrike
Theory and Practice in the Syriac Book of Medicines (pp. 147-158) — Bhayro, Siam
The ‘Science of Properties’ and its Transmission (pp. 159-176) — Raggetti, Lucia
Between Demonology and Hagiology (pp. 177-206) — Badalanova Geller, Florentina
The Babylonians and the Rational (pp. 209-246) — Rochberg, Francesca
Phenomena in Writing (pp. 247-288) — Wee, John Z.
Depersonalized Case Histories in the Babylonian Therapeutic Compendia (pp. 289-316) — Johnson, J. Cale

Till Kappus

The stories of Roman lives are written in their bones: diet, disease, childbirth and trauma all leave their mark. So what can we learn about Romans by examining their skeletons?

Read the full article here.

Marius Hoppe

From the 16th of November 2015 until the 20th of November 2015, there will be a conference named “Narrations on Translations” at the Max-Planck-Institut for the history of science in Berlin.

Read the official announcement here.

View the complete program here: Translations_Conference Program_Nov.

Marius Hoppe

The Project A03 (“The Transfer of Medical Episteme in the ‘Encyclopaedic’ Compilations of Late Antiquity”), as part of the SFB 980 “Episteme in Motion”, is organizing an international conference on the topic of practical knowledge and actual practices in medical traditions of different ancient cultures.
The heads of project, Prof. Philip van der Eijk and BaBMed principal investigator Prof. Markham J. Geller, welcome speakers from the US, the UK and Germany who will address in multi-disciplinary presentations the different healing practices (diagnosis, bloodletting, surgery and other forms of treat¬ment, incantations) and the role of the “practitioners”. Furthermore, the papers will shed light on the ways in which this practical medical knowledge was gained and transferred via experts, institutions and procedures.
Strahil Panayotov (BabMed) will talk about ancient Mesopotamian surgery; M.Martelli (A03/HU) will present on pharmacological practice; and L. Lehmhaus (A03/FU) will discuss Talmudic texts on bloodletting. BabMed-team members Ulrike Steinert and Cale Johnson will act as chairs/ moderators during the conference.
The conference includes keynotes/ public lectures by Ralph Jackson (British Museum, London), Nils P. Heeßel (Würzburg) and Paul U. Unschuld (Charite).

A detailed description and the conference programme are published online at the SFB webpage:

https://www.sfb-episteme.de/en/veranstaltungen/Vorschau/2015/tagung_a03_practical-knowledge.html

Date: 2–3 November 2015
Venues:
Humboldt-Unversität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, Marmorsaal, Room 2249a.
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Einstein-Saal, Jägerstraße 22-23, 5th floor.
Freie Universität Berlin, Vortragssaal, TOPOI Haus, Dahlem, Hittorfstraße 18, 14195 Berlin

Lennart Lehmhaus

This panel is part of the AJS 47th Annual Conference (Association for Jewish Studies), December 13-15, 2015, Boston, USA. It examines different but interrelated aspects of discourses on bodies, health and disability in Jewish Late Antiquity against the backdrop of their cultural embeddedness in different context (i.e. Greco-Roman West and Iranian-Mesopotamian East).

Julia Watts Belser (Georgetown/Washington) combines ideas about rabbinic counter-narratives against Roman imperial rule with theories about body discourses, medicine and disability. She focuses on R. Tsadok’s fasting after the Temple’s destruction that turns his body into a site of contestation or protest. The parallel reading of Palestinian and Babylonian accounts of the story facilitates comparison between different emphasis (i.e. medical vs. political) and cultural preferences in both traditions.

Lennart Lehmhaus (SFB 980 “Episteme in Motion”, Berlin) discusses rabbinic appropriations of as well as their halakhic and religious reluctance towards Greco-Roman ideas about diet and regimen. This presentation examines Talmudic narratives in order to show how discussions on medical issues or concepts of health and body intersect with cultural negotiations and discourses of identity formation among the rabbis.

Tanja Hidde (BabMed – Babylonian Medicine, Berlin) focuses on distinct cultural penchants and social realities in the Greco-Roman and Babylonian rabbinic centers that shaped their approaches to concepts of healthy living. Her study of possible ancient Mesopotamian backgrounds will enrich the discussion and provides ground for comparison.

Monika Amsler (University of Zurich) discusses medical treatments in the Bavli. While it is important to look for parallels of these traditions within the surrounding cultures and ways of transmission, the literary shaping of the medical texts is too often neglected. But the co-text(s) of this material has probably been at least as important in their shaping and coming into being as the cultural environment. Is it possible that Talmudic medicine is “just” literary science? And can theories about the fantastic and the estrangement in modern science fiction literature help to determine its purpose?

Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert’s expertise (Stanford University) will stimulate discussions among the contributors and facilitate conversation with scholars working on Jewish medicine, Talmudic culture, literary studies and cultural history.

Date: 13 December 2015, 11:45 am to 1:15 pm
Venue:  Sheraton Boston, Commonwealth

For the complete program of the conference please click here.