Core Research Area Manuscript Cultures
The University of Hamburg’s core research area Manuscript Cultures is based at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) and its Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts. Its researchers explore written artefacts from all cultural regions—from antiquity to the present.
Content
Interdisciplinary and global
Photo: UHH
5,000-year-old cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, Indian palm-leaf manuscripts, or graffiti at Hamburg Central Station: written artefacts can be found everywhere. Their forms are as varied as the purposes for which people have created them and continue to do so. At the CSMC, researchers from the humanities, natural sciences, and computer science investigate from a global perspective how writing shapes societies and how this cultural technique has evolved across different regions of the world.
High-Tech Meets Cultural History
Photo: UHH/Esfandiari
It is not the texts alone that make manuscripts and inscriptions so fascinating. Each object also tells the story of its production, use, and preservation. At the CSMC, we analyze material, structure, and traces of use with high-precision instruments and AI-based methods. Using mobile, non-invasive techniques, we study written artefacts across the globe, thus deepening our historical knowledge while also contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage.
New Perspectives on Written Artefacts
At the CSMC, historians work together with computer scientists, Indologists collaborate with chemists, and Assyriologists team up with X-ray physicists. The short film uses three research projects to illustrate how this interdisciplinary cooperation works, what new questions we are able to ask, and how this approach enables us to recover knowledge once thought to be lost.
Participating faculties and research centers
At the CSMC, researchers from the Faculty of Humanities and from the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences work closely together. They jointly explore written artefacts from diverse disciplinary perspectives.
Cooperation and research partners
The CSMC and its Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts are based at the University of Hamburg. Three further Hamburg research institutions are part of the cluster: the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), the Helmut Schmidt University, and Hamburg University of Technology. In addition, we maintain numerous collaborations with partners around the world.
Researchers and projects at a glance
At the CSMC, around 150 researchers from more than 40 disciplines work on a wide range of projects – from PhD projects to ERC Advanced Grants.