DOCTORAL RESEARCH GRANTS

Applications are well-come for the following two Doctoral Research Grants at
the new Karman Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Bern. One
concerns the methodology of interpreting artefacts using the research about
the Pantheon in Rome as example; the second grant relates to a research
project about ancient cartography.

For further information about the projects and the grants can be found on
the website of the Karman Center:

<http://www.karmancenter.unibe.ch/grants>
http://www.karmancenter.unibe.ch/grants

Please also do not hesitate to contact me or Dr. Bernd Kulawik
(<mailto:kulawikphilo.unibe.ch>kulawikphilo.unibe.ch) if you have any
questions.

Though the dateline for the applications is June 30, we may also be able to
consider later applications

Yours sincerely

Prof. Dr. Gerd Grasshoff
History and Philosophy of Science, University of Bern, Switzerland
gerd.grasshoffphilo.unibe.ch

Pantheon Project: Methodology of interpreting artefacts

This dissertation project operates in collaboration with the ongoing
research of the Bern Digital Pantheon Project. Its objective is to analyse a
set of methodological criteria by which hypotheses and interpretations of
artefacts are justified. In many scientific and scholarly subjects,
hypotheses of real objects are the main type of investigation. While in the
natural sciences the determination of causal processes are dominant, in the
humanities objects created by individuals or groups of people are the
subject of investigation. Often, the intentions connected with the creation
of artefacts need to be determined in order to explain why the artefact has
its particular properties.
In the case of the Pantheon in Rome, the question of how the building was
ideally construed by its architects is a widely discussed issue. Does the
cupola circumscribe a hemisphere? If yes, why is the counterpoint of the
lowest point of the full sphere not a tangent on the floor of the building?
The geometrical figure intersects the floor and only significantly under the
floor level we find the virtual resting point of the construed ideal sphere.
Was this an intended feature of the building? If yes, was there a general
conception behind it, or was it just accidental?
These kinds of issues, which are representative of the wide range of
questions in the humanities, cannot be answered by referring to texts or
even comparable artefacts. Typically, the scholar faces situations where an
interpreting hypothesis must be developed without any direct historical
evidence.
The main objective of this dissertation is to develop methodological models
about the ways in which interpretation hypotheses for unique historical
artefacts, with no additional textual evidence, are justified. Second, where
competing hypotheses are available, which provides a better explanation?
The Pantheon shall act as the central case study. Currently available
alternative explanations concerning selected features of the building should
be chosen to illustrate the methodological conceptions. Other unique
artefacts can also be introduced into the study.

Project 'Cartography in Antiquity'

Our research team has prepared a new edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, which
will be published by Schwabe, Basel, this autumn. While our work has been up
till now primarily philological and historical, it forms the basis of a more
general question concerning cartography in antiquity: what were the
underlying primary data that were used for geographical maps and catalogues?
This project aims to provide an answer. For practical reasons we have
selected one geographical region as a test case: Asia Minor, with its
abundance of geographical and archaeological sources.

The peninsula of Asia Minor (that is, present-day Turkey up to the
Issus-Euphrates-Trapezunt line), which in Antiquity was the gateway between
East and West, was predestined for a broad scientific investigation into the
development of geographical data: there is a wealth of literary sources
(geographical literature, itineraries and maps) as well as archaeological
remains (streets, milestones and stadiasmoi) spanning a long period. In
addition, thanks to geographical and topographical conditions there exists a
broad spectrum of inhabited structures and trade routes.

Despite this wealth of data, very little research on the data has ever been
carried out; in particular, the many different kinds of data have never been
correlated, nor has any research been done on common characteristics or
errors.