23 research outputs found
Plenartagungsbericht der Forschergruppe B-II-2
Gegenstand und Ziele: Die Forschergruppe B-II-2 befasst sich mit regionalen
Milieus und der Macht des Staates in Ăgypten vom Alten Reich bis in Islamische
Zeit. Zum einen sollen die regionalen Strukturen als solche als gleichermaĂen
soziale wie spatiale Organisationsformen in ihrem eigenen Charakter und in
ihrer eigenen Dynamik in den Blick genommen werden. Zum andern soll der Rahmen
der betrachteten PhĂ€nomene ĂŒber den administrativ-ökonomischen Aspekt hinaus
insbesondere auf das Gebiet der Kultur und der Lebensformen ausgeweitet
werden. Dabei wird gemeinsam anhand verschiedener Fallstudien das VerhÀltnis
und die Wechselwirkung zwischen staatlich-administrativer Ordnung und dem
Handeln lokaler Eliten erforscht. Eine mehrfach wiederkehrende Komponente sind
dabei regionale Machthaber â wie BĂŒrgermeister, Pagarchen, Nomarchen oder
Lokalregenten, die an der Verwaltungsspitze der jeweiligen Region standen und
verschiedene Formen des Wissens generierten bzw. auf diese zurĂŒckgriffen,
insbesondere Erfahrungs- und Verwaltungswissen sowie Erinnerungswissen.
Methoden: Durch die LĂ€nge des zu erforschenden Zeitraumes (mehr als 4000
Jahre) können unterschiedliche Fallstudien nur nach Material und Methode
betrieben werden. Dabei stellen die beiden bereits genannten Bereiche des
Verwaltungswissens und des Erinnerungswissens die Methoden. Diskussionsstand
in der Forschergruppe: Die gemeinsamen Forschungen und Diskussionen innerhalb
von B-II-2 zeigten dabei zum einen das enorme Potential, das in dem
Rahmenthema steckt, machten zum anderen aber auch sichtbar, dass fĂŒr die
lĂ€ngsschnittartige, epochenĂŒbergreifende Betrachtung von PhĂ€nomenen bei völlig
unterschiedlichen QuellenĂŒberlieferungen eine Anbindung der Fragestellungen an
die spezifischen Theorieangebote unerlÀsslich war. Die Forschergruppe hat sich
in zahlreichen Diskussionen ĂŒber die theoretische Fundamentierung der in
B-II-2 zusammengefassten Einzelprojekte ausgetauscht, vor allem im Hinblick
auf die ĂŒbergreifende Thematik des Exzellenzclusters Topoi. Sie hat sich dabei
auf die oben geschilderte Auswahl von Methoden verstĂ€ndigt, sowohl fĂŒr die
laufenden Forschungen der einzelnen Mitglieder als auch fĂŒr die gemeinsamen
Ziele der Forschergruppe. Durch die personelle VerÀnderung der Gruppe und die
damit einhergehende Erweiterung des Fragenspektrums erwies sich insbesondere
die Aufnahme einer kulturwissenschaftlichen Diskussion ĂŒber Formen kultureller
Erinnerung als hilfreich.DarĂŒber hinaus bot auch die vom 4. bis 5. November
2010 von unserer Forschergruppe am Deutschen ArchÀologischen Institut
ausgerichtete internationale und interdisziplinĂ€re Konferenz »Village Egypt â
Continuity and Change in Regional Milieus in Egypt« weitere Gelegenheiten,
unsere Methodiken und Thematiken mit zahlreichen Kollegen umfassend zu
diskutieren und so das Forschungsprofil der Gruppe weiter zu schÀrfen
Lawâbooks, concomitant texts and ethnically framed legal pluralism on the fringes of postâCarolingian Europe: northern Italy and Catalonia around 1000
Around 1000, a new type of lawâbook emerged in Catalonia and northern Italy that attests to new ways of handling legal material. Incorporating in full the Visigothic and Lombard law codes, respectively, these lawâbooks provided a base for studying and interpreting old law through comments, glosses etc., addressing new users such as lay judges. By looking at the Catalonian Liber iudicum popularis and the north Italian Liber Papiensis in their manuscript contexts along with several revealing concomitant texts, the article seeks to demonstrate that these lawâbooks also need to be understood as reflecting a transformation of law brought about by the two regionsâ former belonging to the Carolingian empire. A manuscriptâbased approach can demonstrate how the local appropriation of preâCarolingian and Carolingian traditions contributed to the legitimization of postâCarolingian rule in both regions, whose legal cultures evolved quite differently despite numerous parallels and points of comparison
Fuzzy Borders
The Research Group »Fuzzy Borders« investigates the diverse qualities of
borders and boundaries in antiquity as well as corpuses of knowledge which are
effective in shaping the spatial design of borders. Its primary focus is on
border zones and on the kind of indistinct, fuzzy borderlines which become
visible and describable only against the background of concrete forms of
delimitation. Our research activities are divided into two project groups, the
first concerned with the formation and linear definition of borders, for
example in the form of town walls, the second concerned with their dissolution
and with border zones. The group is affiliated through Silke MĂŒth and Peter
Schneider with the DFG network of younger researchers entitled »Fokus
Fortifikation,« which is preoccupied with town walls and fortifications in the
eastern Mediterranean region. Incorporated into Research Area B (»Mechanisms
of Control and Social Spaces«), the project is designed to provide a
foundation for an improved understanding of the organization of social groups
and of states through an examination of their external borders. We are also
interested, finally, in instances where definitions of external borders are
renounced altogether and states are organized from the center toward outer
margins, for example, with the âședgeâč of a given territory remaining
undefined. Investigated on the basis of archaeological finds and textual
sources are transboundary social relationships, whose significance for the
transfer of knowledge currently forms the substance of discussions within our
research group
Autonomous robotic nanofabrication with reinforcement learning
The ability to handle single molecules as effectively as macroscopic
building-blocks would enable the construction of complex supramolecular
structures inaccessible to self-assembly. The fundamental challenges
obstructing this goal are the uncontrolled variability and poor observability
of atomic-scale conformations. Here, we present a strategy to work around both
obstacles, and demonstrate autonomous robotic nanofabrication by manipulating
single molecules. Our approach employs reinforcement learning (RL), which finds
solution strategies even in the face of large uncertainty and sparse feedback.
We demonstrate the potential of our RL approach by removing molecules
autonomously with a scanning probe microscope from a supramolecular structure
-- an exemplary task of subtractive manufacturing at the nanoscale. Our RL
agent reaches an excellent performance, enabling us to automate a task which
previously had to be performed by a human. We anticipate that our work opens
the way towards autonomous agents for the robotic construction of functional
supramolecular structures with speed, precision and perseverance beyond our
current capabilities.Comment: 3 figure
The Iberian Peninsula in the Imperial and Post-Imperial Context
This paper investigates the way in which technical and normative knowledge
relating to infrastructures, mobility and water management, which the Romans
began developing in the republican period, was functionalized for the purpose
of expanding the empire in the Iberian Peninsula, starting with the
establishment of Roman provincial rule and continuing into the Islamic epoch.
It also examines how that knowledge was entrenched in the individual Iberian
provinces, and adapted to reflect specific local features. In addition to
shedding light on how imperial concepts manifested themselves in the
appropriation of space in specific contexts, the example of the Iberian
Peninsula elucidates both how the knowledge in question was adapted to meet
âregional-politicalâ objectives once the imperial frame of reference fell away
and how it was ultimately restructured, modified and legitimized to reflect
overriding religious considerations. The paper also provides examples
indicating the degree to which antique concepts lent themselves to
transformation while simultaneously representing both a potential and a
challenge for any subsequent rulers
Kingdoms of the Empire, AD 608â616 Mediterrane KonnektivitĂ€t, SynchronitĂ€t und KausalitĂ€t als analytisches und darstellerisches Problem der FrĂŒhmittelalterforschung . Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters Band 22| Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 507. Band|
Verfassungsgeschichte im deutschen Kaiserreich: Wilhelm Sickel (1847â1929). Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters|Vergangenheit und VergegenwĂ€rtigung Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 373. Band|
Rechtliche Grundlagen frĂŒhmittelalterlicher Staatlichkeit: der allgemeine Treueid. Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters|Der frĂŒhmittelalterliche Staat Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 386. Band|
Kingdoms of the Empire, AD 608â616 Mediterrane KonnektivitĂ€t, SynchronitĂ€t und KausalitĂ€t als analytisches und darstellerisches Problem der FrĂŒhmittelalterforschung . Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters Band 22| Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 507. Band|
âBecause their patron never diesâ: ecclesiastical freedmen, socio-religious interaction, and group formation under the aegis of âchurch propertyâ in the early medieval west (sixth to eleventh centuries)
In the early medieval west, patronate, as adapted from Roman law, was a fundamental category in determining the legal status of freedmen. In many cases it entailed a basic set of obligations. In an increasing number of situations, however, the patron became an ecclesiastical institution, since slaves and freed persons were often given to churches and monasteries. As ecclesiastical institutions regarded their patronal rights over freed persons as part of inalienable church property, the patronal relationship became permanent and inheritable. In Eastern Francia (the Rhineland and beyond) this transformed ecclesiastical freedmen into religiously defined social groups with potentially distinct aims, religious tasks, and organizational structures, and a shared notion of freedom. From the Carolingian period onward, it even became attractive to enter voluntarily into this status. It is argued here that with its underlying network of socio-religious relations, patronate over ecclesiastical freedmen and censuales can be better understood when considered as an element of a âtemple societyâ