@csmc-hamburg.bsky.social
Cross-disciplinary research on written artefacts – from all periods and regions of the world @uni-hamburg.de. Home to the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts. https://www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/
Can synchrotron X-rays shed light on the material biographies of cuneiform tablets? In a recent study, CSMC and DESY researchers analysed artefacts from @mkghamburg.bsky.social and @stabihh.bsky.social. Their non-destructive method yielded encouraging results.
Open access!
Colleagues from our Ajami Lab have continued their work on the Jos Museum manuscript collection at the Kaduna Museum in Nigeria. They established cataloguing and research procedures for identifying Ajami, and reviewed conservation principles relevant to the entire collection
uhh.de/csmc-ajami
What impact did empires, both Ottoman and colonial, have on the culture and fate of Maghrebi book collections? Join us for Augustin Jomier's Gotha Manuscript Talk "At the Crossroads of Empires: North African Libraries in the 19th Century", 4 March, 6:15 CET.
@csmc-hamburg.bsky.social @inalco.fr
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"Magische Zeichen" und wie man sie entziffert sind das Thema der aktuellen Folge von Terra X. Wie sie die Rätsel lösen, vor die so manches Schriftartefakt die Forschung bisher stellte, erklären darin auch mehrere Wissenschaftler:innen des CSMC!
📺Sonntag um 19:30 im ZDF und in der Mediathek:
📢 Call for applicants!
We are delighted to announce the SIMS-CSMC Fellowship, set up with our colleagues @sims-mss.bsky.social. It supports innovative approaches to the study of manuscripts and includes time at SIMS in Philadelphia and at CSMC in Hamburg.
Apply by 1 May 2026!
More info:
Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin Vol. 11, Nos. 1-2 (2025) www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/en/comst/pub... @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social #openaccess @petertarras.bsky.social
Our colleague Stephan Seifert has completed his tenure process, congratulations! At our centre, the Chemist has led a project on the ‘Bioinformatic Profiling of Written Artefacts’, and he is a member of the Palm-Leaf Manuscript Profiling Initiative (PLMPI)
www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/news/2026-02...
✍️ Schrift ist eine geniale Erfindung: Durch sie lebt die Vergangenheit fort. Aber was, wenn die Schrift noch in Tonumschlägen steckt, die nicht zerstört werden sollen? Terra X hat dafür bei Forschenden des Exzellenzclusters „Understanding Written Artefacts“ am @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social nachgefragt.
Come and study with us!
Our renewed 2‑year MA Manuscript Cultures is now accepting applications until 31 March. The extended programme lets you develop a strong individual research profile while preserving the interdisciplinary approach to global written artefacts that defines our work at the CSMC:
This Wednesday, the DiPiKA Lecture Series on Manuscript Cultures continues with a talk by Yamuna K., who will talk about the 'Kerala School of Sanskrit Grammar and its Manuscript Legacy'. Join us online!
The talk starts at 10:30 am CET.
Using our mobile CT scanner ENCI, our researchers have produced a high-resolution 3D reconstruction of the well‑known Georgian manuscript MS 2058/1, the Sinai Lectionary.
This and more contributions from CSMC members are available in the latest open-access issue of ‘Digital Kartvelology’:
A worthwhile podcast also addressing the special situation here in Hamburg:
Now online: *Between Hamburg and Jerusalem*
A new digital exhibition traces the material remains of German-Jewish history in the early 20th century. It’s based on archives we digitised together with the National Library of Israel and was developed together with @igdjhh.bsky.social
One more week to submit nominations!
The J.P. Gumbert Dissertation Award honours the best PhD thesis on any aspect of manuscript studies defended in 2025. The winner receives 5,000 EUR and a fellowship at the CSMC
„Liest sich wie ein Theaterkrimi!“ Das neue Buch unserer Kollegin Laura-Maxine Kalbow erzählt die Geschichte der „Parsifal“-Inszenierung Alexander Zemlinskys am Neuen Deutschen Theater in Prag. Eine begeisterte Besprechung ist in Treffpunkt Klassik im SWR zu hören
www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/urn:...
We're looking forward to the first public talk at our centre in 2026! Tomorrow at 6:15 pm CET, LIAO Xiaoying (EPHE, Paris) will be discussing 'The Circulation and Influence of Traditional Law in the Sinographic Cosmopolis' with us.
Hybrid event, all welcome!
uhh.de/csmc-liao-xi...
Today is Handwriting Day, and we are celebrating it in a truly fitting manner: our new colleagues present their research in a flash talk marathon using 25 written artefacts. This marks the end of two intensive kick-off weeks in our new old cluster of excellence. More info here:
uhh.de/csmc-uwa2
Welcome back! Somewhere onboard this ship is our Container Lab, which was stationed in Puducherry, India, for the past 1.5 years to study historical palm-leaf manuscripts. It has now safely returned to Hamburg and is awaiting its next mission
Unfolding the multiple lives of a shipbuilding manuscript: Our first Artefact of the Month in 2026 is known as 'Fragments of Ancient English Shipwrighty' and reveals the interactions between mathematics and practice in the Scientific Revolution:
uhh.de/csmc-aom-35
How did the physical properties of materials like wax or clay shape acts of writing, rewriting, and erasure in the ancient Near East? These questions were at the heart of our joint workshop with the TabulaRasa project last year. Read the report here:
tabularasa.hypotheses.org/2612
Sources are the raw material of historical analysis, but their evidence is often qualitatively or quantitatively lacking – and sometimes entirely absent. The new volume of SMC explores the vast territory of missing evidence in the study of ancient cultures:
uhh.de/csmc-smc-50
Everyday writings, often following no fixed plan, are likely to account for the majority of all handwritten production in human history. The new volume of Studies in Manuscript Cultures explores how the practice of taking notes shapes written artefacts and vice versa.
Open access!
uhh.de/csmc-notes
In the historiography of the Silk Road, Central Asian peoples such as the Uyghurs have so far played only a minor role. Wrongly so, argues historian Márton Vér. In his @erc.europa.eu project, he turns the history of this complex supra-network on its head.
Interview:
uhh.de/csmc-silk-road
‘Pearls and corals’: the meaning of ‘Manipravalam’ is as poetic as this language is important to the history of South India. In our interview, Suganya Anandakichenin explains how she will deepen our understanding of it with her @erc.europa.eu Consolidator Grant:
uhh.de/csmc-manipra...
We can only return the thanks in full! Here’s to the next 50!
We’re celebrating a milestone today: 50 volumes of ‘Studies in Manuscript Cultures’! Join us for a look back at the series’ history and a glimpse into the newest volumes:
uhh.de/csmc-smc-jub...
Hybrid event, all welcome!
Almost all volumes are open access – plenty to read for the holiday season!
Starting tomorrow, we are hosting our last workshop of the year. We are literally ending 2025 with a home game: “Inscribing Domestic Space(s)” sheds light on writing practices within one’s own four walls from a global perspective.
Hybrid event, all welcome!
uhh.de/csmc-domesti...
Congratulations to Suganya Anandakichenin and Márton Ver! The two CSMC researchers have been awarded @erc.europa.eu Consolidator Grants today. Here’s what they plan to do with it: uhh.de/csmc-erc
#ERCCoG
Another update from our Ajami project: On his recent trip, Dmitry Bondarev visited the University of Maiduguri and the Centre for Kanuri Ajami and Qur’anic Studies to plan new initiatives for safeguarding the written heritage of North East Nigeria
uhh.de/csmc-unimaid
The new volume in our book series takes you to places of dirt, sweat, and physical labour: archives. Their material features have long been neglected by scholarship. Yet, they are crucial sites of human interaction with written artefacts.
Open access!
uhh.de/csmc-archives