Open call for proposals in the fourth subprogram

Space is a fundamental dimension of the lifeworld and thus also a basic condition of human culture; spatiality and conceptions of space underlie individual life practices, social relationships, and political orders. Although “space” is rooted in natural or physical conditions, cultural theory has moved away from conceiving of space as a given, unchanging, and absolute entity. On the contrary, space is conceptualized as a sociological category insofar as it is constantly reproduced through social action and thus both reflects and shapes power relations, social conditions, and class structures. The project examined the sociocultural significance of spatial arrangements in selected social institutions, practices, behaviors, and attributions of meaning in ancient European, ancient Near Eastern, and precolonial Indian cultures, addressing the comparative question of how human living space is subjected to a structure through the drawing of physical or performative boundaries—a structure that reflects social, political, and cultural concepts of order but also generates them itself in a reciprocal process.

Publications resulting from the project:

• S. Schmidt-Hofner, C. Ambos, P. Eich (eds.), Spatial Planning, Norms, and Law in the Historical Cultures of Europe and Asia. Heidelberg Conference (2011). Heidelberg 2016.
• Peter Eich, *The Common Denominator: Late Roman Imperial Bureaucracy from a Comparative Viewpoint*. To be published in 2014 in W. Scheidel (ed.), *State Power and Social Control in Ancient China and Rome*. Proceedings of the conference of the same name held in Stanford (2008). Oxford University Press.
• Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, “Thinking Politics Spatially: Herodotus’s Three Parties in Attica and the Political Imaginary of the Greeks,” in *Historische Zeitschrift*, vol. 299, 2014, pp. 623–661.
• Claus Ambos, “Temporary Ritual Structures and Their Cosmological Symbolism in Ancient Mesopotamia,” in D. Ragavan (ed.), *Heaven on Earth: Temples, Ritual, and Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World*. Oriental Institute Seminars 9. Chicago 2013, 245–258.
• Claus Ambos, “Rituals Associated with the Demolition and Reconstruction of a Temple,” in: K. Kaniuthe et al. (eds.), Temples in the Ancient Near East: 7, International Colloquium of the German Oriental Society, October 11–13, 2009. Munich. Wiesbaden 2013, 19–31.
• Claus Ambos, “Mesopotamian Construction Rituals from the 1st Millennium B.C.E. – Additions and Corrections,” in: Claus Ambos and Lorenzo Verderame (eds.), Approaching Rituals in Ancient Cultures: Questioni di rito: Rituals as a Source of Knowledge about Religions and Worldviews in Ancient Cultures. Proceedings of the Conference, November 28–30, 2011, Rome. Supplement No. 2 to the Rivista degli Studi Orientali, New Series LXXXVI. Pisa/Rome 2013, 17–38.
• Claus Ambos, “Rites of Passage in Ancient Mesopotamia: Changing Status by Moving through Space: Bı¯t rimki and the Ritual of the Substitute King,” in Claus Ambos and Lorenzo Verderame (eds.), Approaching Rituals in Ancient Cultures: Questioni di rito: Rituali come fonte di conoscenza delle religioni e delle concezioni del mondo nelle culture antiche. Proceedings of the Conference, November 28–30, 2011, Rome. Supplement No. 2 to the Rivista degli Studi Orientali, New Series LXXXVI. Pisa/Rome 2013, 39–54.
• Claus Ambos, *The King in Prison and the New Year Festival in Autumn: Mechanisms of Legitimacy for the Babylonian Ruler in the 1st Millennium B.C. and Their History*. Dresden 2013.
• Peter Eich, “Political and Administrative Structures in Severan Rome,” in: N. Sojc et al. (eds.), *The City and the Palace in Severan Rome*. Stuttgart 2013, 85–104.
• Peter Eich, “Spotlight, Schema, Series: Attempts to Explore Everyday Religious Life in Late Roman Cologne,” in P. Eich and E. Faber (eds.), Everyday Religious Life in Late Antiquity. Stuttgart 2013, 201–223.
• Claus Ambos, “Ritual Paths at Babylonian Royal Seats,” in: F. Arnold et al. (eds.), Places of Rule: Characteristics of Ancient Centers of Power. People – Cultures – Traditions: Studies from the Research Clusters of the German Archaeological Institute, Vol. 3. Rahden, Westphalia, 2012, 139–147.
• Peter Eich, “Center and Periphery: Administrative Communication in Roman Imperial Times,” in St. Benoist (ed.), *Rome, a City and Its Empire in Perspective: The Impact of the Roman World through Fergus Millar’s Research*. Leiden, et al., 2012, 85–108.
• Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, “Trajan and Symbolic Communication During Imperial Visits to Rome in Late Antiquity,” in R. Behrwald and Chr. Witschel (eds.), Historical Memory in the Urban Space: Rome in Late Antiquity. Stuttgart 2012, 33–59.
• Peter Eich, Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, Christian Wieland (eds.), The Recurring Leviathan: Statehood and the Formation of the State in Late Antiquity and the Early Modern Period. Heidelberg 2011. Verlag Winter.

Conferences, workshops, and seminars organized as part of the project:

• Conference “Normative Spatial Orders in Ancient Cultures” (PDF)(March 9–11, 2011, Heidelberg).
• Ph.D. Student Colloquium“Space and Boundaries in Cultural Studies Theory”Winter Semester 2008/09, in cooperation with the Heidelberg Research Training Group “Spaces, Images, Ways of Life”

Fellow students:

• Assistant Professor Dr. Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner
• PD Dr. Claus Ambos

Associate Project Partner

Prof. Dr. Peter Eich