Gegenstand des Projekts sind die Konzeptionen der Großstadt des spätantiken Rhetors Libanios (314-393 n.Chr.) und seines mutmaßlichen Schülers Johannes Chrysostomos (ca. 349-407 n.Chr.) in ihrer Relation zum urbanen Kontext. In derselben Stadt, Antiochia, und einem vergleichbaren sozialen Milieu entwerfen beide Autoren ungefähr gleichzeitig ihre Vorstellungen davon, wie eine Stadt konstituiert, strukturiert und gestaltet wird und wie sie sich entwickeln sollte. Neben zahlreichen Übereinstimmungen in den literarisch entworfenen Bildern Antiochias zeigen sich gravierende Divergenzen nicht nur in den religiösen Aspekten, sondern auch in politischen, sozialen und kulturellen. Während Libanios seine Heimatstadt als eine Art System entwirft, dessen Stabilität nur durch die Rückwendung auf die Tradition und klare Differenzierungen garantiert werden kann, arbeitet Johannes auf eine tiefgreifende Veränderung der religiösen und kulturellen Verfassung sowie der Wahrnehmung der Stadt hin. Beiden Autoren geht es darum, den eigentümlichen Charakter Antiochias zu erfassen und durch ihre rhetorischen Konstruktionen diese städtische Identität zu gestalten und festzulegen.

Im Rückgriff auf Kategorien der Stadtsoziologie und der Philosophiegeschichte wird analysiert, welche Faktoren die Herausbildung zweier konträrer Stadtkonzepte in demselben urbanen Kontext bedingten. Es zeigt sich, dass die Charakteristika der beiden Positionen nur dann verständlich werden, wenn man sie kontextualisiert, d. h. in die jeweiligen Gesprächslagen und die aus Personen, Institutionen und dem Stadtraum bestehenden Konstellationen stellt. Ohne dass einem Determinismus durch den Raum das Wort geredet werden soll, macht das Projekt sichtbar, wie intellektuelle Positionen durch den Stadtraum in seinen verschiedenen Dimensionen (städtebauliche, soziale, politische Struktur, Praktiken der Bewohner) hervorgebracht und geformt werden. Ebenso wird aber dargestellt, wie diese Positionen wiederum auf den Stadtraum, das Verhalten der Menschen in ihm und die Wahrnehmung der Stadt einwirken. Gerade der von der bisherigen Forschung nur ansatzweise unternommene Vergleich der Haltungen des Libanios und des Johannes zu Antiochia vermag deutlich zu machen, dass zwischen Stadtraum und Stadtkonzepten eine Interdependenz besteht. Die Untersuchung rekonstruiert damit die zwei maßgeblichen Beiträge zu einem Diskurs, der in der zweiten Hälfte des vierten Jahrhunderts intensiv geführt wurde, während sich Antiochia durch Umbrüche und Transformationen immer deutlicher zu einem christlich dominierten Gemeinwesen entwickelte.

The area under investigation is the region around Aleppo, within a radius of about 30-35 kilometres. It is defined by the Turkish border to the north, by the Nahr edh-Dhahab valley – i.e. the western part of the Jabbul plain – to the east, by the Matah/al-Madkh region – the marshy area where the Nahr al-Quwayq disappears – to the south and by the Afrin river valley and the Jebel Sim’an to the west and the north-west.

The project is divided into an historical-philological part and an archaeological part. All textual materials, especially of historical-geographical interest, have been gathered and analysed in order to identify – whenever possible – the ancient name(s) of the archaeological sites and their change in toponymy during different ages. The purpose of the historical study based on the ancient sources is to better understand the role of the large Syrian city as a regional capital and as a religious reference point for succeeding cultures, from the early Syrians to the Amorites to the Luwians and the Aramaeans. Concerning the archaeological aspect, one of the most important goals of the project is to determine how the density and the patterning of settlement changed through time. In parallel, the geoarchaeological investigation aims at reconstructing the spatial environment and assessing human adaptation to natural conditions in the region of Aleppo.

The studied area has been the object of some previous survey projects, but no systematic survey of the Aleppo region has hitherto been performed. The result of this is that we have historical-geographical, geoarchaeological and archaeological information on the region only at specific “points”. In particular there is no general picture of the area for the four most interesting historical phases in which it was the focus of settlement:

a) the Early Bronze Age, i.e. the period of the flourishing of Ebla;

b) the “Yamkhad period” (Middle Bronze II) of which much more is known from the textual evidence than from the archaeological materials;

c) the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition period, which however is archaeologically known in more detail than the previous ones;

d) the period of Neo-Assyrian domination and its Neo-Babylonian appendix which presents specific archaeological problems relevant to the definition of the ceramic horizons involved.

Therefore the data from previous surveys require important integrations so as to gain a full picture of the studied area., At the same time, they are extremely useful as benchmarks for the data obtained during our research.

To obtain a general vision of the settlement patterns within the chosen region, the possible archaeological sites were identified on the CORONA images (September 30th, 1969), on Google Earth – which is developed from high resolution satellite images, which are very useful in identifying ways to access the sites, other topographic features and in charting the agricultural exploitation of the territory – and on the topographic maps (scale 1:50000).

The most relevant preliminary result is probably the conclusion that the environs of Aleppo are characterized by a series of empty and full spaces for settlement, or, from another point of view, by lines of dense anthropic presence and total absence of sites in pre-Hellenistic Antiquity. This pattern responds primarily to three convenience requirements: proximity of water sources, availability of resources, strategic position. The region under investigation looks very promising for the exploration of second rank, smaller, possibly rural sites in the hinterland of Aleppo, an aspect of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement structure often neglected by research.

Christoph Konrad: Resafa-Ruṣāfat Hišām. Die Quṣūr (FP 106 und FP 220) in der Residenz des Kalifen Hišām b. ʿAbd al-Malik. Architektur und Baudekor – Ausgrabung, bauhistorische Analyse, archäologisch-kunsthistorische Einordnung

The tenth Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (105-125/724-743) decided to take his residence in Resafa-Sergiupolis persumably in the thrid year of his reign. There he spent all the 19 years of his rule, which ‘…marks the final period of prosperity and splendour of the Umayyad caliphate’ (Gabrieli, EI2 sv. Hisham). Resafa was a Late Antique city of pilgrimage, 25 km south of the river Euphrates.

In correlation to his founder, the new residence is named in the Arabic sources Rusafat Hisham. In an area of about one sq. km many small and a view bigger and more important buildings (qusur) have been erected as well as building structures aiming to collect and use the surface water of the rain falls, which occur in the arid area just in winter times. The project is dealing with two of the more important buildings in the residence of the caliph Hisham. These buildings could be studied during a research and excavation project of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) under the directorate of D. Sack in the last years. The buildings show a later stage of development of the Umayyad qasr. The living rooms are no longer orientated to the main courtyard of the building but to different side courtyards. This may be caused by a change of social behaviour. The situation of one of the qusur above a wadi, its rich decoration with stucco and wall paintings and a pleasure garden in the back of the main hall already shows the most important elements of the Islamic palace buildings of later times.

The PhD-project will bring profound knowledge about the main buildings in this Early Islamic ‘Central Place’.