Welcome to “40,000 Years of Human Challenges: Perception, Conceptualization and Coping in Premodern Societies” – An interdisciplinary Top-level Research Area focusing on fundamental questions of humanity through the ages
Humankind has been continuously confronted with challenges to the well-being of individuals and to the stability and functioning of social structures. In recent decades, overpopulation, climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and unexpected wars have threatened the subsistence, the health, and the lives of millions of people around the globe. Challenges can be starting points of development and change, stagnation and progress, as well as success and failure. At least since the appearance of modern humans in Western Eurasia about 40,000 years ago, both individuals and communities have developed practices to cope with various forms of challenges. For a deeper understanding of present and future challenges and possible solutions, the diachronic and cross-cultural study of short- and long-term developments offers insightful data. Only such a long-term perspective makes it possible to identify patterns of action, continuity and change, as well as key factors in the perception, conceptualization and coping of challenges. For this reason, the interdisciplinary profile area focuses on three central research questions:
How do people perceive challenges?
How do you describe and conceptualize these challenges?
What strategies and practices are developed to cope with challenges?
Within the profile area, perception, conceptualisation, and coping are examined as essential, distinct, yet interconnected processes through which individuals and collectives engage with challenges. Using a praxeological approach, these processes are investigated in order to form coherent units of analysis in which historical, archaeological, and text-analytical methods and approaches can be productively combined and explored.
Top-level Research Areas at Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) pool internationally recognised excellent research. They bring together established research groups whose outstanding achievements over many years have significantly contributed to the visibility and competitiveness of JGU.
Within the framework of the Rhineland-Palatinate Research Initiative, funded by the Ministry of Science and Health, six Top-level Research Areas are currently supported. Selection took place through a highly competitive internal process coordinated by the Gutenberg Research College (GFK), JGU’s central institution for the promotion of excellent research.
Within the framework of the Rhineland-Palatinate Research Initiative, funded by the Ministry of Science and Health, six Top-level Research Areas are currently supported. Selection took place through a highly competitive internal process coordinated by the Gutenberg Research College (GFK), JGU’s central institution for the promotion of excellent research.
| Name | Dissertation theses | Department | TA |
| Matthias Heinemann M.A. | Coping with Life in Ancient Rome. Individual strategies for dealing with urban challenges reflected in the literature of the Late Republic and the Early Empire | Classical Philology | 3 |
| Alexandra Hilgner M.A. | Garnet in Early Medieval England. The meaning, provenance and distribution of garnet decorated objects from the late 5th to the early 8th century. | Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology | 2 |
| Sibel Kayan M.A. | Concepts and practices of ideal dying in Byzantinum (4th – 12th century) | Byzantine Studies | 1 |
| Jonas Mach M.Ed. | Die Konzeption des Feuers bei Aristoteles | Classical Philology | 2 |
| Maral Schumann M.A. | Dealing with the dead body: forms of burial and death ceremonies in pre-Islamic Persia | Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology | 1 |
| Danai Theodoraki M.A. | SEAFRONT | LEIZA | 2 |
| Name | Habilitation theses | Department | TA |
| Dr. Niklas Hausmann | SEAFRONT | LEIZA | 2 |
| Dr. Bianka Nessel | FRINGES – Research on the edge of intracultural border, influence and settlement areas | Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology | 3 |
| Dr. Stefan Schreiber | Das gemeinsame Werden von Menschen und Dingen. Archäologische Überlegungen zu materiellen Biopolitiken | LEIZA | 1 |
| Dr. Anne Sieverling | Versorgungsnetzwerke römerzeitlicher Städte | Classical Archaeology | 3 |
| Dr. Roland Zingg | Permanently questioned rule and its representation in the Liber historiae Francorum | Historical seminar | 4 |
In progress.
How have human individuals and communities dealt with different challenges in the past? The profile area seeks answers to this central question not only from the perspective of ancient studies, but especially with regard to current developments, such as migration and social change.
Therefore it is a main concern of the profile area to make the individual and collective research content visible beyond disciplinary and university boundaries and to establish a broad discussion.
- Manpreet Blessin M.Sc.
- Clara Brügner M.Ed.
- Nataliia Chub M.A.
- Luise Erfurth M.A.
- Dr. Yael Ecker
- Dr. Tobias Helms
- PD Dr. Michael Hölscher
- Professor Dr. Roland Imhoff
- Livija Ivanovaité M.A
- Elwira Janus M.A.
- Dr. Simone Kahlow
- Professor Dr. Fleur Kemmers
- Dr. Kerstin Kowarik
- Professor Dr. Claudia Lauer
- Sophie Lehmann M.Sc.
- Sina Lehnig M.A.
- Professor Dr. Klaus Lieb
- Dr. Merav Mack
- Dr. Carin Molenaar
- Verena Niebel M.A.
- Mag. Theol. Patrick Papenbrock
- Prof. Dr. Christopher Pare
- Professor Dr. Claudia Peter
- Professor Dr. Tanja Pommerening
- Dr. Louise Rohkohl
- Professor Dr. Aaron Schmitt
- Dr. Ulrike Steinert
- Professor Dr. Rolf van Dick
- Professor Dr. Vasiliki Tsamakda
- Professor Dr. Ursula Verhoeven-van Elsbergen
- Professor Dr. Annette Warner
- Miriam Zeug B.A.
Former scientific advisory board members
Based at the JGU Mainz, the Challenges profile area is supported by various partners in Rhineland-Palatinate and the Rhein-Main region; it also maintains a number of multi- and bilateral collaborations with diverse regional, national and international institutions. There is a particularly close interaction with the Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology (LEIZA) and its locations in Mainz and castle Monrepos/Neuwied, as well as the Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR) in Mainz. Further key components are the Archaeological Association Rhine-Main (Verbund Archäologie Rhein-Main [(VARM]), founded in 2016, and the Center for Ancient Languages and Scripts (Zentrum für Alte Sprachen und Schriften [ZASS]), launched in 2020, under whose framework intensive cooperation takes place between JGU, GU Frankfurt, TU Darmstadt, University of Applied Sciences Mainz, the Romano-Germanic Commission (Römisch-Germanische Kommission [RGK]) of the German Archaeological Institute in Frankfurt, and the state heritage offices and museums of the region. In addition, the profile area is in constant contact with numerous researchers around the world through its diverse research projects.
The Top-level Research Area “Challenges” is funded by the Rhineland-Palatinate Research Initiative.
