Research Projects
- (B-2-1) Roms "Größe" – von Großbaustellen, megalo-manen Bauprojekten und der Normalität kaiserlicher Bautätigkeit
This project explored the question of what factors led to an imperial building project being judged as megalomaniacal or not. The research project then focused particularly on Imperial Rome and builds on the Palatine Hill project (DAI).
- (B-2-2) Monumentality as policy? The organization and function of oversized building projects in the ancient East
This project investigated the function(s) of oversized building projects in the Ancient Near East. Research was conducted into the logistical and economical aspects involved in implementing large-scale building projects and references the cuneiform archives of the 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC and the monumental expansion of the city of Babylon that took place under the reign of king Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC).
- (B-2-3) Big buildings – big architecture? The cultural significance of size in the architecture of the ancient Near East
A striking characteristic of many ancient Near Eastern buildings is their vastly oversized dimensions. Based on examples of early monumental buildings in Uruk (Southern Iraq, late 4th to late 3rd millennium BC) and on the Roman Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek (Lebanon), the project involved the quantification of expenditures for building materials and organization, as well as the translation of the results to terms of economy. These examples contributed to the discussions of research group (B-2-) XXL – Monumentalized Knowledge on the definition of monumentality at various times and in diverse parts of the world, the addressees, and the implicit conceptions of space.
- (B-2-4) Scythian tombs – between monumentality and gigantomania
Taking as its starting point excavated and well documented burial mounds (large-scale kurgans), this project explored the phenomenon of monumentality in the tombs of the Eurasian Steppes, as well as the tombs’ cultural, social and spatial impact. This phenomenon is examined from a broader, interregional perspective, taking into account the greatest possible number of noteworthy and researchable burial mounds from below the Danube up to the Yenisei.
- (B-2-5) The ritual landscape in the area of the royal tomb of Seddin in the Prignitz
This project deals with the Late Bonze Age Royal Tomb of Seddin, which is one of the few elite tombs with a monumental architecture. Within this project the entire composition of the tomb, the reasons for the monumentalisation, the technical realisation and the choice of its location within the whole area are examined.
- (B-2-6) The borders of Rome
The goal of this project was to determine what qualities the boundaries of ancient Rome possessed, and to comment on those qualities in a monograph.
- (B-2-7) Resafa-Sergiupolis – Rusafat Hisham/Syria. Large Technical Infrastructure
Focus of this project was on questions concerning the water-management and the historic land-use of the archaeological site Resafa in North-Syria.
Dissertation
- (B-2-1-1) The Medialization of Monumentality. The Representation of the Greatness of Rome in the Post Classical Period in two and three-dimensional Media
The project examines the formation of visualisations of Rome and its monumentality throughout the 19th century in terms of their systematic, genre-specific and media-historical development. There are various questions Sylva van der Heyden attempts to answer in her dissertation: What are the different forms of visualisation that gave an impression of Rome and its greatness? How were these visualisations noticed and used? Does the observer need to experience the whole city – as in painted panoramas and city models – or do selected monuments and views create the monumentality of Rome as well?
Third-party Funded Projects
- (B-2-8) The Socio-political Production of Minoan and Mycenaean Architecture. An Energetic Perspective
The Minoan and Mycenaean socio-political systems share many trends due to the interactions between their respective societies, but the archaeological record also testifies marked differences. This research project investigated the processes at play in the development of these distinct socio-political systems by focusing on the management of architectural production and by quantifying the impact of monumental architecture on these societies.
- (B-2-9) Energetics Calculator for Ancient Buildings
This project examines cost-calculation-algorithms which can be applied to the volumes of ancient architecture to explore the temporal, material or energetic ‘cost’ of the steps of that process. Up to now this has been done on an ad-hoc basis, with scholars finding appropriate comparisons. Within this project an online interactive interface where scholars enter volumetric data from their research is developed.