NEWS GALLERY
A collection of JewsEast team member presentations or appearances in the news; some images are clickable.
Lunchbox Lecture: Medieval Yeghegis (Armenia): The Cosmopolitan Past of a Village
Lecture
22 January 2019 12:15 p.m. – 01:45 p.m.
CERES Palais, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13)
In August 2018 I organised a week-long research field trip to the village of Yeghegis in the Region of Vayots' Dzor, Armenia, co-sponsored by the ERC project JewsEast and my Innovators fund from RUB Research School. Archaeologists from the University of Florence, the University of Chieti (Italy), Erevan State University and the Armenian Academy of Sciences came together for a collaborative effort. Our purpose was to conduct a deep impact archaeological survey of the village of Yeghegis and explore the material context of its Jewish Cemetery.
The Cemetery constitutes unique evidence on a medieval Jewish community in Armenia for whom there is tantalizingly little written evidence. Our explorations of medieval cultural monuments within and outside the village indicated that it was once home to a multi-religious community and economically thrived due to its close distance from at least two way stations of the system of Silk Roads. In my talk I hope to transmit this cultural vibrancy, share the images of impressive landscapes and praise the hard work of archaeologist colleagues, as well as explain the importance of further research in this fascinating area.
Jewish Cemetery, Yeghegis, Armenia
The monastic tradition of the Beta Israel
02/13/18
3:30-4:30pm, HLCES room 128, Alsterterrasse 1, Hamburg
Bar Kribus and Sophia Dege-Müller of Ruhr Universität Bochum invite you to attend their informal talk, presenting the monastic tradition of the Beta Israel. Its roots go back to the 14th/15th century, and show some peculiar features when it comes to the social function of the monks, their interaction with the lay community, and the sacred architecture of their Synagogues and monasteries. The talk will focus on the past field season 2017, which had an archaeological focus, illustrating the research methods and present some preliminary results.
On Monday, 8th of August, Prof. Istvan Perczel of the JewsEast team spoke at the Centre for Contemporary Studies (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) about "A Forgotten Script from Ancient Kerala: Garshuni Malayalam”. Before the introduction of the predecessor of Modern Malayalam a number of scripts were used to note the Malayalam language. One of them was Garshuni (or Suriani) Malayalam, used by the Kerala Christian community.
Inauguration of the III International Kerala History Conference at CMS College in Kottayam, 24 November 2016 Ophira Gamliel lights the lamp with the eminent Kerala historian MGS Narayanan and the CMS College principal Sam Roy Daniel
Lecture
A Forgotten Script from Ancient Kerala Garshuni Malayalam
Centre for Contemporary Studies
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Prof. Istvan Perczel
Monday, 8 August 2016
4:00 pm
CCS Seminar Hall, IISc
Tea/Coffee will be served at 3.30 pm. All are cordially invited.
Before the introduction of the predecessor of Modern Malayalam a number of scripts were used to note the Malayalam language. One of them was Garshuni (or Suriani) Malayalam, used by the Kerala Christian community. Professor Perczel will give a short introduction about this script, and present some of the newly discovered documents written in it, such as historical records and the oldest, though forgotten, systematic dictionary of the Malayalam language.
About the speaker: Istvan Perczel is Professor of History at the Central European University Budapest and has been working closely with archivists and scholars in Kerala tracking down ancient texts that were not known to exist. This is changing our understanding of the language and people belonging to Christian communities in Kerala. He is now going on to extending his work to other minority communities as well.