Communal Art - Reconceptualising Metrical Epigraphy Network

Project Information

CARMEN

Grant agreement ID: 954689

DOI

10.3030/954689

Project closed

EC signature date 3 September 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 September 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 2 825 876,88

EU contribution

€ 2 825 876,88

Coordinated by

JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITAT MAINZ
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CARMEN (Communal Art - Reconceptualising Metrical Epigraphy Network)

Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Until November 2024, eleven doctoral students were trained in the "Communal Art - Reconceptualising Metrical Epigraphy Network" (CARMEN). Ancient historians, philologists, and archaeologists research on poetry as part of Roman everyday culture in the Latin language. We studied verses inscribed on funerary monuments of stone as well as on other objects like votives or in monuments like the Christian churches of late antiquity. Such poetic inscriptions document social relations, developments of language, and characterize aesthetic notions in Rome and the provinces from the third century BCE to the seventh century CE.

The research and training group consisting of the ESRs, the supervisors and co-supervisors focused on different subjects and editorial undertakings of Carmina Epigraphica Latina with three objectives: 1) Identification of regional specifics and conditions for the production and display of verse inscriptions in the Roman Empire and its immediate successors from c. 300 BCE to 600 CE. 2) Laying foundations for an inclusive perspective of societal diversity based on a deeper understanding of the connection between Roman poetry and its visualised cultural expressions. 3) Analysing aesthetic standards in historical and contemporary contexts.

The widespread notions of hierarchies of art and aesthetic standards are one of the last bastions of an exclusive and colonial view on human abilities that CARMEN attacks at its very heart: Roman art production. Poems and their musical counterpart, songs, are profoundly democratic by nature – in ancient and modern cultures alike. Our CARMEN research project is part of an academic and societal discourse about the forms of expressions, practices, relevance and esteem of popular culture. Focusing on this artistic folklore of the Roman Empire, the results of CARMEN have contributed to the scientific basis for an inclusive, decolonialised discourse about art and aesthetics. Therefore, our results have already fostered and will continue to promote a discussion of notions of quality, beauty and evaluation criteria independent from the social class of authors and artists.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In 2021, eleven ESRs from six countries started their research projects at eight European institutions and universities. Despite the pandemic situation and some small delays and postponements, we finally implemented the planned activities during the two periods starting from the conceptual planning required for coordination to continuous monitoring, from individually tailored career mentoring and to diligent and intense research supervision until final submission.

We achieved our goals: nine of eleven ESRs submitted their PhD theses in 2024, two more will submit early in 2025. The ITN-management at JGU Mainz documented all steps from recruiting, training units and internships of 2 months for the ESRs to submission and publishing of their PhD-theses. In addition to the systematic undertaking of the 11 ESR-monographs and databases, the supervisors continued to research and publish on our main three subjects as well, 1) regional specifics and conditions of display, 2) perspectives of societal diversity, 3) aesthetic standards. The output of these four years of funding for research into the Carmina Latina and the way they are integrated into society and contextualised is enormous. This is documented on our website. https://carmen-itn.eu/ promotes the CARMEN project and the ESRs and documents all our activities and achievements (societal as well as scientific). Continuous reports in our newsletters inform a broader public about training events, ESR’s initiatives and presentations. All workshops, seminars, conferences and individual supporting and training activities are documented on the website and can be traced in the EU reporting portal. These activities were concentrated on the following topics: a) text editions (Sevilla 2021; Berlin 2022; Vienna 2022, Sevilla 2024); b) digital skills (Rome 2022; London 2022); c) cultural heritage (Mérida 2021; Madrid 2022; Trier 2024); d) aesthetics of poetry transmission (Rome 2022); e) diversity, communication and intercultural competence (Kiel 2020; Dijon 2023; Tunis 2023).

Due to the restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, we had to be creative in finding alternatives to our planned outreach activities and our dissemination and communication efforts. We have produced videos, have published a nicely illustrated newsletters on a regular basis and short articles in an EU-journal for a broad audience.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Nine ESRs have submitted their respective PhD-thesis and all eleven ESRs have presented parts of their results on international conferences and project-related workshops. Working papers of ESR-presentations and first publications in edited volumes are published open access. One poster was presented at the International Epigraphy Conference of AIEGL (Bordeaux, 2022). The project coordinator has presented the CARMEN project and the potential of its overall question and individual research projects at several occasions; publications on the objectives and results of CARMEN, as well as further research, have been published by the coordinator and supervisors, with more to follow.

The results of our innovative research have contributed significantly to a better understanding of this body of texts as a form of expression of individuals and social groups. Individual studies on gender, military personnel and dignitaries of the Christian church have made significant progress in developing a greater sensitivity to regional, cultural and social characteristics of the Roman empire from the first to the late fifth century. Our text editions and commentaries on parts of Roman North Africa and selected texts from the city of Rome will facilitate further cutting-edge research on ‘popular’ poetry in the future.

Apart from this exciting task and society-relevant issue of the CARMEN subject and of the individual ESR projects, an essential goal was to train eleven excellent young people for a tomorrow's Europe. For this purpose, they all had a two-month internship for career perspectives outside academia. In addition, they were supported in three areas: 1) specific research qualification; 2) academia-related qualification; 3) acquiring and developing transferable skills including support in individual career planning.

Apart from the first PhD theses of the ESRs published online in 2024, we can highly recommend reading our newsletter, which is incredibly stimulating, reflects the team's fun of working together, its scientific curiosity and its European-international sense of community. The societal impact is obvious: our ITN Carmen has contributed to the very roots of European cultural heritage and will help to establish a contem¬porary, non-elitist, tolerant European view on our culture, both ancient and modern.

University of Trier, ESRs, supervisors, advisors and participants, CARMEN seminar-conference 4

University of Sevilla, ESRs, supervisors and participants, CARMEN seminar 5/6 Nov. 2021