With the support of the FWF, a team of archaeologists from the Czech Republic and Austria evaluated early medieval finds from the region around the modern-day border between the two countries. As it turns out, the regions of Weinviertel and Moravia enjoyed close exchanges for centuries and benefited from being at the periphery of regional […] Continue reading “The border area as a space for innovation”
Constantinople in 1252 AD: an extremely learned theologian — a member of the newly founded Dominican Order, a talented linguist and a master of Eastern church studies — writes a voluminous Latin treatise Against the Greeks, a treasure trove of information about the Greek church and theology of his time not just for his local […] Continue reading “In the Silicon Valley of medieval research”
The minutes of the meetings of the Habsburg Monarchy’s Council of Ministers were largely decimated by the 1927 fire at the Palace of Justice in Vienna. Historians are piecing together step by step the records that did survive. Most recently their work focused on the years between 1914 and 1918. The issue of food shortages […] Continue reading “Welfare state born out of crisis”
In antiquity, the Mediterranean area was a pre-global mega-region with a lively exchange system. Supported by the FWF, a research team from Innsbruck is reconstructing the influence that imports and innovations from coastal towns, where newly arrived Greek settlers lived, had on local power structures further inland at a cult site on Monte Iato in […] Continue reading “Looking for clues in the remnants of feasts”
The archaeologist Barbara Horejs on the vagaries of history, on why migrants from the Orient brought crop cultivation to Europe and why one should never assume that one’s own civilisation will last forever. Continue reading ““The cradle of civilisation is found in the Orient””
The Vienna State Opera is an institution, an icon of high culture, far removed from everyday concerns. Or is it? With the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a research team from Vienna examined the interaction between prevailing political contexts and the opera house’s programme. Continue reading “Opera and politics”
The First World War in Eastern Europe entailed completely different wartime experiences than those seen on the Western or Italian Front. This had a major impact on the images of the “East” discussed in the interwar period. This is the finding of a project carried out at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the […] Continue reading “Nothing quiet on the Eastern Front”