Dr. Marcin Kotyl from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, has been awarded a research fellowship from the Bekker NAWA Programme for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cologne.
As part of the fellowship, Dr. Kotyl will work on his project “Musical instruments in Graeco-Roman Egypt: A papyrological and archeological perspective” under the supervision of Prof. Charikleia Armoni from the Department of Classics at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
The aim of his project is to investigate selected issues related to musical instruments in Graeco-Roman Egypt based on the papyrological evidence combined with archaeological artifacts. The research will cover several topics, including 1) the frequency in which instruments appear in our evidence as a potential indicator of their (un)popularity 2) regional and temporal variety, including the question about instruments specific to a given region and period 3) purposes and occasions in which the instruments were used 4) social environments and the status of their users 4) identification of instruments characteristic or even exclusive to a given sex 5) the physical appearance of the instruments and their various lexicography. Answers to the specific questions will lead us to reassess the broader question of socio-cultural Greek, Roman and Egyptian influences on the shape, type, function, adoption, etc., of the instruments in Egypt at that time.
The Bekker NAWA programme aims to support international mobility for PhD students, scientists, and academic teachers by enabling them to carry out research internships in selected foreign institutions for a period ranging from three to 24 months. For more information about the program see link.