The National Science Centre of Poland has announced the results of two grant competitions: OPUS 29 and PRELUDIUM 24. Among the applications selected for funding are three projects that will be carried out at the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw.
Two projects in the PRELUDIUM competition concern inscriptions, although approached from entirely different perspectives. Tomasz Barański will carry out the project “Arabic paper documents and ostraca from Polish excavations in Old Dongola (Sudan): Contextual and participatory research.” Over more than sixty years of excavations in Old Dongola, around fifty Arabic paper documents and thirty inscribed objects have been discovered, including fragments of vessels, wooden and stone artefacts, and even eggshells. The texts derive from everyday life rather than from official inscriptions, thus shedding light on the culture, economy, and beliefs of the inhabitants of Nubia between the 14th and the 18th centuries. The project constitutes the first comprehensive study of these sources.
(PRELUDIUM 24; PLN 144,929)
Another award winner is Adrianna Kinga Gizińska. Her project is entitled “For a long time, inscriptions were the scholars’ favourite plaything”. The place of Latin inscriptions in peripheral Central European collections and museums – a case study of monuments preserved in Polish holdings.” The project concerns Latin inscriptions from the Roman period that are now held in Polish museum collections. Its aim is to analyze these inscriptions as “objects with a history”: where they come from, who collected them, why they were purchased, and how they were presented and interpreted over the centuries. The outcome will include critical studies of both the inscriptions themselves and the collecting and museum practices associated with them.
(PRELUDIUM 24; PLN 193,314)
The third project selected for funding was submitted in the OPUS 29 competition by Marina Sartori. Her research project, “All the king’s painters: Chaîne opératoire and agency in Middle Kingdom Theban burial chambers” focuses on this often overlooked period in the history of ancient Egypt. At the centee of the project is Tomb no. 240 (TT 240), located in the Northern Asasif necropolis, the burial place of Meru, a high-ranking official from around 2000 BCE. By studying tombs from the Theban necropolis, the researcher seeks to understand not only how their decorations were created, but also what they reveal about the people who produced them.
(OPUS 29; PLN 1,089,203)
Congratulations to all the grant recipients!