Oils and fats (Sumerian i3, Akkadian šamnum) fulfil basic human needs at the same level as food, housing, and clothes: since greasy substances are indispensable to protect the skin especially in an arid climate. The basic importance of oil and fat for a human culture is reflected most prominently in the masterpiece of Mesopotamian literature, the epic of Gilgamesh: after eating bread and drinking beer, the wild man Enkidu became a human man after having anointed himself. Anointing as a daily practice is well-known from Mesopotamian cuneiform sources, and archaeologically, the special vessels used for oil are widely distributed. Although oil is one of the most common processed products in Syro-Mesopotamia, such as beer, bread or wine, it has never been investigated as a product in its social and cultural context. This project evaluates first the exceptionally rich available textual evidence mostly from administrative archives, between c. 2500 and 1600 BCE, and discusses all kinds of animal fats (milkfat, lard, etc.) and vegetable oils (sesame, olive, rarely almonds) attested there. Building on previous studies on specific aspects of their terminology, production, circulation and use, this project’s goal is to provide an innovative coherent description of the successive steps (“chaîne opératoire”) from production to consumption as a whole, an approach which has not been systematically adopted for these periods. In particular, the management of oil in the urban centers is reflected in the enormous administrative record from early Syro-Mesopotamia, an exceptional source material to investigate economical procedures in their societal context at various selected historical situations. The project focuses on the precise information on the qualities of oil and, above all, on absolute and relative quantities indicated in the cuneiform documentation. This approach paves the way for an integration of the data from textual sources into archaeological, archaeometric, and archaeobotanic investigationsBoth applicants have worked and published on administrative texts, their terminology, and especially quantitative aspects. This project allows to combine the expertise in Sumerian documents (Early Bronze Age) of the German team with that in Old Babylonian (Middle Bronze Age) of the French team, and it integrates interdisciplinary cooperation partners for ceramic, archaeometric, archaeozoological and archaebotanic data. Two further approaches are embedded in this project as essential components: an archaeological study of oil-vessles, and a lipid residue analysis of ceramics from Southern Iraq. The digital expertise is provided by the IT Gruppe of LMU Munich. (2689 characters)

The project aims to examine the historical, cultural, formal and technical phenomenon of the proliferation of painted and sculpted ceiling decorations in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Germany and France lend themselves to this investigation: the numerous selective and various studies are to be systematised as a corpus in a comprehensive undertaking, and examined with the most up-to-date approaches. The moment is propitious: on both sides of the Rhine, database initiatives are being created and urgent need exists for a research project in order to develop common tools and to increase relevance and interoperability. This Franco-German cooperative project will not replace existing initiatives, but instead enrich them by creating fundamental conditions for joint reflection that will result in a portal for ceiling painting in France and Germany. In addition to the digital indexing of the decorative programs in the portal, the team will carry out in-depth research in the form of microhistories of twenty ceiling paintings that reflect the variety of typologies, patrons, the experimental nature of designs, the organisation of construction sites, the function of the decorations in their representation of power, the conditions of their visual effectiveness, and their role in the development of forms and discourses. Finally, 3D modelling of six extant or destroyed decorative programs will provide a field for experimentation in order to examine questions such as the transition from two to three dimensions (from design to execution). Such 3D modelling also ensures that the project appeals to a broad audience, thus fostering understanding of the designs among the general public. A series of workshops will accompany the entire process with strong and constant reflection. Our goals, therefore, are to create an online directory of the secular ceiling paintings executed in both countries through dialogue between two historiographic traditions that have been separated; to identify or create mutual tools for their description and online publication; to fill in chronological and geographic blind spots in their study; to develop questions on the basis of new scientific approaches; and to write a history of the interrelations between French and German ceiling paintings. The results will be the creation of an online portal that brings together the entire corpus; a detailed investigation of twenty case studies; a research notebook in the form of a blog; various events for the general public (virtual exhibition, presentation during the European Heritage Days); four thematic online publications; an international symposium and a publication resulting from it.

A European Leap? The History of EC/EU Environmental Policy, 1980–2000 (ELEMENT) investigates the rise of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors to become a highly influential actor on environmental issues. Today, many scholars claim that the EU’s powers in this field do not just supersede those of its member states but that it has even become the global regulatory leader (Bradford 2020; Hadjiyianni 2019). We need to test this claim about leadership with case studies and assess the reasons for this rise. To do so, ELEMENT addresses three specific issues: (1) how and why the European Communities (EC) and later the EU became more important in shaping environmental policies than its individual member states; (2) how European governance techniques changed with regard to (national) implementation and the monitoring of compliance and if the field saw a shift towards a more “neoliberal” approach, more lenient with polluters such as firms; (3) if the EC/EU indeed managed to acquire a globally leading role both in relation to other international organizations (IOs) and the United States, the long-time leader in this field. With these goals, ELEMENT seeks to overcome the separation between three research fields: (1) European integration history, (2) environmental history and (3) social science research on EC/EU environmental policy. These fields are hardly ever analyzed together, especially for the crucial period from 1980 to 2000. ELEMENT connects them through a series of case studies and conceptual innovation. It investigates the rising importance of EC/EU environmental policy through fresh multi-national research based on primary material. To do so, a Franco-German team of seven persons will be constituted. The two PIs have an extensive track-record in research on the history of EC/EU economic, social and to some extent of environmental policies and in international research cooperation. Four PhD researchers will work on projects covering complementary case studies (carbon tax & car emission in Paris; water pollution & the “greening” of the CAP in Munich). The team will also include C. Bonneuil, an expert in the history of science, technology and the environment. The advisory board is composed of specialists of European environmental policies (from history and the social sciences) and on other European states, complementing the PIs’ expertise. The Franco-German added value is two-fold: ELEMENT seeks to bridge the gap between the three separate literatures mentioned above. Beyond the French and German cases, which are essential for the project, ELEMENT will serve as a launchpad for wider international research. The research team adopts an integrated approach with regular meetings and workshops in both countries, joint archival trips, publications and dissemination events. Overall, ELEMENT will create new knowledge on a highly topical issue and will foster international and interdisciplinary dialogue in an area where it has been missing so far.