Science in dialog: International kick-off conference “Stone Witnesses Digital”

From September 8 to 11, 2024, SZd hosted renowned scientists from seven countries for the kick-off conference in Essen.

The international conference “Jewish Cemeteries in Premodern Europe: Interdisciplinary Perspectives” aimed to contextualize the work of the project from various perspectives. The opening lecture “Lapidary Exuberance: European Variations on the Baroque Style in Hebrew Inscriptions” was given by Professor Carsten Wilke from the Central European University in Vienna. The sections of the following days were dedicated to the material tradition, the status of digital documentation in various European countries and the perspective of monument preservation and archaeology. Several lectures dealt with the inscription texts, for example with intertextual references or their significance for the history of mentality. In addition, the role of historical domains for the relationship between the settlement network and the cemetery network as well as the contribution of the archival tradition were examined. By bringing the various specialist disciplines together in this way, the conference was able to gain new insights into the source value of cemeteries for the Jewish history of Central Europe in the early modern period.

You can find the conference program here and a selection of pictures here.