The Centre of Excellence studies the changing imperial dynamics of social group identities in the first millennium BCE Near East. The CoE is a multidisciplinary project, applying methods from digital humanities, sociology, archaeology, and cultural heritage studies. It asks how empires changed social group identities and lifeways over a millennium. The CoE contributes to a thorough understanding of the imperial impact on social groups, focusing on local and minority social group identities in a time of dramatic political change – the ancient Near East in the first millennium BCE (ca 900 BCE–70 CE). The CoE uses cross-disciplinary methods, studying the periods of Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, Parthian, and early Roman control, and aims to increase dialogue between ancient historians, archaeologists, and social scientists.

2023

2025