Research Areas

The project`s core will be formed by a complete documentation and preliminary study of all artefacts of the Jehan Zaib Collection. The defined research areas will allow the contextualization of the objects in the broader context of north-western culture, including epigraphy and paleography, literature, art, and archeology. Our approach and the definition of the research areas is determined by the following assumptions:

1. The documents are representatives of an administrative culture that is determined by a specific social, economic, and cultural environment and based on a juridical and administrative tradition.

            Research Area 1: Texts

Administrative structures and terminology in inscriptions and literatures from the Indian North-West

2. The documents are material artefacts that have to be explored with regard to their materiality in comparison with the broader background of Indian written culture in the second half of the first millennium CE.

            Research Area 2: Visual organization and materiality

Epigraphy, paleography, and codicology of Proto-Śāradā

3. The items of the collection have to be studied with regard to their material context that is defined by archeology and art history.

            Research Area 3: Contexts

Written objects in the historical and cultural setting