Other projects at the institute
Citizen Science
Citizen Science - what is it?
The Department of Classics has made it its mission to promote the transfer of "science to the public". Michaela Zinko started with a school cooperation called "New Paths into Antiquity" and has been inspiring individual school classes with her workshops on the topic of antiquity for several years now.
Citizen Science goes one step further and brings pupils and interested parties into contact with all of the Institute's specialist areas and focal points through workshops, exhibition accompaniment and much more, and can be ideally integrated into lessons. Interested parties are also welcome to get in touch.
The versatile formats can be used for different school subjects and areas of interest.
Have we piqued your interest? Citizen Science compact at a glance
Restoring Styrian Roman inscriptions using optical measurement techniques
UFO: Unconventional Research in the Province of Styria PN 4067 (2025–2026)
Project leader: Gregor Diez
Research team: Matthias Diez, Andreas J. Ederer, Anton Skrinjar, Florian Wachter
One of the greatest challenges facing research into ancient history, particularly epigraphy, is making weathered or damaged ancient inscriptions legible again.
The project will test a combination of optical measurement techniques, in particular multispectral analysis and active thermography, and apply them to the restoration and reconstruction of damaged and/or heavily weathered inscriptions. The successful application of these unconventional methods would represent a significant breakthrough in historical research and would open up ancient inscriptions to new readings and interpretations.
Celtic divine names in southern Germania Superior and Raetia
FWF Individual Project PAT1134324 (2024–2027)
Project leader: Wolfgang Spickermann
Research team: Gregor Diez, Verena Reiter, Matthias Scholler
The collected Roman dedicatory inscriptions featuring Celtic deity names from the Roman provinces of Raetia and southern Germania Superior are examined and classified in terms of the dedicatory formulas and deity names used, from a linguistic, epigraphic-historical and iconographic perspectives, in order to draw conclusions about the religious beliefs of the population in these regions during the Roman Empire. The results are compiled in an online database and made publicly available alongside data from the two preceding projects on the study of Celtic divine names in the Germanic provinces, thereby establishing the project as a pioneer in the search for efficient methods for creating and maintaining a scholarly database.
Language of the Sideter
Internal university project (since 2011)
Project management: Michaela ZINKO
Cooperation with:
- Anadolu Üniversitesi, Eskişehir (Prof. Dr. Feriştah Alanyalı)
- Università di Verona (Prof. Dr. Alfredo Rizza)
Michaela Zinko: Sidetisch - an Indo-European small corpus language in Turkey. In: Ancient World 5 (2020), p. 6f.
Christian Zinko - Michaela Zinko: Sidetisch - an update on script and language. In: Hrozný and Hittite: The First Hundred Years. Proceedings of the International Conference Held at Charles University, Prague, November 11-14, 2015. edited by Ronald I. Kim, Jana Mynářová, and Peter Pavúk with the assistance of Dita Frantíková and Petr Zemánek. Brill 2020, pp. 416-432.