On the trail of tagin and otijjot meshunnot
What do crowns on Hebrew letters connect with research data management?
The project ‘Materialized Holiness’, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) aims to provide answers. In this project, medieval Torah scrolls are being studied in an interdisciplinary research collaboration with participation of Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC).
Together with experts from Jewish Studies and the Social Sciences from the Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin) and Materials Research from the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), a digital repository of knowledge is built up that does justice to the complexity of this research subject. Unlike copies of the Bible, for example, the copying of sacred scrolls has been governed by strict regulations since antiquity, so every deviation in the typeface raises exciting research questions. The focus is not only on crowns (tagin) and ornaments (otijjot meshunnot), but also on an in-depth material analysis of the parchment and ink of the Torah scrolls.
In this project, SCC-DEM will develop a digital data infrastructure including a research data repository for the participating scholars over the next four years. As a central component, a ‘virtual Torah scroll’ will uncover handwritten details of the script and its significance in cultural memory.
The original press release can be found at:
On the trail of tagin and otijjot meshunnot
Localization in the Helmholtz Research Field Information:
Helmholtz Research Field Information, Program 1: Engineering Digital Futures, Topic 1: Enabling Computational – & Data-Intensive Science and Engineering
Contact:
Dr. Rainer Stotzka
Department Manager Data Exploitation Methods am Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC)
Karlsruhe Institut of Technology (KIT)
Phone: +49 721 608-24738
E-Mail: rainer.stotzka@kit.edu
Contact for this Press Release:
Achim Grindler
Public Relations, Service Management
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Phone: +49 721 608-24506
E-Mail: achim.grindler@kit.edu
