German-Danish identity illuminated through the analysis of cultural heritage
ACRONYM
Bones4Culture
Title
German-Danish identity illuminated through the analysis of cultural heritage
General information
The purpose of this project is to inform the people in the border region as well as visiting tourists about the identity of the medieval and renaissance population of Schleswig town. Schleswig has historically been both German and Danish and is a typical exponent of the medieval population of the Duchies. The border area between Germany and Denmark and the Duchies has had a very turbulent history with many ethnic and political conflicts and the area is now one of the most peaceful border areas in Europe.
The project shows how our ancestors lived in our region. How was life for them? Where did they come from? Were they born and raised in Schleswig town - or were they more mobile and came from other parts of Germany, Denmark or even farther away?
There is a gap in our knowledge about the identity and history of the ordinary people of the Duchies from early Middle Ages and up to the end of the Renaissance. In Denmark there has been a focus on Danish identity and history and similarly in Germany. There have not been subject to forces in research and dissemination of the identity of population in the border area. We intend to fill this gap in history with a focused effort that uses a completely new technology which will be developed in cooperation between leading research and intermediary institutions in the region of Schleswig - KERN - Southern Denmark.
The new technology, which we plan to use, is based on the reconstruction of past human’s chemical life. This approach enables us to involve the ordinary people, who were otherwise never mentioned in medieval written sources, in the story of people’s lives - individually and together. The project will thus uniquely enable us to report on common man's life and thereby open up new fronts for dissemination.
Start
July, 2011
End
June, 2014
Funding (total)
532000
Funding (GEOMAR)
25000
Funding body / Programme
-
EU
/ European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), INTERREG IV A, Syddanmark-Schleswig-K.E.R.N.
Coordination
Syddansk Universitet (SDU), Denmark
Contact
