Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz

Handwörterbuch der antiken Sklaverei (HAS). Im Auftrag der Kommission für Geschichte des Altertums der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur (Mainz). Herausgegeben von Heinz Heinen. Unter Mitarbeit von Ulrich Eigler, Peter Gröschler, Elisabeth Herrmann-Otto, Henner von Hesberg, Hartmut Leppin, Hans-Albert Rupprecht, Winfried Schmitz, Ingomar Weiler und Bernhard Zimmermann. Redaktion Johannes Deißler in Zusammenarbeit mit Andrea Binsfeld und Marcello Ghetta und mit dem Kompetenzzentrum für elektronische Erschließungs- und Publikationsverfahren in den Geisteswissenschaften an der Universität Trier. 3 Teilbd. XCVIII, 1968 Seiten, 167 s/w Abb. 2017, ISBN 978-3-515-10161-5.

The goal of the project Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei [Studies in Ancient Slavery], initiated in December 1950 by the Tübingen historian of antiquity Joseph Vogt (1895-1986), was to study slavery in all its manifestations from as many perspectives as possible, using all appropriate methods. This was intended to create the foundation for a scientific analysis and evaluation of slavery as a central and controversial aspect of ancient society. The project's home was the Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur [Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature], which was founded in July of 1949 in the spirit of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. It was one of several research projects supported by the Mainz Academy and was, like all Academy projects, committed to interdisciplinary approach and long-term basic research. The project was officially ended in 2012 and project funding was stopped.

Although the project has not remained unchallenged (H. Bellen: Die antike Sklaverei als moderne Herausforderung. In: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz 1949-1989. Mainz - Stuttgart 1989, 201f.), it can be considered "one of the greatest and most productive research projects in German studies of antiquity since the Second World War" (K. Christ).

 

The Handwoerterbuch der antiken Sklaverei (Concise Dictionary of Ancient Slavery) collects, evaluates and concisely presents the growth in knowledge and insights achieved by the project, as well as the results of national and international research on slavery. In doing so, the project would like to provide a tool for future research that has been lacking so far, and make the advances in the assessment of ancient slavery accessible to a broader circle.

The Handwoerterbuch der antiken Sklaverei (Concise Dictionary of Ancient Slavery) has been conceived as an alphabetical reference work for the field of "Ancient slavery". As a descriptive encyclopaedia, it includes persons, things and terms. It is mainly oriented toward specialists in the field. To serve the purpose of everyday usage and also to appeal to those in related disciplines and broader circles, it should be generally comprehensible, clear and readable. The term "Ancient slavery" is therefore broadly defined. In addition to the other types of forced labour in ancient times and besides the research fields of the Mediterranean (Ancient Near East, Egypt, Carthage, etc.) related forms of dependency in civilizations outside of Europe (India, China, Japan, America, etc.) are also be included. Contributions on the history of slave studies and reception round out the dictionary. The concise dictionary includes approximately 1000 keywords of various levels of emphasis. These consist of short entries (5-10 lines); small entries, 1/2 to 1 column (25-51 lines); medium-length entries, 1-2 columns; long entries, 3-4 columns; and overview articles (5 an more columns). The total length is approximately 3800 columns, each with 51 lines of about 50 characters. In the printed version, the concise dictionary consists of three large-format volumes, each with approximately 600 pages, and appeared as Supplement 5 in the series Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei (Studies in Ancient Slavery).

In order to ensure quick publication of the available contributions that have already been edited, cumulative publication was organised in a series of individual electronic installments (distributed by Franz Steiner Verlag). Once all the articles were available and older articles had been updated, a conventional book version was published.

The main language of publication is German; however, articles in English, French, Italian and Spanish had also been accepted.

 

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