Autumn Summer School at AKMED, Antalya: Accessing Byzantine Seals with New Digital Methods

8 Oct 26

Accessing Byzantine Seals with New Digital Methods, Autumn Summer, Antalya, October 8–17, 2026

Digital methods are profoundly transforming the ways in which historical objects and museum collections can be accessed, analysed, and presented. Using museum holdings from the region of Antalya, this Autumn School introduces participants to the study of Byzantine seals, a key source group for prosopography, administrative history, historical geography, and the social history of the Byzantine Empire.

The programme combines lectures with intensive hands-on training. Participants will be introduced to the traditional methods of Byzantine sigillography, including reading, dating, contextualising, and editing seals, alongside digital approaches. These include Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and digital encoding using the SigiDoc standard.

Practical sessions will involve on-site work in museum collections, small-group projects focused on a selected corpus of seals, and the preparation of material for digital edition. The Autumn School will conclude with short final presentations by the participants. The academic programme is complemented by guided excursions to archaeological sites in the region.

Teaching will be provided by an international team of specialists from Turkey, Germany, and France.

The Autumn School is aimed at

  • advanced MA students
  • PhD candidates
  • early career researchers

Applicants should have an interest in Byzantine studies, medieval history, archaeology, philology, digital humanities, or closely related fields.

The Autumn School is organised by the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the University of Cologne in cooperation with Anadolu University and the Koç University Suna and İnan Kıraç Research Center for Mediterranean Civilizations (AKMED). It takes place within the framework of the Cologne Summer Schools Programme of the University of Cologne and is jointly funded by the Kölner Universitätsstiftung and Santander.