Topic of the Month
From Münster to the Syrian border
The Asia Minor Research Centre is digging deep into the history of Doliche, an ancient city on the Syrian border in south-eastern Turkey. A VR station was recently opened in the Archaeological Museum, allowing visitors to take a tour of the excavation site.
Archaeologists have been unearthing evidence from Roman times to late antiquity since 2015. So far, a Roman bath complex, the city archives of Doliche, a monumental temple and an early Christian church have been uncovered.
As part of the Archaeological Museum's Sunday lecture, Sophie-Luise Strauß and Timo Kulartz from the research centre will provide insights into the project and everyday excavation work on site.
The lectures will take place on 15, 22 and 29 December at 2.15 pm in room F033 of the Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22). The entrance is on the left-hand side.
Coin of the Month
Transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern Times
In 2024, there is an anniversary to celebrate in Westphalian coinage history: the first minting of a taler, a large silver coin whose emergence significantly marks the threshold between the Middle Ages and modern times in terms of coinage and monetary history. It was issued by the Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück, Erich II von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen (1508-1532). The coin was presumably used for representative purposes, as the sovereigns in Westphalia did not have their own mining silver, but had to buy silver at high prices on the precious metal market. The few examples probably served as gifts for the purpose of political communication, also for their own officials and functionaries, to business partners, scholars and relatives as honours in every respect.
However, the special feature of the present thalers - which may also be the key to their existence and function - is the inscription on the Peter side: ‘Verbum Dei/Domini manet in eternum’. This biblical phrase from both the Old Testament (Is 40:8) and the New Testament (Peter 1:25) was first used as a personal motto by the Saxon Elector Frederick III (1486-1525) and also appeared on his coins from 1522. It was his commitment to Luther's church reform endeavours and therefore quickly became a general motto of the early Reformation, especially as it expressed the central ideas of the Reformation, the turning to the Word of God.
University returns marble Head of unknown Provenance
“For me as the head of a university collection, it is a little painful that such an exciting object is leaving our collection. But for me as an archaeologist, it is a happy day that this marble portrait is returning to its place of origin and can be viewed and examined again in its original historical context together with other pieces from the same workshops,” said Prof. Achim Lichtenberger, Director of the Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster, today (November 19) at the handover of a Roman portrait head to the Archaeological Museum in Thessaloniki. It had found its way to Münster under unexplained circumstances - the reason for University Rector Prof. Johannes Wessels to return the marble piece to the greek State.