Our new video features all the exciting things the BAK does: the research questions we tackle, the way we work together and what we aim to achieve. Enjoy!

English version

Just what is the Berliner Antike-Kolleg?

Well, in a nutshell: We are a network providing support for state-of-the-art research into the ancient world which engages with issues of current social interest.

We act as an umbrella organization for ancient studies in Berlin. We are interdisciplinary, we are innovative, and we bring together the scholarship and expertise of six of the most important research institutions in and around Berlin.

There is an immediacy to the way in which Berlin connects the past and the future that almost no other city in the world can match. Impressive monuments bearing witness to the history of humankind await researchers and visitors here. History, culture and Berlin form a single entity.

And here at the Berliner Antike-Kolleg, we combine the scholarship and expertise of our partners: the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Archaeological Institute, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Uniting this expertise and gathering outstanding researchers to provide them with optimal conditions for their research – this is our mission and our achievement.

We serve all our researchers and visiting scholars as a hub for the development and support of new research ideas. We help them develop proposals, and we fund pilot projects exploring innovative topics and research ideas, which may lead to large-scale cooperative projects.

We also provide graduate training opportunities for excellent junior researchers and create ideal conditions for doctoral studies. The Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies attracts outstanding applicants and enjoys excellent international ties.

Databases, repositories or online publication: through our Forum Digital Antiquities, we embrace the opportunities and challenges accompanying advances in technology.

We enhance the public visibility of research. We strengthen connections and cohesion with our many offerings, such as discussion fora, lecture series, newsletters.

We cover the entire spectrum of research into the ancient world. We also join forces with researchers in the social sciences, the geosciences and other natural sciences, exploring unusual research constellations.

An excellent case in point is the Einstein Center CHRONOI, whose fellows, specialists in fields of ancient studies gathered from all over the world, collaborate with researchers from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences, such as neurology, on research into concepts of time and the perception of time in the ancient world.

Our work also benefits scholarship and society in relation to current global challenges, like climate change, migration and the protection of human beings and culture.

We provide academics and the wider public from around the world with a forum for state-of-the art research and scholarship. Interdisciplinary, interinstitutional, innovative: we are the Berliner Antike-Kolleg