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The Team

Dr. Sabine Neumann

Sabine Neumann is the head of the MCAW Junior Research Group. As a classical archaeologist, she studies the ancient Mediterranean region with a particular focus on ancient Greece. From 2020 to 2022, she was associate professor at the University of Copenhagen as part of a project researching ancient migration. Previously, she was a lecturer at Phillips-Universität Marburg. She studied classical archaeology, ancient history and history of art the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich. Her dissertation dealt with the reception of nature in antiquity. Her current research interests include questions on the materiality of ancient religion, the mobility of deities and cult personnel, and the influence of natural disasters on religious ideas and practices. As part of the Junior Research Group, she is investigating how so-called foreign deities were integrated into local Greek contexts and how this brought about religious change. In another project, she is testing digital methods in mapping the dissemination of cults in the Mediterranean region, together Tomáš Glomb at the Centre for Digital Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno. More information...

Adrian Kinzig M.A.

Andrian Kinzig studied ancient history, philosophy and provincial Roman archaeology. He has been a member of the MCAW Junior Research Group since January 2023. In his dissertation, he is researching the development, dissemination and reception of the cult of the goddess Diktynna. The cult, which originated in Crete, spread to the Aegean region from the Hellenistic era onwards, where the goddess partly formed a unit with the Cretan Zeus, but was also partly equated with Artemis. There are a variety of sources on the goddess and her cult, comprising literary sources including ancient comedies, epigraphic and archaeological evidence. In addition to his research on ancient religion, Adrian Kinzig works on digital mapping methods and the basics of Classical Chinese. More information

Tom Wirtz

Tom Wirtz started studying history in Marburg in summer 2021. Since the summer semester 2022 he has been enrolled in archaeology, where he is particularly interested in pre-historic archaeology. Since October 2024 he has been working as the student assistant in the MCAW Junior Research Group. More information

Mirja Biehl Mag. Phil.

Mirja Biehl has been an associate member of the MCAW Junior Research Group since May 2023. Previously, she has conducted research in Athens and Salzburg and was a member of the scientific network ‘Nature and Cult in Anatolia’ at the Istanbul branch of the German Archaeological Institute. She is currently doing a doctorate on Greek rock and nature sanctuaries and the role of natural elements in cult. She completed her master’s degree in classical archaeology and ancient history in Freiburg. Her research focuses on Greek sanctuaries and cults, the religious perception and the interaction between gods and the environment. More information