University of Mannheim Prof, receives the “Opus Magnum” grant from the Volkswagen Foundation
Mann’s “Opus Magnum” (Latin for “great work”) is intended to answer fundamental questions about the people who competed in martial arts, races, long jump and throwing disciplines during antiquity: What social classes did they come from? What are the chances of advancement resulting from sporting successes? How did the athletes organize themselves and what was their standing in society? The focus is on the ancient Olympic Games and the many hundreds of other competitions in the Greek world between 700 BC and 700 BC. and 400 AD. In particular, the importance of sporting competitions in processes of social exclusion and integration should be explained. In principle, the ancient sport was the domain of free men, but in many cases women and even slaves took part in the competitions.
On a methodological level, the book project breaks new ground in three respects. First, the anachronistic dichotomy between honor-oriented “amateurs” and money-oriented “professionals” that has dominated research since the early 20th century is overcome by a new integrative model that brings together both economics and honor in a single investigative matrix. Second, quantitative analyzes based on the inscriptions and papyri should complement the evaluation of the literary sources. Thirdly, in contrast to the usual focus on the “difference discourse” in ancient sports, the integrative side should also be included: “Barbarians” were able to “hellenize” themselves by participating in sports, “foreigners” were able to obtain civil rights and the poor attained prosperity.
As part of the scholarship, the Mannheim historian will be relieved by a teaching substitution from February 2023 to July 2024, so that he can concentrate fully on the completion of his book. His position will be taken over by PD Dr. Julia Hoffmann-Salz from the Free University of Berlin.
The project forms a further piece of the jigsaw puzzle of research into ancient sports – a field in which the University of Mannheim is a world leader.