Handbook and Analysis of Ancient Magical Signs from their origins to the 7th century.

魔法符号构成了一种多样的，迄今为止尚未被解释的古代符号，这些符号被归类为难以辨认或神秘的，发生在与更高力量互动的背景下。最早的魔法符号的证据可以追溯到公元1世纪，在希腊、英国和法国用希腊语、希伯来语和拉丁语镌刻的手工艺品上发现，还有来自埃及的希腊仪式说明书，其中首次证实了古代技术术语Charaktêres。到了公元2世纪，整个罗马帝国以及希腊、埃及、罗马和犹太的宗教元素都证明了这些符号的使用。自3世纪以来，它们出现在Demotic和Coptic文本中，自4世纪以来也出现在阿拉姆语文本中。该项目的目的是通过编制魔法标志清单和回答主要问题来填补100多年来定义的学术空白。其基础是首次编译、组织和解释使用古代魔法符号的来源，其中包括铭文、仪式指示和文学文本。基于这些数据，将进行五项不同方法重点的研究来回答这些问题。前三项研究包括对人工制品选定特征的多元统计分析、人工制品参数变量分布图以及重复出现的字符的创建和解释、文学文本中符号的古代专业术语的编写以及与这些术语相关的信息的评价。第四项研究侧重于仪式指示，它提供了对神奇符号的制造和操作的详细见解。它们也是传递有关仪式实践的口头语境的唯一来源。目的是重建魔法符号的“生命周期”：从它们的生产到它们的仪式嵌入到仪式后的使用。最后一项研究致力于研究字符的潜在易读性和解密问题。第一步包括易读标志的编制和分析。第二步侧重于对人工制品上重复出现的符号序列进行计算机辅助搜索，考虑到它们的上下文化内容，以重建符号或序列的单个含义。这五项研究的目的是允许对问题进行差异化的回答，为未来的跨学科调查提供实质性的基础。

Magical signs constitute a diverse and so far not interpreted group of ancient signs classified as illegible or cryptic occurring in contexts of interaction with higher powers.The earliest evidence of magical signs is dated to the 1st century A.D. and found on artefacts from Greece, Britain, and France inscribed in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin as well as in a Greek ritual instruction from Egypt in which the ancient technical term Charaktêres is attested for the first time. By the 2nd century the use of the signs is attested over the entire Roman Empire and in conjunction with Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Jewish religious elements. Since the 3rd century they appear in Demotic and Coptic texts and since the 4th century also in Aramaic ones.The aim of the project is to fill the academic voids defined for over 100 years by compiling an inventory of magic signs and answering the primary questions. The basis for this is the first-time compilation, organisation, and interpretation of the sources for the use of ancient magic signs, which include inscribed artifacts, ritual instructions and literary texts. Based on this data five studies with different methodological focuses will be conducted to answer the questions.The first three studies include multivariate statistical analysis of selected characteristics of artifacts, the creation and interpretation of parameter variable distribution maps of the artifacts as well as the repeatedly occurring characters, followed by the compilation of ancient technical terms for the signs in literary texts and the evaluation of the information associated with these terms.The fourth study focuses on the ritual instructions which provide a detailed insight into the manufacturing and manipulation of magical signs. They are also the only source handing down verbal contexts concerning ritual practice. The aim is to reconstruct the "life cycle" of magic signs: from their production via their ritual embedding to a post-ritual use. The last study is dedicated to the question of a potential legibility and decryption of the characters. Step one includes the compilation and analysis of legible signs. Step two focuses on a computer-assisted search of repeatedly occurring sign-sequences on artifacts taking into account their contextualised content to reconstruct individual meanings of the signs or of sequences. The five studies were designed with the aim to allow a differentiated answering of the questions to provide a substantial basis for future investigations on which can be built up across disciplines.