News

The JMU magazine einBLICK features an image from our fieldwork at the Peshawar Museum, where a smartphone microscope helped us screen birch-bark fragments. Many of them are charred and barely legible to the naked eye. The story offers a glimpse into the practical challenges of documenting Proto-Śāradā manuscripts on site.

In July 2026, the Proto-Śāradā Project undertook its second field trip to Peshawar, Pakistan. The team continued its work on the newly discovered manuscript collection, focusing on the documentation and conservation of the fragile birch-bark documents.

A newly delivered lecture by our PI Ingo Strauch explores South Asian inscriptions in Egypt—an exciting topic beyond the project’s main focus.

The new platform provides searchable grapheme images, metadata, and comparison tools for Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts. Proto-Sharada material will be added gradually as the project progresses.

Kathrin Holz shares new Proto‑Śāradā project research at the annual conference of the ÖAW Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations.

We are pleased to announce that we have organized a panel at the upcoming Deutsche Orientalistentag (DOT) conference. Looking forward to engaging discussions and insightful contributions.

The project team will work on the development of the Proto-Śāradā database. This database will include images, transliterations and translations of all Proto-Śāradā inscriptions and of the documents in the JZC that are accessible.

In the focus of the field research are the photographic documentation and the collection of metadata concerning inscriptions, manuscripts, and archeological objects in museums and on archeological sites. The inspection of the sites will also help to better evaluate the archeological context of the epigraphs. The field trip will also serve to gain more information about the actual find-spots of our documents and their specific archaeological correlation.

Um eine bisher kaum erforschte Periode der altindischen Geschichte dreht sich ein neues Projekt der Indologie: Es geht um die Zeit des Übergangs vom Buddhismus zum Hinduismus im Nordwesten des Landes.