Bamberg July 1-31

In July I continued to live in Bamberg. I continued to work on the sites and monuments of Jerusalem project, concentrating this month on accounts of western pilgrims and travelers to the city. I also continued to teach my history and archaeology of Jerusalem seminar until the end of the summer semester at the end of July. On July 19 I gave a public lecture at the university on Muslim Pilgrims to Jerusalem in the Ottoman Period.

On July 28, the Oriental Studies Faculty held their end-of-semester party. Some belly dancers performed.

The belly-dancers

Among other academic activities, on Friday July 1 I attended the annual conference of the Ernst Herzfeld Society for Islamic Art, held this year in Berlin. This year I decided to attend just the first day of the two-day conference as a day trip from Bamberg: it is about a 4 ½ hour train ride each way.

Also from July 10 to 12 I attended a conference at the University of Heidelberg on the theme of relations between Constantinople and Jerusalem in the Byzantine Period. I gave a presentation about the Iconoclastic Period in the 8^th and 9^th centuries. The conference was held at the Internationales Wissenschaftsforum building, a lovely facility, where there are rooms for the participants to stay.

The view from my room with the Heidelberg castle in the background

I also spent some time in July making arrangements for a small survey project in India for December. I exchanged numerous emails with my Indian colleague Rani Sarma in Visakhapatnam, who is writing a book about early Buddhism along the east coast of central India, about ideas for a survey of some little documented early Buddhist sites in the Visakhapatnam district. It took a while, but the pieces have fallen into place for that project.

In Bamberg there are always a lot of cultural activities going on, especially during the summer. The event in July that attracted the greatest number of visitors was a week-end of performances by street magicians on July 16-17. I did not enjoy it much because the crowds were so large that it was difficult to actually see the performers.

A crowd watching a street magician

Also often on the main streets there are people who dress up in outlandish costumes and then stand motionless for hours, expecting to get donations for their performances.

A King Tut performer

Among other activities, on Saturday July 9 I went on the Volkshochschule nature hike led by naturalist Hermann Bösche to the South Thüringen National Park. Among other places, we stopped at the Itz spring, said to have curative properties.

The hikers

Hermann Bösche with an old boundary marker

Me at the Itz spring

I rarely go to movies, but on Sunday July 17 I went to see Willkommen in Cedar Rapids, a German-dubbed version of the Hollywood movie that had been released in the USA earlier in the year. It turns out that the movie was filmed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, rather than Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

In Bamberg, my apartment in the city center is only a few minutes’ walk away from a large wooded park and nature preserve known as the Hain.

The botanical gardens in the Hain

Within the park are a number of pavilions and monuments.

A theatrical performance at one of the park monuments

In May I started jogging in the park, the first sustained jogging I have done in over twenty years. A circuit through the park is about three miles long; I was in such bad shape that it took a while before I could run more than a portion of the full distance. I went jogging about every other day until in early July my left ankle began telling me to not run so much.

One of the paths I jog along in the park