Early ideas about man and nature often show a surprising similarity on the surface between one culture and another. This makes it imperative to distinguish between concepts that are universal and those that are specific and individual, before claiming that borrowing has taken place. The wide range of disciplines that are part of our RTG provides opportunities for focusing research projects in such
a way that they at the same time advance knowledge in one specific discipline and also provide answers within the wider framework of the universal or individual character of such concepts. We have students from different disciplines work on identical or similar topics in order to facilitate ground-breaking studies for such a comparison. In their theses, doctoral students study one or more specific concepts of man and nature, within one culture as well as comparing various cultures, based on sources that may be written, iconographic, or archaeological, within an area that comprises the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean, and Europe, during any period from 100.000 years B.C.E.
