Polonsky Prize for research on ancient mosaics

CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR TALGAM: Professor Rina Talgam awarded the polonsky prize for her comprehensive examination of a millennium of mosaics. Historical survey of excavated mosaic art of pagans, Jews, Samaritans, Christians and Muslims earns Hebrew University professor the first prize in this year's Polonsky Awards (Hebrew University press release).

Prof. Rina Talgam, the Alice and Edward J. Winant Family Professor of Art History, in the History of Art Department in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Humanities, has been following the intricate visual dialogues among Paganism, Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity and Islam in the Holy Land from before the Roman Empire to after the Muslim conquests.

"Mosaics located in private and public spheres, in both secular and religious buildings, played an important role in constructing cultural, religious and ethnic identities in a multicultural society, often intended to reflect the difference among the various communities, but also testified to the existence of an extensive commonality," Talgam said.

In her recent book -- Mosaics of Faith: Floors of Pagans, Jews, Samaritans, Christians, and Muslims in the Holy Land (Penn State University Press, July 2014) -- Talgam offers comprehensive analytical history of mosaics from a wide chronological range (a millennium), reviewing all aspects of the floor mosaics in their multicultural contexts.

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Talgam's research has earned her the First Prize of the Polonsky Prizes for Creativity & Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines for the year 2016. The prize was presented to her at the Hebrew University's 79th annual meeting of the Board of Governors in Jerusalem.

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The Polonsky foundation is also funding a Cambridge manuscript digitization project, research on the Cairo Geniza, and an Oxford-Vatican manuscripts digitization project.