Prof. Johannes Lipps

In 2019, Johannes Lipps has come to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz as professor of classical archaeology with special focus on Roman architecture and urbanism. He has become well-known with his dissertation about the Basilica Aemilia, which today constitutes a sort of editio princeps of the monument and an obliged reference for all the studies concerning the topography of the Roman Forum and the architecture of the basilica type in the Roman world. In addition to this and other studies on Roman monuments he has explored the architecture of cities in the Roman provinces and thus introduced new aspects into Roman archaeology. This more interdisciplinary perspective incorporates both different corpora of monuments and different methodological approaches.

In Mainz and the Rhine-Main-Universities, he will collaborate with his colleagues in the Top-level Research Area "40.000 Years of Human Challenges: Perception, Conceptualization and Coping in Premodern Societies". He is planning to conduct case studies in Pompeii, Rome, Tunisia, and Germany where he will address specific questions referring to particular challenges Roman cities were facing in different historic contexts – such as wars, migration, scarce resources, natural disasters or the emergence of new religions.