Prof. Dr. Christoph Schäfer
- Hellenism, especially the legitimization of sovereignty of the successors of Alexander the Great
- The social and economic history of the Late Republic and the Imperial Era
- The history of Late Antiquity until migration
- Multimedia presentation of knowledge transfer in arts
- Experimental Archaeology, particularly in the know-how area of ancient shipping.
- Hellenism, especially the legitimization of sovereignty of the successors of Alexander the Great and the time of the late Ptolemaic dynasty (Ptolemaios XII, Cleopatra VII). In this field Prof. Schäfer has published two monographs (Eumenes von Kardia und der Kampf um die Macht im Alexanderreich, Frankfurt 2002. Kleopatra, Darmstadt 2006) and 8 articles.
- Social and economic history, particularly of the Late Republican and Imperial Era. The subject of his post- doctoral thesis was “Top-management and the role of the procuratores as representatives of private persons (Spitzenmanagement in Republik und Kaiserzeit. Die Prokuratoren von Privatpersonen im Imperium Romanum vom 2. Jh. v.Chr. bis zum 3. Jh. n.Chr., St. Katharinen 1998). In addition there have been 7 articles in renowned German journals and collections of essays.
- Late Antiquity, including the Migration Period. Prof. Schäfer has published his dissertation in this field of research (Der weströmische Senat als Träger antiker Kontinuität unter den Ostgotenkönigen (490-540 n.Chr.), St. Katharinen 1991). It was followed by four articles and numerous reviews.
- Database-Management and multimedial aspects ofknowledge transfer. Prof. Schäfer collaborated on two major epigraphical databases, namely the Hamburger Epigraphische Datenbank and the largest existing database of Latin inscriptions, the Epigraphik-Datenbank created and maintained by Manfred Clauss. He has published a monograph on research methods used in the full-text databases of the Packard Humanities Institute and the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. A second edition appeared in 2003 (Computer und antike Texte, St. Katharinen ²2003). In addition there have been nine papers on the same subject. Under Prof. Schäfer’s supervision four DVDs concerning recent research in Ancient History were produced. With the help of the Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education (FWU) these DVDs were introduced in schools all over Germany.
- Experimental archaeology, special focus on ancient seamanship. Three individual full size replicas of Roman riverine military vessels were constructed under his supervision. A digital measuring system was further developed on the basis of the NX2-system, first developed by Silva Marine Systems (today Silva Nexus). Based on this work Prof. Schäfer has published the monograph “Lusoria, ein Römerschiff im Experiment. Rekonstruktion – Tests – Ergebnisse, Hamburg 2008“, twelve papers and has edited two separate collections of essays related to this field of research.
- In addition to his main research foci Prof. Schäfer has published a considerable number of articles in the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA), the Blackwell's Encyclopedia of Ancient History, the Handbuch der antiken Sklaverei (HAS) and the Lexikon der Bayerischen Geschichte.
