• I studied protestant theology, ancient Semitic languages, and photography in Berlin . I acquired my doctorate in 1989 at Mainz University with a book about the German oriental scholar Friedrich Delitzsch and the so-called Babel and Bible controversy that took place in 1902/03.

• Since 1990 I am a Lecturer for Biblical Hebrew, Old Aramaic, and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy at Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz , Germany .

• My research interests are Ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Phoenician philology and writing systems, i.e. epigraphy. My main interest lies in the calligraphic techniques and layout parameters of early alphabetic writing in the Levant of the early first millennium BCE.

Main research projects:

• A new edition of the Phoenician Ahirom sarcophagus inscription from Byblos , including the so-called Ahirom shaft inscription (under press).

• The mechanisms and systematic of writing in the diverse manners of scriptio continua, or with spatia, or with dividing dots as is seen in early Northwest Semitic linear script systems.

Awards :

• 1979 Hermann-Leberecht-Strack Preis

• 1989 Preis der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz