Publishing the Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity Part I: Palestine 330 BCE - 200 CE (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 91, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr 2002) was the first step in an extensive research project aiming to sytematically document names used in the Jewish populations in Palestine and the Diaspora. The goal is twofold: documenting names used by Jews in Antiquity and describing their structure, semantics and origins (Biblical or pagan, Hebrew, Aramaic, Nabatean, Edomite, Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Latin or Arabic) in an onomastic perspective – and the prosopographical goal of listing all individuals who had a certain name.

In that sense, the Lexicon is a groundwork for higher social, cultural and family studies, offers insights on the social networks of Antique Jewry, and provides details on financial and political circumstances, education, norms and values of the Jewish population in Palestine and the Diaspora.

In the framework of this project, three volumes are to be published:

• Vol. 2: The Western Diaspora [330 BCE-630 CE] – Spain, Gaul, Germany, Italy, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Greece, Black Sea, Asia Minor, Egypt, Cyrenaica, Western North Africa);
• Continuation of the already published volume (treating the period between the hellenization of Palestine and the completion of the Mishna) with names that occured in Palestine between 200 and the Arab Conquest (Vol. 3: Palestine [including Transjordan and Western Syria]: 200-630 CE)
• Vol. 4: The Eastern Diapora [330 BCE-630] – Eastern Syria [Palmyra, Dura Europos], Mesopotamia, Persia, Arabia.