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German Archaeological Institute

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Beijing Branch: memorandum of understanding signed by DAI and CACH

On 13 November 2009 the president of the German Archaeological Institute and the director of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage (CACH) Mr. Gu Yucai, signed a memorandum of understanding on future cooperation which finalizes the already publicized establishment of a new DAI branch in Beijing.
The German Archaeological Institute is thus the first and only foreign research institution involved in archaeology and the conservation of historical monuments to have a permanent office in China.

The new cooperation agreement and the opening of a Beijing branch are the culmination of a long evolutionary process in Sino-German cooperation in the field of archaeology. The first joint projects between Chinese and German archaeologists were commenced as a result of the Sino-German Cultural Agreement of 1979. One year later, close collaboration was already in progress between the DAI and various Chinese institutions. Now, with the establishment of the Beijing Branch, the institute can deepen and widen these links. "It should function in the future as a solid bridge for the communication of knowledge in both directions and in several languages," said the German ambassador, Dr. Michael Schaefer, in a speech on the signing of the cooperation agreement. The prospects are very promising: recent discoveries in China are to be presented to Western readers in German and English in a new edition entitled "Archaeology in China". In close cooperation with Chinese archaeologists, the books of this series will publish new archaeological discoveries, the trans-regional comparison of single finds and cultures, natural science analyses, and reconstructions of landscapes and climate (see below Recent Publications).
A series of introductory lectures – “Bridging Eurasia” – in Chinese at the DAI branch in Beijing will present the most modern methods of archaeological research in use in Europe to the local public.
A particularly important matter is the education and further training of the next generation of researchers. The DAI awards scholarships to young Chinese archaeologists for a Masters in geo- and field archaeology at the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) in Berlin. In cooperation with the Carl Duisberg Training Center Beijing, the students are prepared for their stay in Berlin by means of German courses specially focused on the content of the Masters syllabus. The course of study focuses on the documentation and expert conservation of cultural objects at the highest technical standards. The first scholarship holders arrive in Berlin on 24 March 2010.

In spring 2009, the DAI began renting office space for the branch in the German Centre in Beijing and the basic infrastructure is now in place. The branch will be directed by PD Dr. Mayke Wagner, second director of the Eurasia Department, supported by locally recruited scientific staff. The opening of the branch is scheduled for September 2010.

Further images and reports in chinese language can be found here (http://www.sach.gov.cn:8080/www.sach.gov.cn/tabid/116/InfoID/22080/Default.aspx)

above: Ceremonial signing of the Memorandum of Understanding - © D. Hosner

below: Visitation of the research laboratories at CACH - © D. Hosner

Official opening of temporary premises for Rome Department

After being closed for over three years, one of the most venerable archaeological research institutes, the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, opened its temporary premises in Via Curtatone 4D on 25 January 2010.
Now that the temporary premises are operational, in spite of somewhat restricted space, the institute will be able to devote itself to its responsibilities once more. Foremost among these is the use of the library as an essential instrument for the study of ancient cultures. Although approximately half of the library's holdings, along with the boxes of photographs and the archives, have had to be moved to an interim storage depot outside the city, library users can make use of an ordering service to access items from these holdings. With the resumption of regular services by the institute it is now possible to promote the dialogue between German, Italian and international researchers as intensively as before the institute building was closed.
The temporary premises were officially opened by the ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Michael Steiner, the president of the DAI, Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Gehrke, and the director of the Rome Department, Prof. Dr. Henner von Hesberg. Other speakers at the opening ceremony were the general director of the Archaeological Department of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Prof. Stefano De Caro, and Prof. Walter Geerts, president of the Unione Internazionale degli Istituti di Archeologia, Storia e Storia dell'Arte in Roma.

Further information on the Rome department can be found at http://www.dainst.org/rom

above: Interim premises in Via Curtatone 4D - © DAI Rome

New home for DAI archives

In advance of the planned renovation and reconstruction of the Bittelhaus building of the Head Office of the DAI, the archives were moved to a new location a few weeks ago. They are now housed in the Eurasia Department in Haus II, Im Dol 2–6, Berlin-Dahlem, and will accessible to the public again from the end of March 2010.

German Archaeologists have taken up excavations in Iraq

German Archaeological Institute is locating ancient mound of Arbil

A team of German archaeologists around Dr Margarete van Ess (Orient Department, DAI) has taken up archaeological excavations in Arbil, federal region of Kurdistan, Iraq. Actual fieldwork (from November, 18th to 30th, 2009) focussed on a grave chamber recorded already in January, 2009, in the framework of a co-operation between the DAI and the Department of Antiquities, Arbil. The actitivies are part of an educational training initiative for young Iraqi-Kurdish archaeologists. Funding was provided by the „Official Development Assistance“ of the German Federal Government and by the Governor of the Arbil Region, Iraq.

The German team consisted of seven specialists in archaeology, excavation techniques, physical anthropology, conservation, photography and geophysics implementing specific training measures in excavation and recording methods in the field as well as in the conservation of archaeological objects. On the Iraqi-Kurdish side nine members of the Department of Antiquities, Arbil, and students of the Salahaddin University participated in the excavation and recording activities with great success.

Several aims had to be fulfilled this season: The systematic recording of a Neo-Assyrian grave chamber of the 7th century BC located near the famous citadel of Arbil commenced in January 2009, was completed. The vaulted tomb was built by baked bricks and contained at least three sarcophagoi with up to five individuals. In accordance with the ancient burial rites, there was a number of grave goods, such as glazed and un-glazed pottery vessels, lamps and a bronze bowl. Architectural layout and the furnishing of the grave chamber are well known from other Assyrian capitals with Neo-Assyrian occupation, such as Ashur and Nimrud. Next to this tomb, an archaeological sounding was made, aimed at investigating the context of the tomb. A number of graves have been found, belonging to a cemetery, most probably occupied after the end of the Assyrian empire for several centuries. Below this cemetery, there are remains of mud-brick architecture with the same orientation as of the grave chamber. These walls belong to a building either connected directly to the grave chamber or to a subsequent building with the same orientation.
In an area of 1 ha around the grave chamber a geophysical prospection using ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been carried out in order to detect archaeological sub-surface structures by a non-destructive method. As a result, remains of substantial ancient architecture have been identified. Its orientation and depth are similar to the grave chamber and, therefore, indicate a possible Neo- or Post-Assyrian date. Thus, the hypothesis on the area to be interpreted as an ancient mound with remains of occupation could be confirmed. Although this mound was subject to modern building activities, it is still visible today. Therefore, the area investigated shows a substantial potential for further archaeological research.

The work carried out in November 2009 was conceived as an intensive training programme in archaeological recording and conservation and will be continued as such shortly. During the visit of a delegation of the Department of Antiquities, Arbil in the Head Office in Berlin in February 2010 a memorandum of understanding on intensive archaeological fieldwork was signed.

above: View of the grave chamber of the Assyrian tomb - © J. Kramer

below: Recording excavated graves as part of the training program - © J. Kramer

Lower causeway of Bent Pyramid in Dahshur/Egypt discovered

The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur (4th Dynasty, c. 2600 BC) has a key position in the development of the royal pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom. The pyramid, the pyramid temple and a stone-built causeway linking the pyramid with a temple further down the valley are known from Ahmed Fakhry's excavations in the 1950s. Those excavations, however, did not investigate a mud-brick causeway leading from that temple to the cultivated area.
Last year, this lower causeway in the desert valley leading to the Bent Pyramid was traced during a landscape archaeology project which forms part of Research Cluster 4. Magnetometric surveys and drilling led to the surprising result that the causeway lies up to five metres underneath the current level of the desert. With the aid of a team from the Institute for Physical Geography of the Freie Universität Berlin (TOPOI), it has been ascertained that the desert valley has changed dramatically in the historical era. At the time the pyramid was built, the floor of the valley lay approximately seven metres deeper than it does today. As a result of wind and heavy rainfall, the valley became filled in to the present level before the New Kingdom (c. 1200 BC).

In autumn 2009, work began on exposuring part of the causeway. Immediately under the surface, the team of excavators, led by Dr. Nicole Alexanian, discovered a transport road built of limestone blocks in which a large number of broken architectural members and relief blocks from the temple had been reused. The relief fragments, some of high artistic quality, are of utmost significance in reconstructing the pictorial programme of this first decorated pyramid temple.
The causeway itself was exposed after the removal of sand to a depth of five metres. The side walls of the causeway are preserved to a height of up to 2.70 m. In the last excavation campaign, the roof of a partly intact mud-brick vault was uncovered. Excavation of the causeway down to the foot of the walls, scheduled for spring 2010, will yield information about its exact form, the construction of the vaulting, and about the interior wall surfaces. Determining the total length of the causeway and the form of its entrance structure is a task for future field work.

Further information on the project in Dahschur: http://www.dainst.org/dahschur

above: View of the recently discovered causeway

below: fragment of a relief from the destroyed temple

ArchaeoLandscapes Europe. EU sponsors RGK project with € 2.5 mil.

The Roman-Germanic Commission of the DAI (RGK) submitted a request for sponsorship of the project ArchaeoLandscapes Europe within the EU's Culture Programme for 2007–2013, and the request was approved in February 2010. As one of 35 partners from 24 European states, the RGK will assume the role of project coordinator over the five-year period. It will thus direct and influence the course of the ArchaeoLandscapes Europe project administratively and in terms of content. The partners in the project include universities, research institutions, heritage management bodies and the Aerial Archaeology Research Group. The cost of the project is five million euros, of which the EU will disburse 2.5 million euros in aid over five years. The project partners will raise the remainder themselves.

The aim of ArchaeoLandscapes is to build up a network of archaeological institutes and organizations which have a key interest in remote sensing technologies, in particular aerial archaeology and geophysical surveying methods, as well as terrestrial laser scanning, LiDAR and other remote sensing procedures. Partners will train one another in these procedures and methods, apply them practically and develop them further. For this purpose, workshops, exchange programmes and field schools will be organized by and with the project partners. In order to enhance the utility of existing archives of aerial photographs, group consultation sessions about database technologies and web access will be held. The main focus of the project is networking and exchange among the partners. To this end, annual plenary sessions are planned. Areas of interest include the applications of GIS and the further development of various remote sensing technologies. Alongside the learning and teaching aspect, the activities that are planned will also focus on the aspect of research and heritage management.

ArchaeoLandscapes Europe is expected to start work in September 2010.

above: View of the Glauberg in the eastern Wetterau

111th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America

6–9 January 2010 in Anaheim, California

The 111th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America was held in Anaheim, California, from 6 to 9 January 2010 and was attended by about 2,000 participants. As in previous years, the DAI was present with one of the more than 55 booths in the well attended Exhibit Hall of the conference hotel. The DAI booth presented the recent publications of its various departments as well as providing information and answering visitors' questions about the institute. Professional staff of the DAI also took an active part in the sessions on various topics in the conference programme. The session organized by the DAI – Session 1B: "Continuity and Change in Sanctuaries of the Ancient World" – was received with great interest, as was the General Secretary's speech on current research projects of the DAI. The DAI's presentation on January 8 was followed by a well attended reception at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel.

above: The DAI booth in the Exhibit Hall

The Stelae of the Islamic Necropolis of Aswan

Workshop in Aswan, Nubian Museum, February 13-15, 2010

At the Upper Egyptian town of Aswan, more than 40 experts attended a meeting convened by the Cairo Department of the DAI from 13 to 15 February to discuss one of the most important corpora of sources of the early Islamic history of Egypt. The corpus consists of gravestones with Arabic inscriptions from the 7th to the 12 century. Several thousand of these stelae are now scattered in museums and storage depots around Egypt and the rest of the world and the intention is to document them in a multilateral digital project.

The so-called Fatimid cemetery of Aswan is an exceptionally important archaeological complex for the early Islamic history of Egypt. The DAI Cairo has conducted regular field campaigns at the necropolis for three years now with the aim of documenting and restoring its structures. This work is expected to contribute decisively towards the preservation and scientific description of this significant monument complex as well as to a fuller understanding of it.
Furthermore, a wealth of epigraphic testimony is attributed to the early Islamic necropolis of Aswan. Around 5,000 inscribed grave stelae from the period extending from the middle of the 7th century AD until well into the Middle Ages document the occupation of the cemetery. Regrettably, these items were removed from their contexts in the early 20th century and transferred to a number of depots in Egypt, some of them going to foreign museums.

Although a not inconsiderable quantity of the pieces has been published (usually however without translation and hence accessible only to Arabists), a still larger number remains unprocessed and unknown in the depots. The complex has never been examined scientifically as a whole, and thus its description, publication and expert analysis remains a matter of some urgency. The interest which this stelae corpus possesses in its totality is great indeed. The historical and prosopographical information which the inscriptions contain will enable significant contributions to be made to our understanding of the role and history of Aswan, and of culture and religion precisely in this early Islamic period, the transition between late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Lying at Egypt's southern frontier, the town of Aswan is of particular interest for its position at the heart of a contact zone.
To initiate this research project, the DAI Cairo conducted an international workshop in the Nubian Museum of Aswan. At the workshop it was possible for the first time to establish with some accuracy the number and location of the stelae which have been removed from their original context. Historians, archaeologists, Islamic scholars and epigraphers shared the results of their research and discussed the tasks that lie ahead and how best to proceed. The corpus of sources is now to be digitally documented and made accessible to researchers via an open-access database.

above: Stelae in the custody of the Nubian Museum in Aswan

below: Participants at the workshop discussing inscriptions of a stele

Exhibition: "Waldgirmes – Pictures from an Excavation. The Horse's Head from Waldgirmes"

17 March 2010 – 14 April 2010 in Frankfurt / Main

The spectacular find of a horse's head of gilded bronze will be displayed at the exhibition "Waldgirmes – Pictures from an Excavation" which opens its doors in Frankfurt am Main on 17 March 2010. A team from the Roman-Germanic Commission of the DAI (RGK) in cooperation with Hesse State Archaeology Office discovered the head in August 2009 near the village of Waldgirmes, Lahnau (Lahn-Dill district) while excavating inside a well in a Roman town from the period of Emperor Augustus (see DAI Newsletter 02/2009).
The excavations, in progress since 1993, have for the first time provided evidence of a planned civil Roman settlement in German territory east of the Rhine. The town, whose ancient name is not known, was intended to be the base from which the further Romanization of Germanic regions would be implemented. Founded shortly before the birth of Christ, the town was abandoned most probably when the Romans withdrew from Germania east of the Rhine in 16 AD.
The exhibition explores the brief history of the Roman settlement at Waldgirmes and, with the kind support of the 1822 Foundation of the Frankfurt Sparkasse, it throws light on the background of this extraordinary object, whose high artistic quality gives it a significance that goes far beyond the region in which it was found.

The exhibition runs from 17 March to 14 April 2010 in the Kundenzentrum of the Frankfurter Sparkasse, Neue Mainzer Str. 49 in 60311 Frankfurt am Main.
Opening hours: Mon–Wen, Fri 9 am to 4 pm, Thu 9 am to 6 pm; free entry

above: View of the horsehead of gilded bronze

Photographic exhibition: "With a trained eye" – Hermann Burchardt's travels in southern Syria 1895. Photographs of a German orientalist

10–30 May 2010 in the Goethe Institute, Damascus

The Damascus branch of the Orient Department of the DAI is displaying the early photographs of the German orientalist Hermann Burchardt (1857–1909), who in 1895 was one of the first scholars to travel in southern Syria and take photographs. The exhibition presents a selection of these photographic documents side by side with modern photos of the monuments. The exhibition will run from 10 to 30 May 2010 in the foyer of the Goethe Institute in Damascus.

Science Days in south-west Berlin

Schloss Laboratory: 16 May 2010, 1–6 pm in the shopping centre Das Schloss, Berlin-Steglitz. Talks: 19 May, 26 May and 2 June 2010 at 5 pm in the Wiegandhaus, Head Office DAI, Berlin-Dahlem

Berlin is the Capital of Science in 2010. As part of the programme of scientific events across the city during the year, institutions located in south-west Berlin are making a notable contribution with special Science Days. The south-west of Berlin is positively predestined for the role since it is a research location with a long tradition and international prestige. Early in the 20th century, a "Prussian Oxford" developed in the district of Dahlem with an abundance of branches and disciplines and a spectrum of scientific activity ranging from pure research to teaching and application. The DAI had its head office in the heart of Dahlem, too, as it still does today. And this year it will be putting a range of its current work on show for a wide public.
The Science Days in the South-West begin with the Schloss Laboratory. On May 16, a Sunday when shopping is permitted, a highly unusual kind of market will greet visitors to the shopping centre Das Schloss in Berlin-Steglitz. Research staff from the DAI, the Botanical Gardens, the Freie Universität of Berlin, the Berlin Geographical Society, the Max Planck Society and the Technical University will be on hand to present a host of scientific experiments, games and models in association with partners from the shopping centre.

The DAI will have a stand with the motto "Grasping archaeology – researchers explain how ruins can rise again". With the aid of a wooden model of the Acropolis of Athens, archaeologists and architectural scholars will show how ruins can be brought to life by means of the most modern technology and what various tools like a measuring rod, tachymeter and GPS are used for.

When?	16 May 2010, 1–6 pm
Where?	"Das Schloss" shopping centre, ground floor, Schloßstraße 34, 12163 Berlin
The programme continues with three talks:
19/05	B. Vogt (KAAK), Easter Island (Chile). German archaeologists at the navel of the world
26/05	U. Wulf-Rheidt (DAI Head Office), How is a ruin put on paper? Architectural scholars report on their work
02/06	N. Benecke (DAI Head Office), Old bones, charred seeds and wood finds tell us history
At 5–7 pm at the Wiegandhaus of the German Archaeological Institute, garden hall, Peter-Lenné-Str. 28, 14195 Berlin

More information at www.dainst.org or www.wissenschaft-berlin-2010.de

Margarete van Ess; Elisabeth Weber-Nöldeke (eds.) Dr. Arnold Nöldeke, Briefe aus Uruk-Warka 1931 bis 1939 ISBN 978-3-89500-485-8 2008, hardcover. 348 pages, 24 x 17 cm, 85 black and white figs., 1 color fig. 49,00 €
Andrea Schmölder-Veit Brunnen in den Städten des westlichen Römischen Reiches Palilia, Vol. 19 ISBN 978-3-89500-698-2 2009, brochure. 208 pages, 29 x 22 cm, 75 black and white figs. 39,00 €
Peter Calmeyer Die Reliefs der Gräber V und VI in Persepolis Archäologie in Iran und Turan 8 ISBN 978-3-8053-3928-5 2009, hardcover. 137 pages, 21 x 30 cm, 118 figs. 29,90 €
Mayke Wagner, Fengshi Luan, Pavel Tarasov Chinese Archaeology & Palaeoenvironment I Prehistory at the Lower Reaches of the Yellow River: The Haidai Region Archäologie in China, Vol. 2 ISBN 978-3-8053-4116-5 2009, hardcover. 215 pages, 140 figs. 28,00 €

Important note for the visitors to the central library

Use of the library at head office in the Bittelhaus building will be restricted owing to extensive renovation work. The library is expected to be closed completely from April to May 2010. From about June/July 2010, users can access library stocks through an interim facility. The Bittelhaus building is not scheduled to reopen until the end of 2011. You are therefore advised to contact the library staff bibliothek@dainst.de before planning any long visits during this period.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the refurbishment project.

More information material is available for download as PDF files at presse@dainst.de or www.dainst.org/presse.

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