The launching of the Eurasia Department in 1995 was a future-oriented decision. To date, there have been no comparable research institutes in either Europe or the USA. With the end of the bloc confrontation in the early 1990s, the successor states of the Soviet Union opened up to cooperative research and therefore also within the field of archaeology. This considerably broadened existing horizons and provoked unforeseen changes of standpoints on archaeological phenomena which for long only had been reflected upon individually.
Our working area covers vast swathes of the Eurasian double continent. These include the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria, the South Caucasus countries (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) , those of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan), and Mongolia as well. Together with the Tehran office, the working area now furthermore includes Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India as far north as the Indus River. The Beijing office additionally oversees research projects in China, East Asia, and Japan.
The fields of interest and basic tasks of the Eurasia Department are defined by the statutes of the DAI, the Valletta Convention and the resulting legal provisions. They are implemented within the Federal Republic of Germany's framework of Foreign Cultural Relations and Education Policy (AKBP).
This comprises archaeological research in Eurasia, research funding through providing libraries as well as promoting young academics and publishing project results. All activities aim at contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage in the countries of Eurasia and maintaining their cultural legacies, as also developing archaeology as a discipline in both Germany and its host countries.
The work of the Eurasia Department in many countries not only involves research, but also serves purposes pertaining to science diplomacy whose aim it is to build both confidence and credibility with partner institutions. For this purpose the DAI among other things organises joint conferences and exhibitions. All field research in the host countries is both performed and published jointly in cooperation with the partner institutions. Moreover, the demand for multilateral project cooperation in cultural preservation schemes is on the rise.
In terms of archaeology, many regions throughout this vast territory still remain little explored, so that the prospects for research are equally enormous. This potential represents an asset for sustaining and developing cooperation with our research counterparts in the host countries. The exploration of the Eurasian double continent truly represents the archaeological challenge of the 21^st century.

This vast territory furnishes unique opportunities for contextually exploring historical processes in both space and time. A focus on either regional or chronological topics in archaeological research would significantly restrict the horizon. The Eurasia Department's research capacity therefore strives at covering this significant space stretching all the way between the western Black Sea and Japan through all periods between the Neolithic and early history.
The study areas of the Eurasia Department comprise five major regions, of which each is represented respectively by either one or two consultants or a responsible branch office: (1) the northern and western Black Sea, (2) the Urals and Siberia, (3) the Caucasus, (4) Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, (5) Central Asia, and (6) East Asia.
The Eurasia Department is responsive to subjects within prehistoric, classical, and Near Eastern archaeology; Central Asian and East Asian archaeology for instance are represented on an institutional level exclusively in Germany.
The academic advisory board of the Eurasia Department is composed of Prof. Dr. Reinhard Bernbeck (Freie Universität Berlin), Dr. Stefan Burmeister (Varusschlacht Museum and Kalkriese), Prof. Dr. Henny Piezonka (Christian-Albrechts Universität Kiel), Prof. Dr. Richard Posamentir (Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen) and Prof. Dr. Marzena Smyt (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu).