Ernst Herzfeld and the Development of Near Eastern Studies.

• Author: Muscarella, Oscar White
• Position: Ernst Herzfeld and the Development of Near Eastern Studies, 1900-1959 - Book review

Ernst Herzfeld and the Development of Near Eastern Studies, 1900-1959. Edited by ANN GUNTER and STEFAN R. HAUSER. Leiden: BRILL, 2005. Pp. xv + 636. [euro]99.

This volume publishes the papers delivered at a symposium held at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., May 3-5, 2001. One paper (by E. Ettinghausen) has been added; another, delivered by P. Machinist, will be published elsewhere. The aims (p. ix) of the symposium and publication are to "reexamine the contributions of this pioneering and controversial figure in the field of Near Eastern studies, and to place them in the broader intellectual, institutional, and political frameworks of his era." The editors have succeeded magnificently, bringing together the very good research of twenty-one scholars who evaluate one of the most gifted and personally complex Near Eastern archaeologists known. Herzfeld's personal and private life (little known), education, colleagues, excavations, travels, publications, his role in creating an antiquities law and a Department of Antiquities in Iran, his extraordinary contributions to Iranian and ancient Near Eastern studies, and personal issues, are solidly presented in twenty essays set into five parts: I. a summary of Ernst Herzfeld and Near Eastern Studies, 1900-1950, by A. Gunter and Stefan R. Hauser, and Herzfeld's relationship with Friedrich Sarre, by Jens Kroger. II. "Herzfeld and Key Archaeological Sites": David Stronach (Pasargadae), Elizabeth R. M. Dusinberre (Persepolis), Trudy S. Kawami (Kuh-e Khwaja), Margaret Cool Root (Early Iranian sites). III. "Herzfeld and the Persian Empires": Pierre Briant (Achaemenid historiography and Herzfeld), Josef Wieshofer (Sasanian studies), Prods Oktor Skjaervo (Herzfeld and Iranian studies), Shakrokh Razmjou (graffiti at Persepolis). IV. "Byzantine and Islamic Art History": Gabriele Mietke (late antique and Byzantine architecture), Thomas Leisten (the architectural Hira-style), Alastair Northedge (Samarra), Robert Hillenbrand (Islamic architecture). V. "Near Eastern Studies, Cultural Politics, and Archaeological Ethics": Remy Boucharlat (French approaches to Iranian archaeology), Ali Mousavi (Iranian antiquities legislation), Rudiger vom Bruch (Herzfeld in academic context), Stefan R. Hauser (orientalism and E. Meyer's heritage), Johannes Renger (personal files), Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen (personal reminiscences of Herzfeld). Also included are Herzfeld's curriculum vitae...