Vom Zweistromland zum Kupfergraben: Vorgeschichte und Entstehungsjahre (1899-1918) der Vorderasiatischen Abteilung der Berliner Museen vor fach- und kulturpolitischen Hintergrunden.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Wiedererstehendes Assur: 100 Jahre deutsche Ausgrabungen in Assyrien, Die Nachfolger der Exegeten: Deutschsprachige Erforschung des Vorderen Orients in der ersten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts - Book review

Vom Zweistromland zum Kupfergraben: Vorgeschichte und Entstehungsjahre (1899-1918) der Vorderasiatischen Abteilung der Berliner Museen vor fach- und kulturpolitischen Hintergrunden. By NICOLA CRUSEMANN. Beiheft des Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 2000. Berlin: GEBR. MANN VERLAG, 2001. Pp. 296, illus. [euro]85 (paper).

Wiedererstehendes Assur: 100 Jahre deutsche Ausgrabungen in Assyrien. Edited by JOACHIM MARZAHN and BEATE SALJE. Mainz: VERLAG PHILIPP VON ZABERN, 2003. Pp. 202, illus. [euro]39.90.

Die Nachfolger der Exegeten: Deutschsprachige Erforschung des Vorderen Orients in der ersten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. By LUDMILA HANISCH. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2003. Pp. xii + 235. [euro]58 (paper).

Every Assyriologist recognizes the immense contribution made by German scholarship to our field, but many Anglophone cuneiformists are but little acquainted with the colorful and often tragic history of the discipline in Germany. The study of the ancient Near East in that nation has flourished and declined in conjunction with major developments in global history over the past 150 years: generous governmental and private support for archaeological exploration of Anatolia, the Levant, and Mesopotamia was an aspect of German cultural and economic penetration of the Ottoman Empire, itself part of the Western European Imperialist project; defeat in the First World War and subsequent economic crisis interrupted archaeological field work and retarded philology; the racist madness and political intolerance of the Third Reich brought about the expulsion from German universities of many leading Orientalists; the Cold War confrontation between Bundesrepublik and DDR resulted in the division of museum holdings, the isolation of Western scholars from many of their primary materials, and limited cooperation between researchers in the two Germanies; reunification allowed the refurbishment of the Berlin Museums, while the abolition of the East's Akademie der Wissenschaften cost several Assyriological colleagues their positions; lately, globalization with its attendant belt-tightening has reduced professional opportunities for archaeologists and philologists in Germany, as in many other countries. The three volumes under review treat various aspects of the early stages of this history: museology, archaeological practice, and university politics, respectively.

Nicola Crusemann's Vom Zweistromland zum Kupfergraben, originally presented as a doctoral...