Alexander Häusler (prehistoric)

Alexander Häusler (born July 3, 1930 in Tallinn ) is a German prehistorian and for six decades an important mediator between German and Soviet or Eastern European archeology and in particular a specialist in prehistoric burial customs and the connection between Indo-European studies and archeology.

Life

Alexander Häusler was born as the son of the accountant and former teacher Woldemar Häusler and the teacher Lydia Häusler, nee. Sokolova was born in Tallinn and grew up there with a Russian mother tongue. After the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the family was relocated to Kalisch in Poland, in the so-called Warthegau , which was then annexed by the German Reich . In order to avoid being returned to the Soviet Union after the end of the war, the family fled to East Germany in 1946.

Through the mediation of his brother, the Slavic professor Eugen Häusler , the father got a job as an interpreter at the University of Halle . There Alexander Häusler studied prehistory and early history with Martin Jahn from 1950 to 1955 . The subject of the diploma thesis was "The cultural and economic relations of the population groups of Central Russia at the end of the Younger Stone Age". He stayed there, later under Friedrich Schlette , as an assistant, taking part in excavations by the institute on Neolithic sites in Wahlitz (district of Jerichower Land) and Mahndorf (district of Harz). His main tasks, however, always remained the specialist translation from Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, review work, participation as a speaker and interpreter in relevant international conferences and teaching activities in Eastern European and Soviet archeology. In 1961 he received his doctorate with a thesis on "The graves of the Younger Stone Age and the Early Bronze Age in the European part of the USSR". In 1973 Alexander Häusler moved to the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Berlin under Joachim Herrmann , with about the same tasks, with teaching activities in Berlin. The place of residence and work remained Halle.

After the fall of the Wall in 1990, he was taken over by the Roman-Germanic Commission (RGK) of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and completed his habilitation in 1991 with the thesis "Structure and evolution of burial customs in the Neolithic and in the early Bronze Age of Central and Eastern Europe". In 1990 he was elected a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute. In 1995 Alexander Häusler retired. He lives with his wife Helga alternately in Halle and in Puerto de la Cruz on the Spanish island of Tenerife .

Researches

Alexander Häusler wrote extensive works on the Neolithic of Russia and the Ukraine, with the investigation of burial customs, especially the location, attitude and orientation of body burials and their cultural-historical evaluation, taking up more and more space. In this context, a decade-long particularly intensive preoccupation with the hypotheses of the so-called spa culture and its assumed role in the Indo-Germanization of Europe, which go back to Vere Gordon Childe and were long represented by Marija Gimbutas .

Fonts (selection)

• The cultural and economic relations of the population groups of Central Russia at the end of the Younger Stone Age Wiss. Z. Univ. Hall row G, vol. 5, H. 1 . Hall 1955, p. 69-146 .
• The graves of the older ocher burial culture between the Urals and the Dnepr Mountains. Scientific contributions from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg 1974/2 . Berlin 1974.
• The graves of the older ocher burial culture between the Dnepr and the Carpathian Mountains. Scientific contributions from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg 1976/1 . Berlin 1976.
• On the relations between the northern Pontic region, south-east and central Europe in the Neolithic and in the early Bronze Age and their significance for the Indo-European problem . In: Przegląd Archeologiczny 29 . 1981, p. 101-149 .
• The Majkop culture and Central Europe . In: Zschr. Arch. 28 . 1994, p. 191-246 .
• Archaeological evidence for horses and carts in Eastern and Central Europe . In: B. Hansel / S. Zimmer (Ed.): The Indo-Europeans and the Horse Horse. Festschr. B. Schlerath. Archaeolingua 4 . Budapest 1994, p. 217-257 .
• To the origin of the Indo-Europeans. Archaeological, anthropological and linguistic aspects . In: Ethnographic-Archaeological Journal 39 . Berlin 1998, p. 1-46 .
• Nomads, Indo-Europeans, invasions. The creation of a myth . In: Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 5 . Halle / Saale 2003.
• About old and new hypotheses about the origin and distribution of the Indo-Europeans . In: Fennoscandia archaeologica. XXI . Helsinki 2004, p. 23-36 .
• Contributions to the comparative study of burial customs from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age . In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory . 2011, p. 309-385 .
• Comparative studies of the burial customs of Central and Eastern Europe since the early Bronze Age . In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory 93/2009 . 2012, p. 291-400 .
• Memorabilia. On the history of the Häusler and Sokolov families . Self-published in Halle, Saale 2013.
• Remarks on the eastern regional groups of the corded ceramic cup cultures . In: Annual Journal for Central German Prehistory 94 . 2014, p. 83-123 .
• Funeral customs in comparison between Great Britain and Pakistan - Line ceramic up to the Bronze Age . In: Annual Journal for Central German Prehistory 95 . 2016, p. 67-162 .
• For the subdivision of burial fields of the linear ceramics . In: Annual Journal for Central German Prehistory 97 . 2019, p. 79-140 .

literature

• Bernd W. Bahn: Alexander Häusler on his 85th birthday . In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt 8 . 2016, p. 282-283 .