Berthold Riese

Berthold Riese (born March 30, 1944 in Waldshut , Baden ) is a German ethnologist and archaeologist with a focus on ancient American studies .

Life

Berthold Riese studied ethnology , sinology , religious studies , geology , prehistory and early history and ancient American studies at the universities in Heidelberg and Hamburg . Riese received his doctorate in Hamburg in 1971 with a thesis on Maya script, where he was then from 1971 to 1977 scientific assistant, lecturer and substitute professor at the Department of Ethnology . 1979/80 the vacancy replacement for a professorship for ancient American studies at the Latin American Institute in Berlin followed. He used a post-doctoral fellowship from the German Research Foundation , which ran from 1978 to 1981 , for his habilitation with a thesis on the history of central Mexican religion at the Free University of Berlin . From 1981 to 1989, Riese was professor of ancient American studies there. During the time he was also Getty Scholar at the Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Santa Monica California , he to prepare for a three-volume monograph on the sculpture of Copan used. Since 1989, Berthold Riese has been Professor of Ethnology, with a special focus on Ancient American Studies, at the University of Bonn , where he is Deputy and Executive Director of the Department of Ethnology (Institute for Ancient American Studies and Ethnology). In 2003 he was appointed honorary professor at the East China Teacher Training College in Shanghai .

Riese first conducted archaeological field research in 1966 at the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico . From 1969 to 1972 field research followed in archives and museums in Mexico and the USA . From 1977 to 1983, archaeological and epigraphic research was carried out in the Mayan city ​​of Copán, including excavations for settlement, recording sculptures and inscriptions , and advising the museums in Tegucigalpa and Copán. In 1991 and 1993 to 1995 there were further research trips to Mexico with field research on Mexicano and to California with field research and archive work on Cahuilla . In 1996/97 Riese traveled to Northeast Brazil for the first time for research purposes ( Natal and João Pessoa ), from 1998 to 2000 again archival work and ethnographic field research followed in Mexico. In 2001, 2003, and 2004 Riese visited Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou several times for information, lectures and field research . This served to prepare a cooperative research project on the comparison of Asian and Mesoamerican writing systems .

Riese is co-founder and first editor of the trade journal mexicon as well as editorial staff of the trade journal Indiana and editor of the journal for ethnology . From 1987 to 1990 he was the first chairman of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory and temporary editor of its organ: Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft . In 1989 he was the founder and director of the Biographical Archive for Anthropology . Riese is also a member of the German Archaeological Institute , the Société des Américanistes in Paris . He is also a collaborator on the edition project of the American travel book Alexander von Humboldt , permanent advisor to the New German Biography of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Fonts

• The Maya. History, culture, religion. CH Beck, Munich 1995, 7th revised edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-46264-1 ( CH Beck Wissen ).
• Machu Picchu. The mysterious city of the Inca. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-406-52117-1 ( CH Beck knowledge ).
• The Aztec Empire. History and culture. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61400-2 .
• The fall of the sun gods. The advanced cultures of ancient America. Herder, Freiburg in Breisgau 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-29986-5 .

Individual evidence

• Institute for Ancient American Studies and Ethnology Bonn, CV and research projects
• Institute for Ancient American Studies and Ethnology Bonn ( Memento from October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

• Literature by and about Berthold Riese in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Berthold Riese in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin