German Archaeological Institute Istanbul

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Logo of the German Archaeological Institute

The German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul Department ( Turkish Alman Arkeoloji Enstitüsü ) is a foreign department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), a federal agency within the Federal Foreign Office . The research focus of the department is the study of the history of the region of Asia Minor and neighboring areas from prehistory to the Ottoman period . The current director is Felix Pirson , Katja Piesker has been the second director since 2017 .

history

The Istanbul department of the DAI was founded in 1929, the year of the institute's centenary. Previously, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various research projects in Asia Minor had been carried out by the Prussian Academy of Sciences , the Berlin Orient Comité , the German Orient Society and the Royal Prussian Museums . The latter in particular created the prerequisites for founding a research institute in the country through a series of city excavations in western Asia Minor ( Didyma , Magnesia am Mäander , Milet , Myus , Pergamon , Priene ).

Carl Humann, founder of institutional German research in Asia Minor; Painting by Osman Hamdi Bey (1894)

In 1886 Carl Humann set up a station for the Prussian Museums in Smyrna , which was then moved to Istanbul in 1899 by his successor Theodor Wiegand . Martin Schede managed the station from 1912 until it was closed after the end of the First World War in 1918 . In 1924 it came back to life under Schedes' leadership as a "base for institute excavations" and now increasingly represented the interests of the DAI. In 1928 the conversion of the station into a branch of the DAI was decided and approved by the Turkish government. In 1929 the German Reich approved the necessary funds, and with Martin Schede as the first director, an outbuilding of the German hospital was used as new accommodation. The official name was "Department of the Archeology and History of Turkey".

When diplomatic relations between Turkey and Germany were broken off, the department was closed in August 1944. After the end of the war , Istanbul University took over the trusteeship and continued reading in the library. After the institute was returned to the Federal Republic of Germany , it reopened in February 1954, and old research projects were soon continued and new ventures started. A sign of the lively activity, which now increasingly extended to Central and Eastern Anatolia , was the establishment of a station of the Istanbul Institute in Ankara in 1958. However, it was closed again in 1995.

Historical view of the former consulate general and previous embassy which now houses the DAI Istanbul

The increasing workforce and the increase in library holdings in the following decades made the search for a new quarter necessary. In 1989 the department was finally able to move into the building of the German Consulate General in Istanbul , the former imperial embassy of the German Reich. The Wolfgang Müller Wiener Kolleg also offers guest rooms for scientists who want to work in-house or in Istanbul, as well as for travel grant recipients.

Tasks and research

The founding director Martin Schede formulated the task of the department as follows: “In few countries in the world the different cultures have followed each other so often, have displaced each other so thoroughly and yet again influenced each other as decisively as in today's Turkey. So it will be the archeology and history of Turkey from the most ancient to the most recent to which the work of the Institute will be dedicated ”. In accordance with this objective, not only archaeologists, historians and building researchers, but also representatives of ancient Near Eastern studies , Christian archeology , Byzantine and Oriental studies were and are working directly at the department or in an advisory capacity. The spectrum of research is correspondingly broad.

The scientific staff of the department currently (as of 2012) consists of two directors and four PhD speakers as well as two to four research assistant positions. In addition, DAI foreign scholarship holders are resident in the department for stays of one or more years and, on a case-by-case basis, employees of projects. Following the tradition of the founding years, members of the department still teach at Istanbul universities.

Stoa of the Agora of Miletus (2007)

One of the main focuses of the institute's activities is traditionally Byzantium- Istanbul. The focus of the research is on the documentation of building remains from the Byzantine and early Ottoman times, research on the historical city topography and the building survey of the wooden house architecture of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which is increasingly threatened with disappearing. The second focus is the city excavations in the west of the country, of which Pergamon is under the personal management of the DAI, while other excavations are or have been carried out as cooperation projects with German universities: Miletus with the University of Bochum , Didyma with the University of Halle , Priene with the University of Frankfurt and Aizanoi with the University of Freiburg .

Traditionally, prehistoric excavations are strongly represented in the research of the department. In addition to numerous smaller undertakings, the excavations in the late Bronze Age Hittite capital Hattuša (Boğazköy), which began in 1931 and continue to this day, should be mentioned here. In the course of the international rescue excavations in the area of ​​the large dam projects on the Euphrates , the investigations at Norşuntepe and Hassekhöyük were carried out, and since 1995 the excavations at the early Neolithic mountain sanctuary Göbeklitepe have been running in cooperation with the Orient Department of the DAI .

Restoration projects are also carried out at all excavation sites. This includes securing building findings as well as the restoration or reconstruction of buildings or parts of buildings and the erection of protective structures. Together with the Turkish authorities, master plans are also being developed for the safeguarding and tourism development of the archaeological sites.

In addition to the excavations, survey projects in selected areas were and are an essential part of the department's research. This includes, for example, projects for general archaeological land surveys with the search for ancient remains, projects for research into the topography of settlements in cities and landscapes, historical building recordings and the targeted collection of epigraphic legacies. The department's survey projects are currently taking place in the Pergamon area, in Oinoanda in Lycia and Germia in Galatia . Often such survey projects, as well as short-term excavation projects, are carried out in cooperation with Turkish universities or museums.

Cooperation with Turkish and foreign scientists is an aspect that has gained additional importance in recent years. The department organizes conferences and maintains a network which, within the framework of the DAI research cluster, is particularly aimed at young scientists. As part of two scientific lecture series in the winter half-year, employees of the department and guests from abroad report on the latest research; in spring, public tours are offered at selected locations in the city.

The library

Winckelmann lecture 2018 in the reading room

The department's library is the largest specialized library of its kind in Turkey. It comprises around 60,000 volumes and 200 current journals. The nucleus of the holdings was the reference library of the Prussian Museums station, which received duplicates from the Rome and Athens departments through an agreement with the Archaeological Institute. In addition, larger library holdings were donated from private sources and from dissolved foreign research institutes in the early years. In 2013 the Ekrem Akurgal library was opened, donated to the department of Meral Akurgal, the widow of Ekrem Akurgal, from his estate.

The focus is naturally on archeology and art and building history . There are also extensive holdings on ancient oriental and ancient philologies, oriental studies , regional studies in Turkey and neighboring areas, as well as early travelogues. An important collection of historical maps is also kept. The library holdings are currently being digitally recorded and can be consulted via the ZENON library catalog .

The photo library

Building a photo collection was one of the department's primary tasks from the start. Here, too, as with the library, donated or purchased collections are an essential element. The repertoire of the Istanbul archive includes a wide range of historical recordings from the 1850s, in particular by the photographers James Robertson , Sébah & Joailler, the Abdullah Frères and Guillaume Berggren, as well as successive collections from photo campaigns on art and culturally important sites and museums in Anatolia .

In autumn 2011 an inventory of all archived image carriers was carried out for the first time. At this point in time, the department's photo archive contained 10,235 glass plates, 44,182 roll-ups, 40,665 small-image and 2,213 large-image negatives. A further 3,440 glass plates, 48,567 roll and 62,297 small picture and 182 large picture negatives were counted in the separately managed Pergamon archive. A total of 211,781 image carriers are thus stored in both archives.

In the last decades, the most comprehensive possible pictorial documentation of archaeological monuments of Turkey was a focus of the work. There is also a large inventory of historical recordings from the 19th and early 20th centuries, which provide information about costumes , handicrafts , rural implements, village architecture and way of life, but also about the early days of industrial plants and railroad structures in the country. The best known are the photographs of Ottoman Istanbul from the Sébah & Joaillier studio and the Swedish photographer Guillaume Berggren.

The digitization of the holdings is in progress. As part of the DAI's Emagines project , glass plate negatives can already be queried in the Arachne image database . The aim is the complete inclusion of the Istanbul inventory in this database.

The publications

The annual magazine Istanbuler Mitteilungen is peer-reviewed and a general forum for discussing the archeology and cultural history of Asia Minor and related areas from prehistory to the Ottoman era. More extensive work on these topics can be found in the Istanbul Research Series . The Byzas series has been published since 2005, mainly including conference reports and anthologies. The Miras series , which started in 2011, is intended for monument preservation , conservation and site management work at archaeological sites in Asia Minor. In addition, individual publications are published as required. The annual information booklet DAI istanbul contains up-to-date brief information on ongoing work at the department. They appear both in print and on the department's website, which is available in German, English and Turkish.

List of directors

Directors , since 1954 1st directors

Founding director Schede ; Image from the archive of the DAI

2. Directors

literature

  • Kurt Bittel : Istanbul Department . In: ders. Among other things: Contributions to the history of the German Archaeological Institute from 1929 to 1979. Part 1. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1979, pp. 65–91.
  • Kayıp Zamanların Peşinde. Alman Arkeoloji Enstitüsü Anadolu Kazıları / In search of vanished times. The excavations of the German Archaeological Institute in Turkey . Exhibition catalog Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık, Istanbul 1999, ISBN 975-363-970-8 (including Harald Hauptmann : The Istanbul Department of the German Archaeological Institute , pp. 29–39).
  • Adolf Hoffmann : 75 years at the German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul Department. In: DAI Istanbul 2/2004, pp. 1–5. PDF
  • Richard Posamentir : 75 years of archaeological activity. In: DAI Istanbul 2/2004, pp. 6-15. PDF PDF
  • Gerd Wädo: Library history as part of the institute's history using the example of the Istanbul Department of the German Archaeological Institute. Berlin Works on Library and Information Science Vol. 23. Logos, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-8325-1843-1 .
  • Felix Pirson : Some Thoughts concerning the Future Aims and Directions of the Istanbul Branch of the German Archaeological Institute . In: Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi arkeoloji dergisi (TÜBA-AR). 12, 2009, pp. 89-95.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ In: Kurt Bittel: Istanbul Department , in: Derselbe among others: Contributions to the history of the German Archaeological Institute from 1929 to 2979. Part 1 , Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1979, p. 79
  2. ↑ Compilation for the years 1929 to 2004 in: Richard Posamentir: 75 years of archaeological activity , in: DAI Istanbul 2/2004, pp. 6–15
  3. ↑ Employee of the department ( Memento from June 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Opening of the Ekrem Akurgal library in the Istanbul department ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dainst.org
  5. ↑ ZENON catalog Istanbul department
  6. ↑ Photo library ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dainst.org
  7. ↑ Istanbuler Mitteilungen ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dainst.org
  8. ↑ Istanbul Research  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dainst.org  
  9. ↑ Byzas  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dainst.org  
  10. ↑ Miras ( Memento of the original from February 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dainst.org
  11. ↑ DAI istanbul  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dainst.org