German Archaeological Institute Rome

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Logo of the German Archaeological Institute
The current 1st Director of the Rome Department of the DAI, Ortwin Dally

The Rome Department of the German Archaeological Institute (Italian Istituto Archeologico Germanico ) is the oldest archaeological research facility in Rome and one of the nucleus of scientific archeology . Today, the Institute is a department of the German Archaeological Institute at (DAI), which from the Roman Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica emerged and as a public institution of the Federal , headquartered in Berlin reports to the Office Foreign belongs.

The Rome Department has a library of classical studies of central importance worldwide, one of the largest specialized archeological photo collections in Italy and a wealth of tools for scientific work, including the extensive archives and the digital catalog to help you find publications quickly. The research of the DAI Rome focuses on the archeology of Italy and North Africa from prehistoric times to the early Middle Ages. The current director is Ortwin Dally , the second director Norbert Zimmermann .

History and tasks

Eduard Gerhard , the driving force behind the establishment of the institute, in the 1860s
The Casa Tarpea, the first seat of the Archaeological Institute from 1835
The building of the Archaeological Institute on the Capitol in 1877

The Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica , founded on April 21, 1829 at the Capitol in Rome in the Palazzo Caffarelli as a private association by an international group of archaeologists and artists, initially pursued the collection and publication of the rapidly growing archaeological discoveries in Italy. In regular meetings of the members and interested guests, the "adunances", new finds were presented and discussed and the methodology of the differentiating and deepening ancient studies worked out and refined. At the same time a collection of exemplary artefacts and drawings of antiquities was brought together. However, the creation and expansion of a broad-based library was particularly beneficial for the service of classical studies. This is still a central part of the institute today. The Casa Tarpea, designed by Johann Michael Knapp , has been the seat of the institute since 1835 .

The institute, which was also heavily sponsored by the Prussian kings, was converted into an institution of the German Empire in 1871 . The Imperial German Archaeological Institute since 1874 moved into a building specially built by Paul Laspeyres in neo- Pompeian style on the Capitol Hill in 1877 , which gave the rapidly growing library sufficient space. Now there was also fruitful research in the great Italian excavation sites such as Pompeii , Rome and southern Italy, in which the institute is still involved today. Many individual investigations on the great monuments of Rome and Lazio, but also catalog works, characterize the scientific work of the institute.

After the expropriation of the building on the Capitol after the First World War , the institute resumed its work in 1924 in the parish hall of the German Evangelical Church on Via Sardegna 79, where it has been based ever since. From 1944 the institute in Rome was closed as a result of the Second World War and from 1946 under the administration of the Unione internazionale degli istituti di archeologia, storia e storia dell'arte in Roma , it could only be reopened as a German institution in the summer of 1953. In 1964, a functional new building was built on Via Sardegna.

In addition to the art archeological studies in and on the large collections in Rome, which are particularly characteristic of German classical archeology, the focus today is on historical-topographical, urbanistic and architectural questions. The complex investigations, which also increasingly require interdisciplinary research, are mostly designed in close cooperation with the institutions of the host country, sometimes also in international cooperation. German universities are also included. In addition to its own research assignment, the institute also fulfills the mediation of German university research with Italian offices and colleagues. Above all, however, it endeavors to be aware of the commonality of the archaeological heritage of the cultural nations in the care, restoration and development of the sites and monuments within the scope of its own possibilities. In the last quarter of a century, the undertakings expanded to almost all of Italy as well as to the North African countries Tunisia and Algeria as well as Albania .

In addition to maintaining and providing the essential scientific apparatus for international research as well as its own research in the country, the institute endeavors to promote lively scientific exchange through a wide range of lectures and colloquia, often in close cooperation with institutions in the host country or also the other institutes in Rome. As a foreign institution in particular, it is particularly suitable as a forum for such initiatives. At the two most important celebrations of the year, the Palilientag on April 21 and the Winckelmann Festival on December 9, the birthday of Johann Joachim Winckelmann , the institute addresses a broad, interested public, while other events with a more specific topic are mainly international ones Are open to the specialist public.

One of the traditional concerns of the Roman institute is the “Pompeii course” organized annually by the in-house scientists, which gives German high school teachers of ancient language and historical subjects a deepening of their knowledge of Roman antiquity using a particularly suitable example. The great popularity of this event underscores its importance. Participation in the institute's specialist academic courses and the spring tours of the monuments and museums of Rome and the surrounding area offered by institute members every weekend from January to May are no less popular.

As an institution supported by the Federal Republic of Germany, the institute is part of the Federal Foreign Office. The majority of the research can only be carried out with the help of third funding institutions such as the German Research Foundation , the Gerda Henkel Foundation or the Fritz Thyssen Foundation . The building in Via Sardegna, which is currently closed for extensive renovation work, includes not only the actual institute facilities but also a guest wing that is reserved for external scientists for a limited stay. The branch in Villino Amelung in Via Andrea Cesalpino 1b is no less important for the work of the institute , as it is used for short-term accommodation for scholarship holders and other young scientists who are in training and who have been working longer at the institute or are involved in research projects, such as owners the travel grant of the German Archaeological Institute , and thus enables their flexible use on site.

Current state

Due to structural deficiencies in the area of ​​statics, the DAI Rome building in Via Sardegna was closed for public use in 2006. In autumn 2009, they moved into alternative quarters in Via Curtatone 4d. The library and photo library have been available to the public again since January 26, 2010. In 2015, the institute moved to a new alternative quarter in Via Valadier 37. The building in Via Sardegna 79 is being renovated and should be available to the DAI again in a few years. In January 2019, the alternative location had to be changed again; the department in Via Sicilia 136 has been accessible since June 2019.

Secretaries and directors of the Rome Department

Emil Braun, around 1840/45; including Braun's signature
Wilhelm Henzen, around 1863
First secretary or director
2. Secretary or director

The library

When the institute and its library were returned after the First World War, it was ordered that the library must never be removed from Rome, but the library was nevertheless moved to the Altaussee salt mine in the Salzkammergut at the beginning of 1944 . There she was found by Allied troops and transported back to Rome in early February 1946. From December 1947 the library was again accessible in Via Sardegna. When, after an interim administration by the Unione internazionale degli istituti di archeologia, storia e storia dell'arte in Roma, an agreement between the three Western Allies , Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1953 agreed the return of all German scientific institutes in Rome to German sponsorship , it was stipulated that the library should not be removed from Italy and that, as a center of international research, it should be open to scholars of all nations without restriction.

Today the library has over 220,000 volumes and collects literature on the classical archeology of the Mediterranean countries and the neighboring areas, i.e. on the archeology of the Greco-Roman culture from the Aegean Bronze Age to the end of the seventh century AD. Works are also acquired on classical philology and epigraphy as well as on ancient history , titles on provincial Roman archeology , prehistory and early history , Egyptology and Near Eastern antiquity are also included. Currently, well over 2,000 monographs are purchased each year and the number of current journals is around 1,200. The holdings are recorded in the ZENON library catalog and can be consulted.

The reading room in the institute's current quarters in Via Sicilia has 64 places. In principle, the library is open to scholars of all nations, students only to a limited extent for practical reasons, as the institute, as a research facility, deliberately addresses a qualified specialist audience. Due to lack of space, only some of the books are in Via Sicilia, the other volumes are stored in a magazine outside the city, but can be ordered in the reading room within a day.

Librarians

The photo library

The establishment of the photo library at the end of the 1920s under Ludwig Curtius followed the need for a suitable working tool that would satisfy the growing importance of photographs for the analysis of form of archaeological objects. The collection currently comprises around 300,000 photographs, of which around 200,000 are negatives. The collection is arranged according to the main types of material within Classical Archeology: sculpture , portrait , sarcophagus , relief , architecture , architectural sculpture , topography , painting , mosaic , terracotta , gold - silver, inscriptions , numismatics , prehistory and early history. Within these genres there are subdivisions according to typological or chronological criteria. At the same time, the objects shown are arranged topographically. The photos are accessible as original prints according to these classification criteria. In addition, those photographs whose publication rights are held by the institute are made accessible via the so-called Negativalben. Here you can quickly find out which pieces or views can be ordered as prints in the photo library. A third possibility of access to the monuments located on Italian soil is secured via the so-called "Italy boxes" arranged alphabetically by city.

In contrast to other photo collections whose main interest lies in historical photographs or which manage special estates, the institute's photo library is a working tool that is constantly being expanded. The photo campaigns, which are carried out with our own specialist staff and our own photo laboratory, are primarily possible thanks to the cooperation of the antiquities administrations of the host country. Today it is particularly important to supplement the holdings through regular new recordings, to document new finds and to record changed museum displays of well-known works of art photographically for scientific research.

The holdings of the photo library can be fully researched via the Arachne database .

ladder

The publications

The publication of scientific research is a central task of the DAI Rome. Various forms of book publication have been developed for this purpose.

The since 1886-annual reports of the German Archaeological Institute, Rome Department (short: Roman releases , abbreviation RM ) are the immediate successor of the 1829-1885 published Annali di dell'Instituto Corrispondenza Archaeological . The journal is open to contributions from researchers from all over the world in German, Italian, English and French who pursue questions of ancient studies with a focus on the archeology of Italy and North Africa.

The monographic series are important organs of the professional world for the research field of the institute, whereby primarily German-language publications come into play. The supplementary booklets of the Römische Mitteilungen (complete messages from the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department. Supplementary booklets ) have a strong profile in the area of ​​works in which exemplary material is provided, especially for ancient sculpture. This series was discontinued in 1999 with Volume 34. The series of special publications of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome , which has been published since 1973 and which, with its generous format, is primarily used for the publication of architecture in sophisticated building photographs, is also characterized by particularly high image quality . The Palilia series is leaner and cheaper volumes , which are particularly open to current and new issues and also look for and find current references in the form of anthologies and colloquium publications.

Real catalog and archaeological bibliography

The subject indexing of the library holdings at the Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica was carried out using card boxes from the start. This resulted in the so-called real catalog . The annual new entries were displayed in printed form from 1914 as a bibliography for the yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute , and from 1933 as an archaeological bibliography . August Mau wrote the first printed bibliography from 1900 to 1902. With the inclusion of articles and new acquisitions by Eugen von Mercklin and Friedrich Matz , from 1913 to 1932 all of the literature on classical studies available at the Roman Institute up to the year of publication 1925 was finally merged into one bibliographical structure. In order to make this generally accessible as a working tool, a new real catalog was tackled in 1958, initially in the form of an item index in card format. A photomechanical edition of this was printed in 13 volumes in 1969, and a microfiche version was presented in 1985 . Since 1976, the annual increase has been published in an independent printed form as an archaeological bibliography . The printed edition was discontinued with the volume in 1993. Since 1990 the newer literature, since 1992 the entire bibliography from the year of publication 1956, has been digitally recorded and indexed . At first they worked together with the ancient science database project Dyabola . The archaeological bibliography is no longer continued in its old form; it has been included in the online library catalog of all DAI libraries ( ZENON DAI ) that has been available since 2002 .

Editor of the real catalog

Projects

Current field research projects of the institute are:

Completed projects dealt with: [[File :: Chimtou, Roman Forum.jpg | mini | Chimtou, Roman Form]]

The current research projects of the DAI Rome are listed on the institute's homepage.

literature

  • Adolf Michaelis : History of the German Archaeological Institute 1829–1879 . Asher, Berlin 1879 ( digitized version ).
  • Friedrich Noack : The Germanness in Rome since the end of the Middle Ages . Volume 1. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1927, pp. 414-418 and 424 ( digitized version ).
  • Gerhart Rodenwaldt : Archaeological Institute of the German Empire 1829–1929 . de Gruyter, Berlin 1929 ( digitized version ).
  • Anita Rieche : 150 years of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. Exhibition catalog . Edited by the Theodor Wiegand Society . Society of Friends of the German Archaeological Institute. Non-profit administration company for science care , Essen 1979, ISBN 3-922275-00-1 .
  • The German Archaeological Institute. History and documents . 10 volumes. Zabern, Mainz 1979–1986, especially:
  • Bernard Andreae : A short history of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome presented in the work of its leading scholars . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department 100, 1993, pp. 5–41 ( digitized version ).
  • Klaus Junker : The Archaeological Institute of the German Reich between research and politics: the years 1929 to 1945 . Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2339-5 ( digitized version ).
  • Golo Maurer : Prussia on the Tarpeian Rock. Chronicle of a foreseeable fall. The history of the German Capitol 1817–1918 . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1728-7 .
  • Thomas Fröhlich : The German Archaeological Institute in Rome in the war and post-war period until it reopened in 1953 . In: German research and cultural institutes in Rome in the post-war period . Niemeyer, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-484-82112-5 , pp. 139-179 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : German Archaeological Institute Rome  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Today alternately in Pompeii or Rome, website .
  2. ↑ Construction project at the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning .
  3. ^ Relocation of the Rome department completed. Retrieved July 22, 2019 .
  4. ^ Lothar Wickert: Contributions to the history of the German Archaeological Institute 1879 to 1929 . Zabern, Mainz 1979, p. 77 f.
  5. ^ Library website .
  6. ^ ZENON catalog of the Rome department .
  7. ↑ Photo library website .
  8. ^ Page of the photo library at Arachne .
  9. ↑ Overview of publications .
  10. ^ Roman communications .
  11. ↑ Supplementary booklets to the Roman communications .
  12. ↑ Special publications of the German Archaeological Institute Rome .
  13. ↑ Palilia .
  14. ^ August Mau: Catalog of the library of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute in Rome . 2 volumes. Löscher, Rome 1900–1902; ( Digitized version ).
  15. ^ Catalog of the library of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute in Rome . Revised by Eugen von Mercklin and Friedrich Matz. 2 volumes in 4 sub-volumes and a supplement. Löscher, Rome / de Gruyter, Berlin 1913–1932.
  16. ^ Catalogs of the library of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome . Hall, Boston 1969.
  17. ^ Real catalog of the library of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute, Rome. Microfiche version of the titles recorded between 1956 and 1985 according to subject groups . Rome 1985. 335 microfiches.
  18. ↑ ZENON DAI .
  19. ^ Projects of the DAI Rome .