Thomas Beran

Thomas Beran in 1969 in Thale / Harz

Thomas Georg Beran (born August 17, 1926 in Reichstadt , Czechoslovakia , † February 16, 1998 ) was a German archaeologist from the Near East .

Life

Thomas Beran came from a German-Czech family in what was then the ČSR. Drafted into the German Navy in 1944, he lost one eye when his ship was sunk on April 8, 1945. After being imprisoned in England, he worked temporarily as a driver in Schleswig-Holstein. Parents and brother were only able to leave for the Soviet Zone in 1948. In 1948 Thomas Beran began studying archeology and art history at the Free University of Berlin . Together with Eva Strommenger , he was one of Anton Moortgat's first students , and since 1948 professor for Near Eastern antiquity. He received his doctorate in 1954 with a thesis on "The Assyrian Glyptik of the 14th Century and their Position in the Near East". From 1954 to 1962 he participated as an employee of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) Istanbul in its excavations in the capital of the Hittites in Hattuša -Boğazköy, where he was next to Peter Neve deputy head of excavation Kurt Bittel .

In 1962 he moved to the University of Frankfurt , initially as an assistant and lecturer at the Institute for Classical Archeology, and since 1972 as Professor for Near Eastern Archeology.

In addition to the excavations in Boğazköy, his research and publications concern almost exclusively the ancient oriental roll and stamp seals .

Fonts

• Assyrian glyptic of the 14th century. In: Journal of Assyriology . Vol. 52, Berlin 1957, pp. 141-215, doi: 10.1515 / zava.1957.52.1.141 .
• The Babylonian glyptic of the Kassite period. In: Archive for Orient Research . Vol. 18, Graz 1957-1958 (1958), pp. 255-278 ( JSTOR 41637569 ).
• Hittite cylinder seals of the Great Empire. Part I. In: Istanbul communications. Vol. 8, 1958, pp. 137 ff.
• Hittite cylinder seals of the Great Empire. Part II. In: Istanbul communications. Vol. 9/10, 1960, p. 128 ff.
• The Hittite glyptic of Boğazköy I: The seals and seal impressions of the Pre- and Old Ethite periods and the seals of the Hittite great kings (= Boğazköy-Ḫattuša. Results of the excavations of the German Archaeological Institute and the German Orient Society. Ed. V. Kurt Bittel ; = Scientific publication of the German Orient Society. Vol. 76). Berlin 1967.

literature

• Ursula Magen, Mahmoud Rashad (ed.): From Halys to the Euphrates. In honor of Thomas Beran. With contributions from friends and students (= Antiquity of the Middle East. Vol. 7). Ugarit, Münster 1996.