Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
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Servicemenü
Hauptbereich
Museum of the Ancient Near East
Babylon - Wissenskultur in Orient und Okzident (Symposium, 26 - 28 June 2008, Pergamon Museum, Theodor-Wiegand-Saal)
Education at the National Museums in Berlin
The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
The El-Amarna Letters at the Vorderasiatisches Museum of Berlin
Tell Halaf Project
Since 2001 the Tell Halaf Project, funded by the Sal. Oppenheim and Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim Foundations as well as the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, has been working on the remains of the Max von Oppenheim-collection. This famous collection which used to be on display in the Berlin Tell Halaf Museum was badly damaged during an air raid in November of 1943. Although the fragments of colossal basalt sculptures could be salvaged and stored in the magazines of the Museum of the Ancient Near East, the monuments were considered beyond restoration. The project's aim is to reassemble and restore the unique artefacts from Tell Halaf (ancient Guzana) dating back to the 1st millennium B.C. The result will be a major addition to the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Ancient Near East.
After a break of 77 years the excavations at the site of Tell Halaf in North-East Syria were taken up again in August of 2006. It is a joint mission by the State Museums of Berlin and the Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées Damas in co-operation with the universities of Halle and Tübingen. Research is focussed on the settlement's chronology, its structure and geography. Furthermore the excavators hope to gain more insight into the cultural development of the region in the early 1st millennium B.C. as well as to shed some light on the role of the site in prehistoric times.
Further Informations: Dr. Lutz Martin, telephone: +49-(0)30-2090 5305, E-Mail: vam@smb.spk-berlin.de
Websites:
www.grabung-halaf.de
www.tell-halaf-projekt.de
Tell Knedig Project
Between 1993 and 1997, the Museum of Ancient Near East took part in archaeological excavations in the Habur region of North-East Syria. The focus of the scientific research (supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) was, among other things, the clarification of a village-type settlement structure in the early third century B.C. Research results are currently being evaluated and will subsequently be published. They enrich the present knowledge on questions of chronology and function in the Lower Habur region. Additionally, the research results of the excavation make a contribution to the reflections on the topography of the Early Bronze Age in Upper Mesopotamia.
Further Informations: Dr. Lutz Martin, telephone: +49-(0)30-2090 5305, E-Mail: vam@smb.spk-berlin.de
Syria
Since 1997, the Museum of the Ancient Near East has been able to expand its holdings through four important collections of ancient near eastern art monuments. Among these are, next to the restored sculptures from the Tell Halaf Museum (destroyed in the Second World War), selected findings from the German rescue excavations at the Syrian river Euphrates in the 1970s and 1980s. A comprehensive presentation of the new collection, however, will only be possible after the Pergamon Museum has been fully restored. On the occasion of the Year of the Humanities, in a lecture series on 8 November 2007 the excavators will talk about their research and present selected recent acquisitions.
