Ernst Emil Herzfeld (July 23, 1879–January 21, 1948) was an German archaeologist and Iranologist. July 23 is the 204th day (205th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 161 days remaining. ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Iranology is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of Iranian cultural continent. ...

Herzfeld was born in Celle, Germany. He studied architecture in Munich and Berlin, while also taking classes in Assyriology, ancient history and art history. Celle is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Assyriology is the historical and archaeological study of ancient Mesopotamia. ... The times before writing belong either to protohistory or to prehistory. ... This article is about the academic discipline of art history. ...

1903-05 he was assistant to Walter Andrae in the acclaimed excavations of Assur, and later traveled widely in Iraq and Iran at the beginning of the twentieth century. He surveyed and documented many historical sites in Turkey, Syria, Persia (later Iran) and most importantly in Iraq (e.g. Baghdad, Ctesiphon). At Samarra he carried out the first excavations of an Islamic period site in 1911-13. After military service during World War I he was appointed full professor for "Landes- und Altertumskunde des Orients" in Berlin in 1920. This was the first professorship for Near/Middle Eastern archaeology in the world. 1923-25 he started explorations in Persia and described many of the countries´ most important ruins for the first time. In 1925 he moved to Tehran and stayed there most of the time until 1934. He was instrumental in creating a Persian law of antiquities and excavated in the Achaimenid capitals Pasargadae and Persepolis. Assur (Assyrian: ܐܫܘܪ) also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian AÅ¡Å¡ur, was the capital of ancient Assyria. ... Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... Ctesiphon, 1932 Ctesiphon (Parthian and Pahlavi: Tyspwn as well as Tisfun, Persian: ‎, also known as in Arabic Madain, Maden or Al-Madain: المدائن) is one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia and the capital of the Parthian Empire and its successor, the Sassanid Empire, for more than 800 years... Map showing Samarra near Baghdad Sāmarrā (سامراء) is a town in Iraq ( ). It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad Din Governorate, 125 km north of Baghdad and, in 2002, had an estimated population of 201,700. ... Pasargadae was a city in ancient Persia, and is today an archaeological site and one of Irans UNESCO World Heritage Sites. ... Persepolis aerial view. ...

He left Iran at the end of 1934 for a year in London, but never returned. In 1935 he was forced to leave his position in Germany and became a faculty member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1936 to 1944. He died in Basel, Switzerland in 1948. Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, U.S.A., designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists and scholars in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship. ... Basel (British English traditionally: Basle and more recently Basel , German: , French: , Italian: ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (166,563 inhabitants (2004); 690,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerlands second-largest urban area as of 2003). ...

Literary works

• Iranische Felsreliefs, 1910
• Archäologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris-Gebiet, 4 Vols., 1911-1920 (together with Friedrich Sarre
• Paikuli, 2 Vols., 1924
• Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra, 5 Vols., 1923-1930
• Archaeological history of Iran, 1934
• Altpersische Inschriften, 1938
• Iran in the ancient East, 1940
• Zoroaster and his world, 2 Vols., 1947

The Tigris is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

References

• Iranica: Herzfeld

Gunter, Ann C. / Stefan R. Hauser (eds.), Ernst Herzfeld and the Development of Near Eastern Studies, 1900-1950. Leiden: Brill 2005.

See also

• Iranology

Iranology is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of Iranian cultural continent. ...

External links

• Pierre Briant: Milestones in the Development of Achaemenid Historiography in the Times of Ernst Herzfeld (1879-1948), at http://www.achemenet.com.