2016 • If we want to preserve 2 ARCHAEOLOGY our cultural heritage, WORLDWIDE 2 • 2016 we need your support. Magazine of the German Archaeological Institute AEOLOGY WORLDWIDE ch AR T WG Archaeology Worldwide – volume four – Berlin, December 2016 – DAI Here’s how to help: WWW.TWGES.DE Gesellschaft der Freunde des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts TheodorW iegand Gesellschaft e. V. Wissenschaftszentrum Bonn Ahrstraße 45, 53175 Bonn Photo: Gerlach Nadja Kajan Tel.: +49 228 30 20 It began all of 8,000 years ago. Contacts over a long period between Southern Arabia and the Fax: +49 228 30 22 70 Horn of Africa can be established archaeologically. Just how extensive Southern Arabian influ- [email protected] ence on Ethiopia was is being investigated by the German Archaeological Institute in a project at Yeha funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Impressive evidence of these trans- TheodorW iegand Gesellschaft regional contacts is provided by the Great Temple of Yeha. This remarkable monument is being Deutsche Bank AG, Essen restored with the help of local workers as part of a joint Ethiopian-German project under way IBAN DE20 3607 0050 0247 1944 00 since 2009. To stabilize the building, steel scaffolding began to be erected in autumn 2016, re- TITLE STORY BIC DEUTDEDEXXX placing a temporary scaffold structure. or Bonner Sparkasse, Bonn IBAN DE88 3705 0198 0029 0058 08 IENT WORLD C Surveying BIC COLSDE33XXX E AN H Your donations are the Ancient World tax-deductible. The natural sciences in archaeology Thank you! SURVEYING T EVERYDAY AR ch AEOLOGY CULTURAL HERITAGE FO C US Close-up Palace of Lasting Happiness Mergers and acquisitions www.dainst.org Everyday life in an ancient Sino-German cooperation The institutionalization of the Egyptian town natural sciences at the DAI THE NEPHRITE SCEPTRE FROM XOM REN in northern Vietnam measures 64 cm and is the biggest ornamental stone artefact from south-east Asia. It was discovered by chance in 2006 along with other funerary items in a late Stone Age grave at the site, and dates approximately Archaeology worldwide to the 13th century BC. Places visited in this issue: Beijing, China. Cultural Heritage, page 20 Buto, Egypt. Title Story, page 48 Dahshur, Egypt. Landscape, page 30 Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands. Title Story, page 53 Rome, Italy. The Object, page 36 Dulan, China. Title Story, page 56 Afghanistan. Title Story, page 42 Ounianga Basin, Chad. Title Story, page 57 Tehran, Iran. Title Story, page 42 Berlin, Germany. Title Story, page 62 Pietrele, Romania. Title Story, page 46 Elephantine, Egypt. Everyday Archaeology, page 72 THE GOLD SEAL OF EMPEROR MINH MANG, which weighs 4.7 kg, is the heaviest gold object in the Vietnamese archaeological exhibition in Germany. On the square seal base the grip is in the form of an imperial dragon. This „imperial seal for the control of the calendar of our glorious time“, made in 1827, was kept at the imperial court in Huế until 1945 when it was transferred after the revolution to the National Museum of Vietnamese History in Hanoi. Photos: Nguyễn Quốc B.nh “Relations between Germany and Vietnam are close and varied. Our countries are linked together by a cultural accord signed over 25 years ago and by a Strategic Partnership established in 2011. The good relations bet- ween Germany and Vietnam are also supported by the many interwoven biographies and the intensive cooperation in the cultural and educational sphere. It therefore comes as something of a surprise that “Treasures of the Archaeology of Vietnam” is the first exhibition of its scale on the cultural history of Vietnam to be held in Germany. The exhibition is the result of long-term planning and great enthusi- asm. Thanks for this is due to the German Archaeological Institute, which is acting as principal curator and has shown real commit- CO V E R ph OTO ment to the project.” The sunlike body pictured on the cover is in fact micro- From the foreword to the catalogue, jointly written by German scopic, measuring a mere 5 to 200 µm. The photo shows Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Vietnam‘s Minister pollen from a species of geranium. Pollen grains are capable of Culture, Sport and Tourism, Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện, patron of the of surviving for thousands of years. They enable scientists to make exhibition. inferences about plant cover at the time they were deposited and thus are indicative of climatic conditions in the far distant past. A highly involved THE BIGGEST BRONZE DRUM OF preparatory process in the lab is necessary before pollen can be analysed T H E E X H I B ITION SOUTHEAST ASIA was found in Sao Vàng under the microscope. Interpreting the findings after analysis is complex in Thanh Hóa Province in northern Vietnam and requires a knowledge of ecology and biology, knowledge about 400 exhibits from 45 find assemblages illustrate the ten in 2006. It has a diameter of 1.26 m and is climate in different periods, about wind direction and wind speed, and millennia long history of Vietnam. The exhibition is laid richly decorated with houses and boats, feather-adorned warriors and animals, most particularly about the dispersal capacity of plant species. out on the plan of a temple complex with a full-scale symbolizing the transmigration of the soul At the German Archaeological Institute, pollen analyses as well as analyses model of a temple in the centre. Large-format photo- from this life to the world of the ancestors of botanic macroremains are carried out by archaeobotanists in the Natural graphs give an impression of Vietnam‘s landscapes and – some 2,000 ago. Science section. cultures. Photo: Dinies EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DEAR READERS, Interest in the past has always been linked but firmly, British physicist and author C. P. with the natural sciences. Rudolf Virchow, Snow‘s declared belief in the irreconcila- for instance, was instrumental in founding bility of “the two cultures” – literature and the Berlin Anthropological Society in 1869, humanities on one side and the scienc- which later became the Berlin Society for es and technology on the other. Modern Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. archaeological practice has no alterna- For a long time studies on human and ani- tive: the two cultures must be brought mal evolution were only possible through together harmoniously and made to com- studying the morphology of skeletons. It municate so that sound, solid and above is therefore no new thing that archaeolo- all comprehensive results can be achieved gy and the natural sciences work together. and so that archaeology can deliver on its Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Friederike Fless What is new is the multiplicity of methods mission to utilize knowledge of the past President of the German Archaeological that have become available and continue for the preservation of our cultural heri- Institute to develop rapidly in parallel to advances tage. Modern archaeology can thus also Photo: Kuckertz in technology. serve as an example for other scientific Since the discovery of the double helix disciplines. of the human genome, DNA analysis has In this issue, our Cover Story illustrates rapidly come to be a now indispensable how the collaboration between archaeo- method in medicine, criminalistics and logy and the natural sciences can func- archaeology too. The results of investiga- tion. And how international cooperation tions into ancient DNA are now firmly part specifically can lead to ground-breaking of the spectrum of archaeological sources. results is shown in the Cultural Heritage These and other methods offer insights section with a feature on Chinese-German into the kinship and migrations of human activities at the Sacred Pond Pavilion in groups. In conjunction with natural sci- the Forbidden City, Beijing. The Panorama ence and classical archaeological inves- section proves the point that authors of tigations into climatic processes in times archaeological manuscripts should never past, we are getting ever closer to a full un- give up hope. It can happen that they get derstanding of humans in their respective published 90 years after submission. environments in the ancient world. The reciprocal relationship of humans and na- I hope you enjoy reading this issue of our ture is today a central question in archae- magazine! ological excavations. Answering this question depends on the cooperation of many disciplines. And if this kind of interdisciplinary research is to be successful, we need to refute, politely Prof. Friederike Fless ARCHÄOLOGIE WELTWEIT _ 01 CULTURAL HERITAGE 4 NEWS PALACE OF LASTING HAPPINESS 12 FOCUS Sino-German cooperation on carefully restoring Mergers and acquisitions an architectural monument The institutionalization of the natural sciences at the DAI S NT 20 E 20 CULTURAL HERITAGE CONTENTS Palace of Lasting Happiness – Sino-German cooperation on CONT carefully restoring an architectural monument 28 STANDPOINT Archaeology in the Anthropocene THE OBJECT NEWS 30 LANDSCApe 361836 – Emil Braun and the A garden in the desert – Pharaonic landscape architecture 4ARCHAEOMETRIE- first library catalogue of the NETZWERK BERLIN- Institute of Archaeological 36 THE OBJECT 1836 – Emil Braun and the first library catalogue of the Institute BRANDEnbURG Correspondence in Rome of Archaeological Correspondence in Rome TITLE STORY 38 Surveying the ancient world – The natural sciences in archaeology 42 On the trail of early metallurgy 46 The chemistry of sherds – Internal inspection of a key category of finds 49 38TITLE STORY Built on stone – Geoscientific investigations in the capital of the Hittites 53 The age of trees – SURVEYING THE Dendrochronology in economic and cultural history 57 Story of a desert – Archaeobotanical studies on plants in the Sahara ANCIENT WORLD 62 The origin of European farm animals – The natural sciences in archaeology What classical archaeozoology and genetic analysis can tell us about cultivated forms 64 The child in a bowl – Prehistoric anthropology reconstructs an infant life 68 PORTRAIT Susanne Sievers & Kerstin P.