Iranica Antiqua, vol. LII, 2017 doi: 10.2143/IA.52.0.3269013
IN MEMORIAM ERNIE HAERINCK – BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ernie Haerinck, the editor of Iranica Antiqua since 1993, passed away on 5 October 2016 at the age of 67, much unexpected to all but a few peo- ple. He had realised the gravity of his illness for some time but kept it hidden from friends, family and colleagues. It gave him the time he needed to put his things in order, to complete some last scientific publications and to reflect on his life. It was very much in line with his character, meticu- lously organised and systematic in everything he did, somewhat reserved and on his own, yet at the same time very accessible to everyone. Colleagues and scholars could always rely on him for support or advice and many of us remain indebted to him. Ernie had a clear vision of what archaeology stood for and never lost track of it, even when more trendy approaches were sometimes in vogue.
(°20 June 1949 – †5 October 2016) VIII B. OVERLAET
The last few years had been very trying on him. Ernie did not have children and his beloved wife Bernice, his lifelong companion, had passed away only four years before, after a long and painful disease. Work had very much filled the void and since his retirement from his University in September 2014, he divided his time between golf and work, enjoying the long rounds on the course as much as the many hours he spend at his desk at home, working on the final reports of his excavations. Ernie considered it to be his duty to make sure that his excavations would be published. Looking back on his life, he was at peace, said he had only very few regrets and looked forward to be reunited with his wife Bernice. Ernie Haerinck was an exceptional scholar with a rare and broad know- ledge of the Near East. Following in the footsteps of a generation of pio- neers in Iranian archaeology that included his mentor Louis Vanden Berghe, he kept an eye for what he called “the bigger picture”. He never limited himself to a single specialist research but continued to cover the most diverse subjects and periods. Compiling and publishing analytical bibliographies on the archaeology of Iran and the Gulf was just one of the ways he kept track of everything that went on in his field. It also made him a welcome guest at symposia and workshops, a valued editor of Iranica Antiqua and Acta Iranica, and got him invited as a member on editorial boards of international journals like Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan, Parthica, Ancient West &