Faculty of PhilosophyNear Eastern Archaeology

Near Eastern archaeology is part of general history studies. It deals with the material legacies of the Ancient Near East. The main focus here is on the development and revision of archaeological relicts as historical sources of Near Eastern settlement and cultural history. The inclusion of ancient Near Eastern textual sources is essential for the analysis of the historical periods.

The subject’s geographical area reaches from Iran in the East to Syria and Turkey in the West, from the Caucasus in the North to southern Arabia in the South. Nowadays, this area, which is defined by extremely different geographical and climatic conditions, encompasses numerous countries with various population groups and a variety of languages and religions.

The period covered by the subject reaches from general human settlement after the end of the last ice age to the early days of Islam. The period is therefore around 12,000 years. One area of specialisation is the study of ancient eastern high cultures from the late Chalcolithic period in the 4th century BC until the end of the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century BC. The high cultures settled in what is today Iraq, Syria and the Levantine nations, Turkey and western Iran. 

The following topics, artefacts or art forms are also taken into special consideration by the subject:
settlement history, urbanisation and topography of ancient eastern towns, architecture, manufacturing techniques and technology transfer, artisanal art, e.g. ceramics, devices and weapons, sculptures and reliefs, small sculptures made from stone, metal and terracotta, glyptic, murals, etc.