Walter Andrae (February 18, 1875 – July 28, 1956) was a German

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

born near

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. He was part of the mission that stole the

Ishtar Gate The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed circa 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part ...

out of Iraq in the 1910s.

Career

Archaeologist

He initially studied

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, and in 1898 participated in an archaeological dig at

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

under the leadership of

Robert Koldewey Robert Johann Koldewey (10 September 1855 – 4 February 1925) was a German archaeologist, famous for his in-depth excavation of the ancient city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. He was born in Blankenburg am Harz in Germany, the duchy of Brunswick, ...

(1855–1925), where he played an influential role in the smuggling of the

out of the country. From 1903 to 1914, he directed the excavation of the ancient

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

n capital of

Assur Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'a ...

. During this time period, he also performed archaeological excavations at

Hatra Hatra ( ar, الحضر; syr, ‎ܚܛܪܐ) was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul. Hatra was a strongly fortified ...

and Shuruppak. Another significant archaeological site that he was involved in was the Hittite city of Sam'al.

Museum curator and director

In 1921 Andrae became

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the ''

Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin The Vorderasiatisches Museum (, ''Near East Museum'') is an archaeological museum in Berlin. It is in the basement of the south wing of the Pergamon Museum and has one of the world's largest collections of Southwest Asian art. 14 halls distrib ...

'', where from 1928 to 1951 he served as its director. Starting in 1923, he taught classes in

architectural history The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates. The beginnings of all these traditions is thought to be humans satisfying the very basic need of shelt ...

at the

Technische Universität Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

Published works

Among his better known writings were ''Der wiedererstandene Assur'', and the

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

''Lebenserinnerungen eines Ausgräbers'' (Memoirs of an excavator). Other publications by Andrae include: * ''Der Anu-Adad-Tempel in Assur'' 1909 * ''Die Festungswerke von Assur'' 1913 * ''Die Stelenreihen in Assur'' 1913 * ''Die archaischen Ischtar-Tempel in Assur'' 1922 * ''Farbige Keramik aus Assur und ihre Vorstufen in altassyrischen Wandmalereien'' 1923 * ''Die Kunst des Alten Orients'' 1925 * ''Kultrelief an dem Brunnen des Assurtempels zu Assur'' 1931 * ''Die Partherstadt Assur'' (with Heinz Lenzen) 1933 * ''Die ionische Säule. Bauform oder Symbol?'' 1933 * ''Alte Festraßen im Nahen Osten'' 1941

References

* ''Parts of this article are based on a translation of an article from the

German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...

.''
Dictionary of the Ancient Near East
by Piotr Bienkowski and Alan Ralph Millard

External links

Assyrian origins: discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris: antiquities in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Walter Andrae {{DEFAULTSORT:Andrae, Walter Archaeologists from Saxony Architects from Leipzig 1875 births 1956 deaths German curators Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany