Shafaqna English- Ernst Emil Herzfeld (1879-1948) was a German archaeologist and Iranologist who, between 1923 and 1925, conducted the first excavations of parts of Pasargadae and Persepolis.
According to Shafaqna, from 1925 to 1934, he resided in Iran at the invitation of the government of the time. He conducted extensive field research related to the history of ancient Iran and Mesopotamia. Much of the global scholarly recognition of Iran’s historical sites owes greatly to his efforts.
One of his most notable achievements was uncovering the eastern staircase of the Apadana Palace and discovering tens of thousands of clay tablets, which provided extensive data about the economy and society of Iran during the Achaemenid Empire.
His father was an army doctor, and his mother, Margarethe Rosenthal, was one of the most renowned archaeologists and specialists in ancient Eastern studies and ancient scripts. Herzfeld graduated in architecture from the University of Berlin in 1903. He then pursued the study of Assyrian history and art history at the universities of Munich and Berlin. In 1907, he submitted his doctoral thesis on Pasargadae, which was published as a book that same year.
Initially, he worked as an assistant professor of historical geography and, alongside his work at the Prussian State Museum, he studied the historical geography of the East, especially Iran and Iraq. Between 1903 and during both World Wars, he engaged in archaeological excavations in Iran, Mesopotamia, and Syria. He was also sent on an archaeological and historical mission to Nineveh and conducted research on the civilizations of Babylon, Assyria, Sassanid Iran, as well as industries, architecture, and records related to the Achaemenid and Islamic periods.
Herzfeld actively participated in archaeological excavations in Assyria alongside prominent German Orientalists of the time. Then, for two years from 1905, he undertook an exploratory research trip to Kurdistan, Lorestan, Persepolis, and Pasargadae. In Lorestan, he conducted studies on the Kassites and their distribution in Iran. Between 1907 and 1909, he traveled with Friedrich Zarncke to Mesopotamia. Their discoveries, most of which were donated to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, were significant.
In 1909, he received a professorship in historical geography from the University of Berlin. His global recognition began with his excavations in Samarra from 1911 to 1913, culminating in the discovery of the Achaemenid archives in Persepolis between 1931 and 1934. Herzfeld was among the first Western archaeologists to argue that much of what the Greeks wrote about the Iranians was not accurate.
He spent about eleven years in Iran, during which he compiled a comprehensive report on Persepolis and uncovered many stone-carved objects, paintings, and inscriptions. The 30,000 clay tablets that survived were the only items to benefit from Alexander the Great’s destruction of Persepolis, as they were baked in the fire and have endured to this day. Herzfeld referred to these clay tablets as the “historical memory of the Iranians.” He gave several lectures in London and published the book The Archaeology of Iran in 1935. He then moved to the United States, where he worked as a professor of Oriental studies at Princeton University. His rivals in Iran were the French and American archaeologists.
Herzfeld’s activities at Persepolis ended in 1934, and his permits were not renewed. Some sources attribute this to disagreements with Iranian officials over the distribution of findings, while others suggest that it was due to his efforts to illegally remove artifacts from Iran.
Despite his distinguished career, Herzfeld never adapted to life in the U.S. and was forced to sell a large portion of his unique library and antiquities to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and other cultural centers in the U.S. and Britain. Shortly after his retirement in 1944, he returned to the Middle East, first to Syria and then to Egypt, where he continued his research on Islamic art. He also published a book on his years of research into Zoroastrianism. While living in Cairo, he contracted malaria and died on January 20, 1948, in Switzerland.
Scientific Works
Herzfeld was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of London and Ireland, the Arabic Academy of Damascus, an honorary member of the Indian Archaeological Institute, and a member of the British Academy. He left numerous works on Islamic civilization history, as well as research on mapping different regions of the East. His publications include inscriptions of ancient Iran, ancient Iran in the East, Zoroastrianism and its world, and more. He traveled to Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. He also conducted studies on the Parthians (Arsacids), the Sassanids, Islamic art and architecture, and ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, writing numerous authoritative articles. Twenty years after his death, his last work, The Persian Empire, was published in Wiesbaden. His fame gradually faded until research institutions and museums began to meticulously record the legacy he left behind.
Some of his works include:
Samarra, Mapping and Research in Islamic Archaeology, Berlin, 1907;
A Journey through Lorestan, 1907;
An Archaeological Journey to the Tigris and Euphrates Regions (4 volumes), Berlin, 1911–1920;
Inscriptions of Iran, Berlin, 1920;
Along the Gate of Asia: Rock Carvings and Inscriptions of Ancient Iran, with 44 photographs, 65 illustrations, Berlin, 1920;
Wall Decorations of Samarra Buildings, Berlin, 1932;
Buildings and Inscriptions of the Early Sassanid Dynasty, Berlin, 1924;
Paintings of Samarra, Berlin, 1927;
Prehistoric Pottery and Ceramic Production of Samarra, Berlin, 1930;
Mariamlik and Korikos, Two Christian Archaeological Sites in Asia Minor, Manchester, 1930;
Iranian Memorial Buildings (4 volumes), Berlin, 1932;
The Archaeology of Iran, London, 1935;
Ancient Iranian Inscriptions, Berlin, 1938;
Iran, Ancient East: Archaeological Studies from Oxford University, London/New York, 1941;
Zoroaster and His World (2 volumes), New York, 1947;
History of Samarra City, Hamburg, 1948;
The Persian Empire, Wiesbaden, 1968.