Robert Koldewey (1855-1925)
1906
Self-portrait of the archaeologist Robert Johann Koldewey

Gelatin silver print, sepia-toned
38.5 x 53 cm
 
Bassenge Photography Auctions
Auction, 8 June 2022, Photography from the 19th - 21st centuries, Lot: 4185
 
A self-trained archaeological historian of the classical period, Koldewey was signed on as a participant to the American excavation expedition under Joseph Thacher Clarke of Ancient Assus in Greece in 1883, where he learned excavation methods and how to recover ancient remains. The German Archaelogical Institute then employed him for various excavations in the Ottoman Empire. His most important work involved the excavations in Babylon from 1898-1917 where his most significant excavation was the Processional Way and the Ishtar Gate as well as the foundations of the Tower of Babylon. Along with Schliemann, Humann, Conze and Dörpfeld, Koldewey is among to the most important archaeologists of this era.
 
Lit.: Walter Andrae. Babylon. Die versunkene Weltstadt und ihr Ausgräber. Robert Koldewey, Berlin 1952, ill. frontispiece.
 
LL/120243