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Ernst Herzfeld, Archaeologist
A foremost scholar in the field of Iranian studies, Ernst Herzfled (1879-1948) explored Near Eastern archaeology from the prehistoric period to Islamic times, devoting much of his scholarship to the Achaemenid period. Born in Celle, Germany, Herzfeld studied architecture at the University of Munich, and Assyriology and art history at Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelm University. In 1905, he made a preliminary survey of Pasargadae; this led to his 1908 doctoral dissertation, which unequivocally confirmed the site as the capital of Cyrus the Great.
Herzfield briefly returned to Pasargadae in 1923 and, in 1928, spent about four weeks surveying and excavating the monuments. Accompanied only by his drafter Friedrich Krefter (1898-1995) and a cook, Herzfeld compiled an astonishing volume of notes, measurements, photographs, drawings, and other data. Together, Herzfeld and Krefter developed the first scientific survey of the site and identified its major surviving structures.
To this day, Herzfeld's published findings remain critical to any study of Pasargadae. Many of his original field records are kept in the Freer|Sackler Archives, one of the largest repositories on Pasargadae's archaeological history. |