Friedhelm PEDDE, Astrid LANGE
(Assur-Projekt, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Deutschland)
Ashur, the first capital of Assyria, was excavated between 1903 and 1914 by the German Oriental Society. The finds were divided between Germany and the Ottoman Empire and were brought to the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin and and the Eski Sark Museum in Istanbul. Because the excavators were architects, the building complexes were published, but most of the 44.000 archaeological finds were not examinded and remained unpublished. After the reunification of East and West Germany a cooperation between the German Oriental Society, the Vorderasiatisches Museum and the Free University of Berlin was initiated. The work of the “Assur Project” began in 1997. Thirty archaeologists and assyriologists are examining the documentation of the excavation and the archaeological objects. With the new data bank of the project these objects are to be documented and analysed.
Working on such an old excavation produces special problems, which has to do on the one hand with the insufficient documentation for standards of today, and on the other hand with the priorities of the excavators. Moreover the long time between excavation and present is an important factor, because the find objects after their discovery and the documentation itself already have their own hundred years history. The advantages of the digital work just as the limits of possibilities of analyzing have to be discussed.
The work on the architecture of the Old Palace in Ashur is finished and will shortly be published. The publication encloses a CD-ROM. The separate steps of the digital work, beginning with the scans of the original plans till the finished CD will be explained.