Since the university was founded in 1948, researchers at the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology at Freie Universität have been dedicated to finding and analysing material evidence of the culture of the so-called ancient Orient. The ‘ancient Near East’ refers to the area between Georgia, Armenia and Turkey in the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east, Iran and the Arabian Peninsula in the south and west, spanning the period from the beginning of human settlement to the Islamic era (7th century AD), which corresponds to a period of 10,000 years.

At the institute, students are trained in the diverse theoretical and substantive foundations of the subject as well as in archaeological fieldwork on site; they learn to use artefacts to explore the economic, social, political, religious, intellectual and artistic history of these ancient cultures.

In addition to modern languages such as Turkish, Arabic and Persian – English and French are required – Akkadian is one of the many now extinct Semitic languages that can be learned in the neighbouring disciplines of Near Eastern archaeology. Integrated into the network of ancient world studies, the shared premises with the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies in a building at Hüttenweg 7 facilitated intensive academic exchange until the department moved out.

Initially, Near Eastern Archaeology – then still called the Institute for Near Eastern Ancient Studies– was housed in the first main building of the Free University at Boltzmannstraße 3. After more than ten years, the institute moved to its own building at Auf dem Grat 44. After around 20 years, another change of location took place, resulting from close scientific cooperation with the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Philology. Both institutes, as well as the departmental administration for all ancient studies, moved into the large country house villa at Bitterstraße 8–12.

The spacious, prestigious building also provided accommodation for visiting scholars and conference facilities. When, after more than 20 years, this complex was to be vacated, Near Eastern Archaeology, which had now become an institute in its own right, moved back to Hüttenweg 7, together with the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies.

Anton Moortgat (1897–1977) contributed to the worldwide recognition of both institutes in the early years by establishing archaeology with a focus on the ancient Near East immediately after the founding of the Free University of Berlin. Moortgat's periodisation of ancient Near Eastern art, which he elaborated in numerous publications, remains groundbreaking to this day.

Although the focus he represented, which was strongly oriented towards Mesopotamia, the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to the Persian Gulf, has since broadened, the Institute still conducts field research in this region. In 1970, Hans J. Nissen, an internationally renowned scholar, came to Berlin from the University of Chicago to serve as director of the Institute for 30 years.

He primarily researched the political and social development of ancient Oriental societies. His research focus on the early urban cultures and the emergence of writing led to close collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and to the deciphering of the earliest number systems and the earliest writing tablets, which originate from Uruk in southern Mesopotamia. Hans Nissen also led a project to research early trade in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, which is currently being continued at the Institute by Professor Susan Pollock.

In the long-standing excavation project at Tell Schech Hamad in north-eastern Syria, artefacts from the Assyrian culture of the Middle, Neo-Assyrian and Post-Assyrian periods (13th to 6th century BC) were researched from 1978 to 2010 under the direction of Hartmut Kühne. Extensive excavations identified the site, known to the Assyrians as ‘Dur Katlimmu,’ as an important administrative centre with extensive building complexes.

The civil war in Syria has led to looting and destruction at the excavation site. However, the results and finds from the excavations, including numerous cuneiform texts, are still being evaluated and published on an ongoing basis in collaboration with scholars of ancient Near Eastern studies and other disciplines.

Another example of the Institute's field research is the work on Tell Fecheriye in northern Syria, which involves numerous cooperation partners and is led by Dominik Bonatz. This was once the centre of the Late Bronze Age Kingdom of Mittani and the subsequent Middle Assyrian Empire. Researchers are searching for evidence of urban life in this place, which underwent changes under the influence of political systems.

Insights into everyday life, political administration, the economy and ethnic diversity are provided by the approximately 60 clay tablets from the Middle Assyrian settlement (13th century BC), which, alongside the mud-brick architecture, numerous burials and figurative evidence, are among the most significant finds of the excavations.

With the expansion of the research area of Near Eastern archaeology, other regions of the Ancient Near East are coming into focus, including the Levant, Anatolia and regions further east. Excavations have now taken place in Jordan, in Qulban Beni Murra and in Ba'ja, both under the direction of Hans Georg Gebel with various cooperation partners. Since 2010, under the direction of Susan Pollock and Reinhard Bernbeck, excavations have been carried out at the 5th millennium BC site of Monjukli Depe in Turkmenistan, near the border with Iran. The settlement is characterised by exceptionally well-preserved architecture.

Excavations and surveys have also been carried out in Indonesia, for example between 2003 and 2009 with various project partners in Kerinci on Sumatra and until 2014 in Tanah Datar – both under the direction of Dominik Bonatz. More recently, a research area close by in both space and time has been added: the Tempelhof Airport. In cooperation with the State Conservator, excavations were carried out here on the edge of the former runway of Tempelhof Airport, under the direction of Reinhard Bernbeck and Susan Pollock, in former forced labour camps that were located here during the Second World War.

The influence of the Institute for Near Eastern Archaeology is evident in the fact that former students hold professorships in many countries, from Pakistan to Jordan, the West Bank, Israel, Denmark, Switzerland and Canada. The journal Forum Kritische Archäologie (Forum for Critical Archaeology), currently published by the institute, aims to address interdisciplinary archaeological topics at an early stage and provide a space for intellectual debate.

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