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| − | [[Category:Politics and social sciences]]
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| − | [[Category:Archaeologists]]
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| − | [[Image:dfeld.jpg|right|thumb|Wilhelm Dörpfeld]]
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| − | '''Wilhelm Dörpfeld''' (or ''Doerpfeld'') (December 26, 1853 – April 25, 1940) was a [[Germany|German]] [[architecture|architect]] and [[archaeology|archaeologist]], the pioneer of [[stratigraphy|stratigraphic]] excavation and precise graphical documentation of archaeological projects. He is famous for his work on [[Bronze Age]] sites around the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], such as [[Tiryns]] and Hisarlik (the site of the legendary city of [[Troy]]) where he continued [[Heinrich Schliemann]]'s excavations. Like Schliemann, Dörpfeld was an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of [[Homer]]. While the details of his claims regarding locations mentioned in Homer's writings are not considered accurate by later archaeologists, his fundamental idea that they correspond to real places is accepted. Thus, his work greatly contributed not only to scientific techniques and study of these historically significant sites but also renewed public interest in the [[culture]] and [[mythology]] of [[ancient Greece]].
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| − | ==Life==
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| − | Wilhelm Dörpfeld was born in Barmen, Wuppertal, in today’s [[Germany]], the son of Christine and Friedrich William Dörpfeld. His father, a convinced Evangelist [[Christian]] and a famous [[pedagogy|pedagogue]], tried to bestow deep [[religion|religious]] sentiment to his family, so Dörpfeld attended religious schools, where he received basic education in [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]]. He graduated from Barmer High School in 1872, the year after his mother died.
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| − | In 1873 Dörpfeld enrolled in [[architecture|architectural]] studies in [[Berlin]], into the famous Academy of Architecture (''Bauakademie''). At the same time he started to work for the Bergisch-Maerki industrial company. His father could not finance his studies, and so Dorpfeld’s sister Anna loaned him money. During holiday breaks, Dörpfeld worked for the Rheine railway company, drawing sketches of buildings and different architectural objects. Dörpfeld graduated with honors in 1876.
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| − | In 1877, Dörpfeld became an assistant at the excavations of [[Ancient Olympia|Olympia]], [[Greece]], conducted under Richard Bohn, Friedrich Adler, and [[Ernst Curtius]]. He later became the technical manager of the project. The group uncovered, among other artifacts, an intact [[statue]] of [[Hermes]] of [[Praxiteles]], and the great altar of Pergamon. The excavations revived the memory of the ancient [[Olympic Games]] and contributed toward the establishment of modern Olympics, in 1896.
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| − | After his return from Olympia, Dörpfeld intended to take his architectural exam and settle down in Berlin. He needed a permanent source of income, as he prepared for the family life. He married in February 1883, to Anne Adler, the daughter of his university professor Friedrich Adler. The couple had three children. Around the same time, he met [[Heinrich Schliemann]], who persuaded him to join his archaeological expedition.
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| − | In 1882 Dörpfeld joined Schliemann, who was then excavating [[Troy]]. The two eventually became good friends and continued their collaboration on other projects as well. They excavated in [[Tiryns]], from 1884 to 1885, and at Troy again from 1888 to 1890. Dörpfeld also excavated at the [[Acropolis of Athens]] from 1885 to 1890, where he unearthed the Hekatompedon (the pre-Classical [[Parthenon]]). He continued excavations at the Pergamon (1900-1913, with Alexander Conze), and in the 1931 in the Agora of [[Athens]].
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| − | In the year 1886 Dörpfeld founded the German School of Athens, which is later named after him, the Dörpfeld Gymnasium. From 1887 to 1912 he was the director of the German Archaeological Institute in Athens. He published, in 1896, ''Das griechische Theater'', which was the first study of Greek [[theater]] construction.
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| − | After his retirement in 1912, Dörpfeld engaged in numerous academic debates on different archaeological topics. For example, in the mid-1930s he took part in a celebrated debate with [[United States|American]] archaeologist [[William Bell Dinsmoor]] on the nature of configuration of the three phases of the Parthenon. At the beginning of the 1920s, he started to lecture at the [[University of Jena]], but was not satisfied with teaching as a profession and returned to [[Greece]].
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| − | Dörpfeld died on April 25, 1940 on the island of Lefkada, Greece, where he had a house, believing that the island of Nidri off the southwest coast of Lefkada was the historical [[Ithaca]], home of [[Odysseus]] in [[Homer]]'s ''Odyssey''.
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| − | ==Work==
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| − | [[Image:Treasure of Atreus.jpg|thumb|300 px|right|The "Treasury of Atreus" is the most impressive of the "tholos" tombs at Mycenae]]
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| − | Wilhelm Dörpfeld developed a method of dating [[archaeology|archaeological]] sites through the strata in which objects were found and the type of materials used for the buildings. He corrected many of [[Heinrich Schliemann|Schliemann]]'s previous conclusions, including the shaft burial sites at [[Mycenae]]. Dörpfeld realized that the site was a "tholos" tomb, and not the "Treasury of Atreus," as Schliemann claimed.
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| − | During the Kavvadias’ excavations, Dörpfeld was instrumental in correcting the previous belief that the temple of [[Athena]], destroyed by the [[Persia]]ns in 480 B.C.E., was not beneath the [[Parthenon]], but to the north of it. He suggested the three different structures build in the same place, speaking thus of Parthenon I, Parthenon II, and Parthenon III, applying the last term to the temple with which we are now familiar. Besides suggesting the existence of the two previous proto-Parthenons, he was able to reconstruct the dimensions of their ground plans.
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| − | [[Image:Troy_3.jpg|thumb|350px|left|A view of the archaeological site of Troy]]
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| − | After Schliemann's death in 1890, his widow hired Dörpfeld to continue where Schliemann had stopped his excavations of [[Troy]]. Dörpfeld found nine separate cities, one atop the other, at the Hisarlik site. He argued that the sixth of these was the legendary Troy, because it was larger than the first five cities and had high limestone walls, surrounding the city. Dörpfeld also found evidence for his claims in [[Mycenaean civilization|Mycenaean]] [[pottery]], which he found in the same strata. Modern archaeologists however, think that it was probably Troy VII that was the city [[Homer]] wrote about.
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| − | Dörpfeld spent a lot of time and energy trying to prove that Homer’s epics were based on historical facts. He proposed that the island of Nidri, off the southwest coast of Lefkada, was [[Ithaca]], home of [[Odysseus]]. Dörpfeld compared several passages from the ''Odyssey'' to the actual geographical location of the Lefkada, and concluded that it must be the [[Homer]]ic Ithaca. He was especially convinced by the passage:
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| − | :I dwell in shining Ithaca. There is a mountain there,
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| − | :high Neriton, covered in forests. Many islands
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| − | :Doulichion, Same, and wooded Zacynthos—
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| − | :but low-lying Ithaca is farthest out to sea,
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| − | :towards the sunset, and the others are apart, towards the dawn and sun.
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| − | :It is rough, but it raises good men." [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136:book=9:card=1 Homer, ''Odyssey'' 13.21-27]:
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| − | Modern [[geography|geographers]] and hydrographers, however, have claimed that ancient Lefkada was an [[island]]. They noted that the causeway that connects it to the mainland today is a recent product of [[silt]]ing in the channel, thus making it impossible to be the Ithaca Dörpfeld once claimed.
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| − | ==Legacy==
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| − | William Dörpfeld was one of the seminal figures in classical [[archaeology]]. His [[stratigraphy|stratigraphic]] method of dating archaeological sites based on the strata in which objects were found and the type of building materials remains at the core in archaeological site analyses. His excavations, however, had many flaws, and his seeking to prove that [[Homer]] based his ''Odyssey'' on real places, was rather romantic. His fellow archaeologists remarked that he overemphasized the importance of buildings in the dating of sites, and often neglected less visible artifacts, such as [[pottery]]. Dörpfeld however remains known as one who brought much order and integrity into archaeology, and one who saved many archaeological sites from [[Heinrich Schliemann|Schliemann]]’s reckless excavations.
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| − | ==Publications==
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| − | * Dörpfeld, Wilhelm. ''Das griechische Theater''. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1896.
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| − | * Dörpfeld, Wilhelm. ''Troja und Ilion''. Athens: Beck & Barth, 1902.
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| − | * Dörpfeld, Wilhelm. ''Olympia in römischer Zeit''. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1914.
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| − | * Dörpfeld, Wilhelm. ''Alt-Ithaka: Ein Beitrag zur Homer-Frage, Studien und Ausgrabungen aus der insel Leukas-Ithaka.'' München: R. Uhde, 1927.
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| − | * Dörpfeld, Wilhelm. ''Alt-Olimpia: Untersuchungen und ausgrabungen zur geschichte des ältesten heiligtums von Olympia und der älteren griechischen kunst''. Berlin: E. S. Mittler & sohn, 1935.
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| − | * Dörpfeld, Wilhelm. ''Meine Tätigkeit für die griechische Archäologische Gesellschaft''. Athenais: Archaiologikē Hetaireia, 1937.
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| − | * Dörpfeld, Wilhelm, and Walther Kolbe. ''Die beiden vorpersischen Tempel unter dem Parthenon des Perikles.'' Berlin: Verlag von E.S. Mittler & Sohn, 1937.
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| − | ==References==
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| − | * Bittlestone, Robert, James Diggle, and John Underhill. ''Odysseus unbound: The search for Homer's Ithaca''. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0521853575
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| − | * [http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/dorpfeldw.htm ''Dörpfeld, Wilhelm''.] DictionaryOfArtHistorians.org. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | * Harris, E. C. ''Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy (2nd Ed.)''. Academic Press: London and San Diego, 1989. ISBN 0123266513
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| − | * Kawerau, Georg. ''The excavation of the Athenian Acropolis 1882-1890: The original drawings''. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1974. ISBN 8700544914
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| − | * Schuchhardt, Carl. ''Schliemann's discoveries of the ancient world''. Avenel Books, 1979. ISBN 0517279304
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| − | * Tolman, Cushing H. ''Mycenaean Troy: Based on Dörpfeld's excavations in the sixth of the nine buried cities at Hissarlik.'' American Book Co., 1903.
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| − | * Trigger, Bruce G. ''A history of archaeological thought''. Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 0521840767
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| − | * [http://www.wdg.de/schule/selbst/doerpfel.htm ''Wilhelm Dörpfeld''.] Wilhelm Dörpfeld Gymnasium. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | ==External links==
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| − | * [http://www.wdg.de/schule/selbst/doerpfel.htm Biography] – Dörpfeld’s biography in German. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | * [http://mkatz.web.wesleyan.edu/cciv110x/Iliad/cciv110.Dorpfeld.html Dörpfeld on the wall of Troy] – Photo of Dörpfeld standing on Troy VI site. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | * [http://www.bookrags.com/Troy Excavations of Troy] – History of the excavations of Troy. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | * [http://www.utexas.edu/courses/mythmoore/imagefiles17/troyplan.html Map of Troy] – Dörpfeld’s map of Troy, from his 1904 monograph Troja und Ilion. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | * [http://www.varchive.org/nldag/archiss.htm The archeology of Hissarlik] – History of the excavations of Troy conducted by Schliemann, Dörpfeld, and Blegen. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | * [http://wings.buffalo.edu/academic/department/AandL/classics/epicpage/Journey%20of%20Odysseus/z_Dorpfeld.htm The theory of William Dörpfeld] – Map of the world as Dörpfeld knew it. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | * [http://www.eon.net.au/~arpad/pg000003.htm Wilhelm Dörpfeld on Schliemann] – Preface by Dörpfeld to the book "Schliemann Briefe" (1932), published by Ernst Meyer. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
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| − | {{Credit1|Wilhelm_Dörpfeld|81204454|}}
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