Josef Eiwanger Obituary

Josef Eiwanger studied prehistoric archaeology, classical archaeology and geology in Heidelberg and took part in excavations by the Heidelberg Institute in Thessaly and the DAI Cairo on the Nile island of Elephantine from the late 1960s onwards. In 1976, he completed his doctorate in prehistorical archaeology with a thesis on "Pottery and small finds from the Damokratia basilica in Demetrias/Thessaly".

Josef Eiwanger was initially a research assistant in the Cairo department of the DAI, then at the Institute for Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin. From 1977 to 1983, he investigated the Neolithic settlement of Merimde-Benisalame in the western Nile Delta, which gave its name to this period in Lower Egypt.

In 1988, he moved to the Commission for the Archaeology of Non-European Cultures at the DAI in Bonn, where he eventually became scientific director in 1994. His move to the KAAK also marked the beginning of his extensive research in the Republic of Togo and the Kingdom of Morocco.

In the small West African country of Togo, he carried out and published the first targeted excavations on the Neolithic period, the Iron Age and research into rock paintings. At the same time, a project emerged in Morocco that would keep Josef Eiwanger busy for the next two decades. Unraveling the millennia-old settlement history of northern Morocco remained his great passion from then on.

His initiative not only produced a wealth of scientific work on Moroccan archaeology, but also gave many young Moroccan and German scientists the opportunity to develop their academic careers here. Based on scientific curiosity and personal friendship, a large network was created that still exists today.

"I am grateful that I was able to experience a time when it was still easy to conduct archaeological research in the countries of North Africa," said Josef Eiwanger, describing his life as a researcher.