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AEM Progress: Ancient Egyptian Religion Currently, we are wrapping up our new AEM on Ancient Egyptian Religion. We are in the final stages of sourcing sound effects and music, as well as assigning video game footage to sections of the script before sending to our amazing video editor from the   Savannah College of Art and Design !   This AEM focuses on aspects of ancient Egyptian religion, told from the perspective of the Sphinx of Giza, overseeing the changes in Egyptian civilization across time.  It  covers stories of Egyptian creation myths, astronomical events and deities, and introduces us to some of the rich characters that make up the Egyptian pantheon. Additionally, this AEM includes discussion on how stories become myth, how stories connect us as people, and where early Egyptian ideas about the world spread.  Our curriculum was built in consultation with Brian Smith , a lecturer in Egyptian religion at the University of Chicago. NEH Spotlight On the Humanities Award Starting in August 2024, the AEM Team will begin work on a new NEH Spotlight on the Humanities Grant , focused on expanding our current 6 AEM program to college-level coursework. This will include new videos for each AEM topic, as well as expanded lesson plans, slides, notes, and discussion activities. Each AEM will align with general Western Civ I courses, but just as with our middle-school AEMs, will be modifiable so that instructors can adapt the curriculum to meet their individual needs.. Moving the AEM program into college courses will also allow us to explore a broader range of topics in the classroom, including current political events, collaborative group projects, and structured field trips to museums both in-person and virtually. We are looking forward to this opportunity to share Archaeogaming's unique contribution to the field of ancient studies with undergrads next year! TEAM UPDATES!   Our AEM Team has expanded this year to include 2 new interns and a volunteer in Fall 2023, 1 new intern for Spring 2024, and we have 2 upcoming interns who are research specialists for Fall 2024 with the potential for more! We are so grateful for the support our interns and volunteers provide. In addition to the new faces, we have also seen growth within the core AEM Team, with last years’ volunteers stepping into grant-funded research roles.    The AEM program would not be possible without the collaboration of archaeologists, historians, educators, volunteers, and interns.  EQUIPMENT UPDATES!   We are happy to share that a portion of our grant supported the purchase of a new computer designated for the Archaeogaming Education Team and the creation of the AEM program. This computer will function as a critical resource for our team, as we now have a device available for continued Archaeogaming research and video production.   The computer is a state-of-the-art MIS Aegis SE 12TA-810US, which was recommended by our current Gaming Researcher, Evan Bowers. It runs on Windows 11, with an Intel Core i5-12400F CPU, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 graphics card, allowing future gaming team members the ability to play-through and record games in high resolution without image lag.

The   Ink of Ages Fiction Prize  is a new, exciting opportunity for short fiction writers with a passion for history and mythology, this contest has been organized by SASA’s long-term, non-profit partner   World History Encyclopedia  and generously sponsored by the largest university press in the world,   Oxford University Press .  The contest has been open for submissions since August 1st and will close on September 15th. All entries are free and accepted in English, for entrants 18 and over, submissions must be between 1,500 words and 2,000 words. For entrants aged 13 to 17, submissions must be between 800 and 1,000 words. The winners will be announced on February 24th 2025 and will receive an incredible range of prizes including online publication and promotion to over 8 million monthly readers around the globe! Founded by Jan van der Crabben in 2009, the World History Encyclopedia is an avid supporter of ancient studies, being the world's most-read history encyclopedia and the largest disseminator of ancient studies to the public. SASA is overwhelmingly excited to promote this contest as in our long, close partnership with WHE, we regularly join to organize, share, and promote events and media campaigns to encourage the study of antiquity at universities and engage young people with ancient history. This year, WHE streamed SASA’s annual 2024 Virtual Conference on their  YouTube,   Facebook,  and   Twitter .  WHE’s mission to engage with and improve historical education worldwide has been SASA’s mission since our beginning in 2020. With the support of publishing powerhouse Oxford University Press, we are confident that future possibilities to further engage a wider international community in our determination to and raise awareness for ancient studies will only continue to expand. It would be incredible to see the submissions from our volunteers, interns, and SASA employees for this contest, so if you are determined to share your short fiction then we highly encourage you to find details for the contest down below …  Enter your story  Contest Rules Email Updates

Alexander Vandewalle, a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp and Ghent and Team Co-Leader of SASA’s Archaeogaming Live Team presented his research, “A Sense of the Past: Game Feel and Sensory Rhetoric as Medium in Historical and Mythological Games'' on June 4th at the hybrid conference “ New Directions in Classics, Gaming, and Extended Reality ”. Organized, sponsored and funded by Dr. Richard Cole, a lecturer of Digital Classics at the University of Bristol, this conference shines a light on a diverse range of researching perspectives of artistic and architectural culture from Ancient History and its various forms of representation through world building and storytelling in video games. This conference and its initiative to unite the interests of higher education and the gaming industry, for both education and entertainment, was hosted by The Bristol Digital Game Lab and generously sponsored by University of Bristol Faculty of Arts , Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition  and the Centre for Creative Technologies . This conference highlights the passions and goals of these talented practitioners, industry professionals, and the attendees. Using augmented and virtual reality, this conference explores and celebrates the connections between modern academic research, our technology-oriented world, and ancient history. As one of 24 presentations at the event, along with numerous demos and collaborative play sessions, Alexander presented on Tuesday alongside Gillian Marbury of Ohio State University and Victoria Rooney in a session discussing the experience of classics through the medium of Extended Reality and gaming. Alex’s presentation explores the experience of classical/historical reception through the perspective of game feel rather than through audiovisuals, items, or gameplay systems. Alex defines game feel as the way players “sensorially perceive a game and the way in which they control their in-game presence (e.g., their character),” applying it to both mythological/historical characters and the notion of historical lived experience in video games. Alex incites game feel for significant developments in gaming where discerning a sensory rhetoric has potential for connecting us with ancient history on a more intimate level. Alexander has previously collaborated in SASA’s Archaeogaming Education Program, on the module “All Roads Lead to Rome: Making and Maintaining the Roman Empire,'' for middle school. The module explores technologies that allowed for the spread and maintenance of the Roman Empire, as well as their cultural consequences, using games such as Assassin’s Creed Origins , Assassin’s Creed Valhalla , Total War: Rome II , and more.   By using video game footage and supporting materials in an engaging 'let's play' format, this method of teaching history aims to promote a better understanding of infrastructure through engaging entertainment, as described throughout classical history The Bristol Digital Game Lab and Alexander’s involvement have appeared like a lighthouse for us, and no doubt for academics and gaming enthusiasts with a shared interest in implementing ancient history into our present culture. SASA’s shared mission to celebrate and explore the world and mythology of ancient history through accessible, immersive mediums in video gaming and extended reality provides the basis for collaboration between higher education and the gaming industry, where the ability to further educate and excite finds an integral role with endless possibilities. For more details on …  Bristol Digital Game Lab: New Directions in Classics, Gaming and Extended Reality: Ticket Tailor Bristol Digital Game lab SASA’s Archaeogaming Education Program

Through accessible and engaging history, SASA aims to reignite passions for ancient research. It would not be possible to achieve this goal without our incredibly dedicated and talented Educational Ambassadors. SASA would like to take a moment to celebrate two of our ambassadors who have recently earned their PhDs, Catherine Nuckols and Tuhin Bhattacharjee. Catherine Nuckols is an art historian, epigrapher, and Latin Americanist. She specializes in Mayan art and writing, leading her to earn a PhD in Art History and Latin American Studies at Tulane University. Her dissertation, “Sun Gods and Forest Figures: Duality and Complementarity in Copán Stela D’s Full-Figure Inscription,” analyzes and contextualizes 8th century Mayan inscriptions. Nuckols is also the founder of Mesoamerican Studies Online, a blog that focuses on educating the general public about Mesoamerican cultures. Tuhin Bhattacharjee is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University. His work focuses on feminist, queer, Ancient Greek, and Indian philosophy. Bhattacharkjee’s dissertation, “I Killed My Mother: Desiring Mothers in Greek and Hindu Antiquity,” analyzes Ancient Greek and Hindu myths through a feminist lens, connecting it to modern day concerns around surrogacy and artificial insemination. In 2023, he earned his PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University. In addition to being an Educational Ambassador for SASA, Bhattacharjee is also a co-editor for Barricade: A Journal of Antifascism and Translation. As she has done six times before, Nuckols will lead one of our reading groups this summer to share her knowledge of Mesoamerica. Continuing a tradition he has successfully completed twice before, Bhattacharjee will lead a SASA reading group this summer concerning Plato. SASA is incredibly honored to have such talented ambassadors within our organization to assist us in our mission! RSVP NOW! “Entrances and Exits: Erotic Ascent and Descent in Plato’s Symposium” Tuhin Bhattacharjee Tuesdays @ 11am, July 2 - 16 “Pakal’s Legacy: The Boy King of Palenque and His Mythical Narratives” Catherine Nuckols (Mesoamerican Studies Online) Thursdays @ 3 pm, June 13 - July 11

Save Ancient Studies Alliance’s new project to advocate for Ancient Studies departments in jeopardy. As you may know, numerous Ancient Studies departments in universities across the globe are threatened with downsizing or have already shut their doors for good. For example, Howard University and Worcester University have recently terminated certain Ancient Studies departments, while others such as the renowned Archaeology program of the University of Sheffield are currently embattled. In response to this recent trend in closures, Save Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA) is starting a new journalistic project to investigate and report on these departments, shining a light on their histories, staff, and graduates, while reporting on the university funding difficulties and shifting priorities that are often involved. We fully understand that all of these issues have multiple aspects to them, and therefore the goal of this project is to report accurately on the situations from all sides. By developing an accurate, unbiased portrayal of specific cases, SASA aims to bring attention to the factors that lead to pressure on Ancient Studies departments, in the hopes of enabling solutions via compromise. SASA will draw on our collaborations with other Ancient Studies organizations, including the Society for Classical Studies and the Society of Biblical Literature, throughout this project. This project will work in conjunction with SASA’s Research Program to study the downward trend in Ancient Studies. Since there seem to be overarching themes occurring among universities struggling to keep their Ancient Studies departments open, this project will approach the overall issue through in-depth case studies as events are unfolding. At the same time, while discovering and educating the public on the roots of these issues, SASA also plans to bring attention to those affected, including the administrators, alumni, professors, and of course, Ancient Studies students. These unfortunate situations affect real lives, and many dedicated individuals suffer from uncertainty as they pursue their goals of researching and educating others about the ancient world. Together, we look toward solutions, in order to retain and reinvigorate the project that is Ancient Studies - the humanist search for self-understanding of contemporary cultures worldwide through investigation of the myriad forms of past societies. Over the coming months, SASA will dig deeper into the specifics of schools and departments, working to publish articles in appropriate forums. If you are interested in helping with this project or know about departments that are under threat, please reach out to us at daviddanzig@saveancientstudies.org.

This month, SASA held a booth at the 2023 New Jersey Council for the Social Studies (NJCSS) conference. The title of this year’s conference was "Continuity & Change: Social Studies Education in our 21st Century Classrooms". The NJCSS is a statewide association in New Jersey with 1,300 members devoted to social studies education and bringing together educators from all social studies disciplines, including history, economics, geography, psychology, and many more. Their members include educators from elementary to college levels and other professionals that share a commitment and passion for social studies. NJCSS members share the goal of working towards a better understanding of social studies and its importance. This aligns seamlessly with SASA’s mission, and so it was no surprise that our attendance at the conference was a great success! Victoria and Xi, members of the archaeogaming team at SASA, met with attendees of the conference to help share and promote SASA’s mission with educators and like minded individuals. They met with several teachers who expressed a desire to introduce interactive modes of teaching into their classrooms and expressed interest in our Archeogaming Education Modules (AEM). Archaeogaming is a new field of education that utilizes video game footage combined with tailored narration to provide an immersive and engaging learning experience for students. SASA’s Archeogaming Team has produced six modules that each focus on different concepts and societies from the ancient world. Our Archaeogaming Modules are single-lesson, all-in-one packages designed for 4th-6th grade curriculums and can be downloaded from SASA’s Archaeogaming Module Page free of charge! Educators who spoke with Xi and Victoria were receptive towards video games as a method to introduce students to ancient studies as an educational subject and increase their engagement with ancient studies. Xi and Victoria demonstrated the video feature of our AEMs and how this works in the classrooms. Teachers were particularly interested in the activities included within these modules. Each module includes a 10-minute video that explores a historical concept from the ancient world, a pre-prepared teacher’s packet that includes background information and context, quizzes, worksheets, games, translation exercises, and discussion questions! These modules cover topics such as ancient pottery, medieval Ireland, Vikings, medieval medicine, and many more, with more modules to come! During the second session of the conference, teachers returned with their colleagues to share our AEMs with them and spread awareness for our program. This enthusiasm from teachers demonstrated an encouraging interest from educators encompassing a wide range of grade levels, and they were thrilled to hear that the modules are free to use and more will be coming out within the next year. This pointed to an exciting and promising future for SASA’s archaeogaming modules in classrooms! Xi and Victoria also spoke to other professionals, including authors and scholars, who expressed interest in SASA’s more general mission. Overall, this was an exciting day for the SASA team to speak to like minded professionals who are just as excited about promoting ancient studies as we are!

Isegoria (ἰσηγορία) roughly translates as ‘the right to express one’s views freely and equally.’ The UK-based publishing house embodies this name by challenging restrictive elements of the academic world and bridging gaps between scholars worldwide; they aim to provide an accessible, free, and digital platform allowing scholars to both publish and access ancient studies content. Founders Manolis and Stefanos, both classicists and professional editors, carried out years of research to identify barriers in the academic world. They sought to surmount these barriers by establishing Isegoria. Their first project began with the creation of the Pnyx journal: a journal made accessible for both authors and readers alike. The Pnyx is a platform for researchers to present their work without the costs or limitations that restrict so much of the publishing world. The platform makes it possible for scholars around the world to upload resources, papers, and educational materials at no expense. The general public may then access the resources at no additional cost. Diversity is a huge part of Isegoria’s mission. Although The Pnyx is in English, they encourage authors to provide abstracts in their language of choice, allowing them to speak to local and international audiences. They also offer free language editing services to remove language barriers and support colleagues from around the world. This digital, open access journal publishes articles covering the vast chronological span of 700 B.C. to the Byzantine Empire – in varied fields from literature and history to papyrology and epigraphy! As an organization, Isegoria, much like SASA, has grown in the last few years, and our shared efforts to create a more inclusive space for information-sharing and education in Ancient Studies has grown with us. Some highlights of Isegoria’s recent work include introducing the first ever Greek Epigraphy course in Mexico and running courses at three universities in Brazil. They have also held expert-led panels on the future of Classics in sub–Saharan Africa, as their mission to increase scholarly access spans worldwide. At the moment, they are ready to publish their 4th issue of The Pnyx and are in the process of publishing two new edited volumes. Isegoria’s mission overlaps with that of our own at Save the Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA), to make Ancient Studies more accessible and to provide a space for collaboration among like-minded scholars. We are so excited for what the future holds for both Isegoria and our partnership which will support both of our missions and ultimately increase the effort towards dissemination of information about the classics, archaeology, and the humanities.

By Roxana Wang A part of the Ishtar Gate still above the ground when German excavation began in 1920 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft/photographer unknown Nazi Germany is remembered for its eugenic ideologies and persecution of its victims, and some know how the Nazi fervor fit the academia: Albert Einstein, an anti-Nazi Jew, renounced his citizenship and fled to the US, but others like Martin Heidegger complied with the Nazis and jotted down anti-semitic thoughts in his black notebook. As apolitical as Ancient Near Eastern Studies might sound, this discipline was appropriated to serve the narrative of the Third Reich. Some Assyriologists and Egyptologists who betrayed their academic integrity are still revered in the Ancient Studies curriculum today. This two-part study maps out how politics was implicated in German studies of the ancient Near East (a discipline known in German as Altorientalistik) from its foundation in the 19th century up to the 1940s and examines the scholarship of individual scholars who supported the Nazi worldview. While Nazi Germany was an extreme case, the appropriation of ancient civilizations has been a common strategy for regimes around the world to justify their ideological agenda. The ultimate moral of the story is that we should always be alert to the racial and political presumptions that shaped and still shape studies of the ancient world. 1. Imagining “Us” and “Them”: German Oriental Studies 18th-19th century Altorientalistik flourished in the 19th century thanks to developments in philology and archaeology. During this period, German philologists contributed to the deciphering of ancient Near Eastern languages, and German archaeologists excavated important Egyptian and Mesopotamian sites. However, the studies of ancient languages and material culture, however, were not safely aloof from politics. This chapter will show how these areas of study were instrumentalized to fuel nationalism and serve political ends. Since its very beginning, Altorientalistik went hand in hand with politics. Languages can be an important part of national identities. Contemporary scholars have differed on the exact definition of nationalism, but most would agree with Anthony Smith’s description of a “nation” as a “named community possessing an historic territory, shared myths and memories, a common public culture, and common laws and customs.” [1] Nationalism, the ideology justifying the existence of the nation, reinforces the sentiment of a “community” sharing something in common. According to Benedict Anderson, a prominent scholar of nationalism, the cohesive community is realized through language. He writes in his groundbreaking Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983) that: What the eye is to the lover – that particular, ordinary eye he or she is born with – language – whatever language history has made his or her mother-tongue – is to the patriot. Through that language, encountered at mother’s knee and parted with only at the grave, pasts are restored, fellowships are imagined, and futures dreamed. [2] In other words, people know their “root” through their mother-tongue: from hearing lullabies in cradles to conversing with their compatriots, people know their origin and form bonds when this familiar language resounds. The language accompanies the inhabitants of a nation from birth to death, forming the medium through which they retell their history and imagine their shared future. It is thus no coincidence that in the 18th to 19th centuries, when European states were unifying, breaking away from old empires, and transforming into the modern nations as we see on the map today, that European scholars avidly advanced the study of languages, ancient and modern—they were as interested in linguistics as in national identities. With the heightened importance of languages in mind, we now focus on the case of Germany. In the 18th century, a unified Germany did not exist. Instead, there existed more than three hundred German states. The fragmentation of the states posed an obstacle to Germany’s nation-building: the Germans could not find a sense of unity in a shared social structure, nor did they all share the same religion. Language and literary culture thus became the only commonality among the German people. [3] Out of the myriad of linguistic theories circulating in German-speaking academia since the late 18th century, a connection between language and nationalism was gradually conceived. In his work Letters for the Advancement of Humanity (Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität), Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) proposed that “a nation is built and reared by means of language”, centering the role language plays in fostering the cohesion of a community (4). Later, Wilhelm von Humboldt, the forefather of German liberal education, argued that language creates the unique worldview (Weltansichten) of a people and is an embodiment of their “national character”. [5] Such theories did not merely allow the Germans to consider themselves as a unified entity sharing one language and one cultural identity, but it also prompted them to uncover the shared myths and memories of their civilization by researching their connections with ancient cultures. German linguists looked eastward in their search for a shared past. The first ancient Eastern language to attract attention was Sanskrit. In 1808, Friedrich Von Schlegel (1772-1829) published his ground-breaking book, On the Languages and Wisdom of India (Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier). In this book, Schlegel compared Sanskrit with Greek, Latin, and German. Noticing many similarities, he proposed that Sanskrit is the oldest descendent of the origin of all languages. [6] Drawing on ancient history and mythology, Schlegel went further to propose that the greatest civilizations in history, like Ancient Egypt, were founded by Indians. Germans, according to him, were offspring of the first people to emigrate out of Asia. In this way, Schlegel contributed to the “Ayran myth” that centered the so-called Aryan people who settled in the Indus Valley and spread their language and civilization through their migration. Schlegel’s conclusions are problematic from today’s perspective: firstly, his idea that Sanskrit was the oldest language was disproven even in his time; secondly, the assumption that language indicates racial relationship is delusive; thirdly, despite all the theories proposed by European scholars, ancient Persian and Indian texts never recorded the existence of an “Aryan” ethnic group. [7] Nevertheless, Schlegel was a pioneer of comparative linguistics, introducing the framework to juxtapose eastern and western languages and cultures. The examination of Near Eastern civilizations began a little later. While copies of cuneiform inscriptions from Persepolis were made available in Europe by the German traveler Carsten Niebuhr in as early as 1765, serious attempts to decode cuneiform only started in the early 19th century. German scholar Georg Friedrich Grotefend (1775-1853) and German-French scholar Julius Oppert (1825–1905) were two of the most prominent European philologists contributing to this effort. [8] Grotefend made out the names of Persian kings in the inscriptions copied by Niebuhr, while Oppert deciphered a variety of historical, religious, and astrological inscriptions. Archaeological discoveries complemented the development in philology and further enriched 19th-century German knowledge of the ancient Near East. Unlike France, which already possessed a great hoard of Egyptian treasure due to Napoleon's campaign in Egypt (1798-1801), and Britain, whose colonial interest in the Middle East also facilitated archaeological expeditions, Germany was a late-comer to the scramble for antiquities. Britain and France began to systematically excavate ancient Near Eastern sites in the 1840s, and the artifacts hauled away, often without the consent of the locals, filled the Louvre and the British Museum. Compared with these two superpowers, Germany had not expressed much ambition for excavations abroad. In 1845, the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft was formed with the aim of promoting the study of oriental languages and culture in Germany but did not actively pursue excavations. [9] The status quo of European archaeology, however, was challenged when the German Empire was founded in 1871. Under the ambitious emperor Wilhelm I and chancellor Bismarck, the unified nation acquired colonies and protectorates in East Africa and Asia and began to strengthen its economic and military ties with the Ottoman Empire. [10] An announcement in National Newspaper (National-Zeitung) articulates the changed attitude toward archaeology at this time: Germany’s inferior position with respect to excavations in Asia Minor, especially in Babylon and Assyria, in no way equivalent [to that of other European nations], stands in the sharpest contrast to the intensive and successful research in philology, general history, and cultural history that we have conducted precisely in this area. This inferior position affects not only our museum collections, but also is reflected in the public’s prevailing view of oriental history and artifacts. [11] An ambitious vision is evident here: Near Eastern archaeology was a matter tied with the empire’s self-esteem. Germany felt competitive pressure to conduct more excavations in the Near East, both to catch up with other European nations and to educate its domestic population. In 1898, the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (DOG) was established in Berlin with ample funding from James Simon, an influential industrialist and enthusiast of antiquities. [12] The DOG’s chief goals were the acquisition of Near Eastern antiquities and the promotion of scholarship. By the early 20th century, the DOG, along with previously established institutions like the German Archaeological Institute, had excavated a range of highly important sites including Tell El-Amarna (1911-14) , the capital of the reformist pharaoh Akhenaten; Babylon (1898-1917), one of the most glorious cities of the ancient world; and Uruk (1912-13), the ancient megacity where cuneiform was invented. [13] A new era of active German archaeological research on Near Eastern civilizations was dawning. 2. The Boom and the Blast In the early 20th century, ancient Near Eastern artifacts were no longer confined to the scholars’ libraries but were increasingly accessible for the public in museums. In 1898, the Vordasiatisches Museum (Near Eastern Museum, today a part of the Pergamon Museum) was being built to house the DOG’s findings in Babylon, Assur, and Uruk. When the museum opened in 1930, the Ishtar gate of Babylon was an absolute star of the exhibition. Built in the late 6th century BCE, the gate started its afterlife when it was rediscovered in fragments by the German archaeologist Robert Johann Koldewey (1855 –1925) in 1902, brought to Berlin in two batches in 1903 and 1926, and restored in just 2 years. [14] While stunning exhibits like the Ishtar Gate attracted 600,000 visitors to the Vordasiatisches Museum in the first 4 months of the museum’s opening, other smaller-scale exhibitions on the Ancient Near East also opened in Berlin. [15] Max von Oppenheim (1860–1946), who led the excavation of the ancient Hittite site Tell-Halaf, opened his private Tell Halaf Museum in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1930 to showcase his important finds. [16] The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, a gem of the Pergamon Museum © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum / Olaf M. Teßmer In 1908, Sardanapal: Historical Pantomime (Sardanapalus: historische Pantomime) made its debut at the Royal Opera in Berlin. The pantomime is about Sardanapalus, an Assyrian king who indulged in pleasure and let his empire fall into chaos. It was adapted from Paulo Tanglioni’s ballet Sardanapal, which was based on Lord Byron’s 1821 tragedy of the same name. It was produced with the avid support of the emperor Wilhelm II, an enthusiast of Assyriology who self-reportedly “busied [himself] with archæology and was active in excavation work” during vacations. [17] What is striking about this production was its historical accuracy: despite the ahistoric and fantastical nature of Byron’s original play, the production of the pantomime was managed by the leading Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch (1850–1922), who choreographed the movement of the dancers based on Assyrian reliefs. The stage, meanwhile, was designed by Walter Andrae (1875-1958), the supervisor of the excavation at Assur. The meticulous attention to archaeological facts, however, appeared dry and didactic to the audience, causing the production to flop. [18] The popular newspaper Berliner Volkszeitung criticized this production, asking: “Why should such strenuous work, why should such horrendous cost, research, and skillfulness be devoted to this work?” [19] The unpopular historical accuracy of Sardanapal: Historical Pantomime did not represent the overall reception of ancient Near Eastern art in early 20th-century Germany. The cultural atmosphere of Weimar Germany (1918-1933) was characterized by innovations in art, theater, and photography. Expressionism, an artistic style that emphasizes individuals' emotions through dramatic forms and colors, enabled artists to visualize the chaos of modernity and World War I in the 1910s, though it continued to flourish into the 1930s. The expressionists often turned to ancient, non-European art for inspiration, believing that the “primitivism” of these artworks enabled them to criticize the vice of modernity. The expressionist science-fiction film Metropolis (1927), directed by Fritz Lang, utilized the allegories of the Tower of Babel and the decadent Babylon to tell a story of the “alienating and depersonalizing aspects of progress”. [20] Despite this intended critique of modernity, the archaeological discoveries of ancient Near Eastern art inspired modern German art and architecture. For example, the ziggurat, a kind of stepped temple tower seen in many ancient Mesopotamian cities, became a source of inspiration for the expressionist architect Erich Mendelsohn (1887 –1953) as he designed the Einstein Tower, a landmark astrophysical observatory in Potsdam. [21] A poster of Metropolis, featuring a building meant to resemble the Tower of Babel (1927) A model of a ziggurat The Einstein tower ©Astrophysikalisches Institute Potsdam The prosperity of Weimar Germany, however, was essentially a dance on the edge of a volcano. [22] After all, the dazzling cultural scene could not gloss over the conflicts and imbalances in the post-war German society. Democracy was constantly threatened by the leftist uprisings and rightist putsches and the major political parties’ inability to cooperate since the Weimar Republic’s foundation in 1919. Meanwhile, the myth that Germany lost in World War I only due to the “stab in the back” by the Jews and other marginalized groups flamed mistrust among communities. Against the backdrop of political chaos and public anxiety, National Socialism (German Nationalsozialismus, more well-known as Nazi) and its notorious standard-bearer, Adolf Hitler, gradually rose to power. The Nazi party was founded in 1920 in Munich. In its early years, it was a rather minor one among the many far-right groups in Germany. The party attempted to organize several putsches against the Weimar democracy, but all ended in failure. Under Hitler’s leadership, the party opted for a different strategy—run in elections and unravel the democracy from within. The Nazis’ chance came with the economic recession in 1930. The Nazis maneuvered and manipulated all sides, promising an end to economic woes and eradication of fabricated enemies to the struggling populace, and enticing rich investors with an anti-communist agenda. [23] By 1932, the Nazi party had become the largest political party in Germany. In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor. Hitler spent the first few months of his chancellorship consolidating his power by pursuing the policy referred to as Gleichschaltung (literally, “coordination”). His ultimate goal was to subject all aspects of the German society—politics, civil service, economy, and even culture—to the Nazi ideology. On March 23rd, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act under Nazi coercion, an act that allowed Hitler to pass laws without parliamentary approval. From that point on, any atrocity committed by the Nazi regime could be justified by law. Just two weeks later, on April 7th, 1933, the Nazis passed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (also known as the Civil Service Law), which established that, for the purpose of establishing a “national” civil service, civil servants who were non-Aryan or did not adhere to the regime’s political agenda should be fired. [24] Following the law’s passage, many non-Aryans and opponents to the regime lost their positions, including most Jewish professors in the country. [25] Among the victims of Nazi persecution of academics are some notable scholars of the ancient Near East. In 1933, the Assyriologist Albrecht Goetze (1897 – 1971) lost his position in Marburg, not for being Jewish but for being “politically unreliable” by befriending the pacifist Jewish mathematician, Emil Gumbel. [26] Being barred from employment, the Jewish Hittologist Hans Gustav Güterbock (1908 – 2000) had to leave Germany in 1935. [27] In the same year, Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948), a highly influential scholar of ancient Near Eastern and Islamic art and archaeology, was forced into early retirement due to his Jewish descent. [28] Georg Steindorff (1861-1951), a Jewish Egyptologist, had to emigrate to the US in 1939. [29] The exodus of such prominent scholars from Germany impoverished the German academia but greatly strengthened ancient Near Eastern studies in the US: Goetze taught at Yale University and made Yale a leading institution of Hittitology, Güterbock joined University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, and Herzeld sold his invaluable archive of notes and sketches to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This was, unfortunately, just the beginning of the doomed fate of ancient Near Eastern Studies under Nazism. As we have seen so far, Altorientalistik was, even in its founding stage, associated with national ideologies. When the regime exerted more control over academia, the scholars who chose to stay felt increasing pressure to align their research with the Nazi political agenda. Thus, we shall soon see how a humanities discipline was appropriated and distorted to court a most inhumane regime. Part II coming soon… [1] Anthony Smith, National Identity, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991). Quoted in Blagoj Conev, “Theories of Nations and Nationalism: A Comparative Outline”, in European & Balkan Perspectives (2019), 7. [2] Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, (London, New York: Verson, 2006), 154). [3] Christian Jansen, “The Formation of German Nationalism, 1740–1850,” in The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History, ed. Helmut Walser Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 241, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199237395.013.0011) [4] Johann Gottfried Herder. Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität (1795), quoted in Tuska Benes. In Babel’s Shadow: Language Philology, and the Nation in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008), 45. [5] Nationalcharakter; “So lässt sich, ohne Verwechslung der wirkenden Ursachen, eine Eigenthümlichkeit in den Sprachen erkennen, die wirklich die ihrige ist, oder doch zu der ihrigen wird, und man würde das innerste Wesen und die bedeutungsvolle Mannigfaltigkeit der Sprachen verkennen, wenn man das Gepräge des Nationalcharakters in ihnen unbeachtet ließe”, Wilhelm von Humboldt, “Über den Nationalcharakter der Sprachen,” in Wilhelm von Humboldt: Gesammelte Werke, ed. Albert Leitzmann (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1905), 425). [6] “Das alte indische Sonskrito d. h. die gebildete oder vollkommne auch Gronthon d. H. die Schrift- oder Büchersprache hat die größte Verwandtschaft mit der römiſchen und griechischen so wie mit der germanischen und persischen Sprache. Die Ähnlichkeit liegt nicht bloß in einer großen Anzahl von Wurzeln, die sie mit ihnen gemein hat, sondern sie erstreckt sich bis auf die innerste Structur und Grammatik. Die Uebereinstimmung ist alſo keine zufällige, die sich aus Einmiſchung erklären liesse; sondern eine wesentliche, die auf gemeinschaftliche Abstammung deutet. Bei der Vergleichung ergiebt sich ferner,daß die indische Sprache die ältere sei, die andern aber jünger und aus jener abgeleitet.” Friedrich Von Schlegel, “Erstes Kapitel: Von der indischen Sprache überhaupt,” in Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier ( Heidelberg: Mohr und Zimmer, 1808), https://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/show/schlegel_indier_1808.) [7] Knight Dunlap, “The Great Aryan Myth,” The Scientific Monthly 59, No. 4 (1944): 296-7, https://www.jstor.org/stable/18253). [8] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Georg Friedrich Grotefend." Encyclopedia Britannica, December 11, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georg-Friedrich-Grotefend;“Professor Julius Oppert.” The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1906, 272–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25210244). [9] “Aims,” Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, https://www.dmg-web.de/page/zielsetzung_en). [10] Matthew David Penix, “German Imperialism and Applied Orientalism: German Encounters with the Ottoman Empire, 1850-1918,” (Phd diss., Western Michigan University, 2022),92-131, https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/3852/). Germany’s interest in archaeological colonialism followed swiftly. [11] “Eine Deutsche-Orient Gesellschaft.” National-Zeitung, January 19, 1898, quoted in Frederick N. Bohrer, Orientalism and visual culture: imagining Mesopotamia in nineteenth-century Europe (Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003), 279-80, https://www.libs.uga.edu/reserves/docs/scans/bohrer-germanys-mesopotamia.pdf) [12] James Simon: Der große Mäzen der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin,” Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, https://www.smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/james-simon-galerie/ueber-uns/james-simon/). [13] Kristen E. Twardowski, “Excavating Imperial Fantasies: The German Oriental Society, 1898–1914”, (master’s thesis, University of Northern Carolina, 2015), 54,https://doi.org/10.17615/70j0-ks86.). [14] Vom Fragment zum Monument: Das Ischtar-Tor in Berlin,” Pergamonmuseum, https://www.smb.museum/ausstellungen/detail/vom-fragment-zum-monument/). [15)] Michaela Gericke, “Masterplan für die Museumsinsel,” February 10, 2005, Deutschlandfunk, https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/masterplan-fuer-die-museumsinsel-100.html). [16] Lutz Martin, “Max von Oppenheim and His Tell Halaf,” September 2020, ASOR, https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2020/09/oppenheim-tell-halaf). [17] Wilhelm II, The Kaiser’s Memoirs, trans. Thomas R. Ybarra (New York, London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1922), 203, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43522/43522-h/43522-h.htm). [18] Valeska Hartmann, “When Imitation Became Reality: The Historical Pantomime Sardanapal (1908) at the Royal Opera of Berlin”, in Receptions of the Ancient Near East in Popular Culture and Beyond, ed. Lorenzo Verderame and Agnès Garcia-Ventura (Columbus: Lockwood Press, 2020), 83-104, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvxrpzkx.9). [19] Sardanapal,” Berliner Volkszeitung, September 2, 1908. https://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/list/title/zdb/27971740/) [20] Rannfrid I. Thelle, Discovering Babylon (London, New York: Routledge, 2019,159). [21] Brigitte Pedde, “Reception of Mesopotamian Architecture in Germany and Austria in the 20th Century,” in Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, ed. Matthiae et al. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010), 122). [22] Andrew Dickson, “Culture in Weimar Germany: on the edge of the volcano,” British Library, May 25, 2016,https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/on-the-edge-of-the-volcano-culture-in-weimar-germany). [23] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “The Nazi Rise to Power,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-rise-to-power). [24] The law can be read at: https://www.geschichte-abitur.de/quellenmaterial/quellen-drittes-reich/gesetz-zur-wiederherstellung-des-berufsbeamtentums Article III: “Beamte, die nicht arischer Abstammung sind, sind in den Ruhestand (§§ 8 ff.) zu versetzen; soweit es sich um Ehrenbeamte handelt, sind sie aus dem Amtsverhältnis zu entlassen.”/ Article IV: “Beamte, die nach ihrer bisherigen politischen Betätigung nicht die Gewähr dafür bieten, daß sie jederzeit rückhaltlos für den nationalen Staat eintreten, können aus dem Dienst entlassen werden.”). [25] Higher Education in Nazi Germany”. Holocaust Sources in Context. https://perspectives.ushmm.org/collection/higher-education-in-nazi-germany. [26] See Martina Pesditschek, review of Entlassungsgrund: Pazifismus : Albrecht Götze, der Fall Gumbel und die Marburger Universität 1930 - 1946, by Harald Maier-Metz. Informationsmittel (IFB) : digitales Rezensionsorgan für Bibliothek und Wissenschaft, http://informationsmittel-fuer-bibliotheken.de/showfile.php?id=9420). [27] Silvia Alaura, “Hittite Studies at the Crossroads: Albrecht Goetze’s and Hans Gustav Güterbock’s Flight from Nazi Germany,” in Perspectives on the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, ed. Agnes Garcia-Ventura and Lorenzo Verderame (University Park: Eisenbrauns, Penn State University Press, 2020),https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/j.ctv1hcg0d9.4?seq=3. [28 Matt Saba, “The Ernst Herzfeld Papers at the Met: A Digital Resource Documenting the Study of Near Eastern Civilization,” the MET,https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/in-circulation/2014/ernst-herzfeld-papers). [29] Georg Steindorff Collection,” Center for Jewish History, https://archives.cjh.org//repositories/5/resources/10950)

Save Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA) is pleased to announce that the Fall 2023 period of our Internship Program is open for applications! These volunteer remote internships are great opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students who are passionate about Ancient Studies to gain professional experience in the non-profit sector in work closely related to their areas of study. Our vibrant, diverse community of interns and volunteers enjoy working together to promote Ancient Studies access and participation for all. At SASA, we strongly advocate for students to develop multiple areas of expertise, both academic and professional. Interning with us is a great way to broaden your horizons! Join one of our teams, each of which are vital to SASA’s organization and mission, accomplishing a wide scope of projects and tasks: Communications Inter-Org Communications Research Fundraising Grant Writing Executive Virtual Conference Access Outreach Archaeogaming Mentorship Read more in the SASA Internship Program Brochure To Apply, visit our webpage: https://www.saveancientstudies.org/apply-with-sasa The deadline for applications is July 31st, 2023, so apply today!

SASA is honored to announce that we have been awarded a $15,000 grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. With this grant, we intend on creating two new Archaeogaming Educational Modules (AEMs). These modules combine the engagement of interactive gaming with the study of the Ancient World, helping introduce Ancient Studies to young people in an educational environment. Last year, we were able to produce four new modules with the NJCH grant, and we are excited to create even more. The NJCH grant funds our research and production, enabling us to distribute the learning materials associated with our AEMs for free. As such, we can fulfill our goal of improving access to Ancient Studies for all. The grant additionally allows us to use contemporary technology to create high-quality resources and provide opportunities for early career scholars to gain critical experience by helping us develop the lessons. Thank you, New Jersey Council for the Humanities! You make our mission of channeling interest in the Ancient World and promoting access to Ancient Studies possible. And, of course, we thank our Archaeogaming Educational Module users for their continued support. If you are an educator who is interested in our existing Archaeogaming Educational Modules, please sign up to receive them for free.

Congratulations to SASA interns Andrew Bielecki and Summer Sekula! We would like to congratulate two interns on receiving academic awards for their contributions to the field of Ancient Studies. Both Bielecki and Sekula volunteered as interns in the Access Team, working towards the SASA goal of making resources accessible to both students and scholars. Andrew Bielecki is the recipient of the Kathryn F. Furcolo Award at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This award is for “outstanding interns in unpaid public service or governmental internships.” The award included a cash prize, which Andrew has decided will offset expenses for a summer study abroad trip to Oxford. Summer Sekula has been awarded one of three Mentorship Program Award Scholarships from the College of Liberal Arts, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) for her outstanding work as an intern with SASA. Additionally, she has also been selected by the UNLV History Department to be the recipient of the John S. Wright Memorial Scholarship. Thank you to our interns for your hard work, and congratulations again! SASA is very fortunate to have had your support over the past year. We look forward to seeing all your future achievements!

Congratulations Ancient Studies Graduates of 2023! For some of you who were our interns this past spring, we would like to extend a hearty thank you for your efforts during such a busy and critical time of your academic career. We certainly hope to see you return as a participant at one of our future events! SASA has resources that can help you in your next endeavors, whether that is a job search or preparation for postgraduate studies. Our Port Ancient page displays an extensive list of companies and organizations in the humanities, from established societies to startups, that you might reach out to. Our Resources page can also be used to plan out a career path, or your next paper or application. If you fall into the latter category, we have forums to help you receive feedback from scholars and peers for your project. And of course, our Oracle Newsletter announces any and all job openings our various partners may have, including a recent paid position at Biblical Archaeology Review. On another note, our Spring Student Interns have contributed to various projects within SASA, bringing innumerable benefits to our methods and overall sense of progress in the mission of creating a community for current and future scholars of Ancient Studies. Thank you again for all your hard work, and we look forward to seeing how your time at SASA continues to inspire you or create the foundations for growth in your respective skill sets! SASA proudly presents the following list of SASA Spring Student Interns: Alex Pelaez - North Texas Branch Initiative Andrew Zucco - Recruitment Team Austin Dedomenico - Access Team Autumn Short - Mentorship Team Emma Renz - Research Team Erin Carlson - Interorganizational Communications Team Hoda Kamal - Archaeogaming Team Kemetrea Spearman - Communications Team Kendall West - Recruitment Team Marcus Mcgann - Communications Team Mark Kacyrat - Executive Team Maximilian Sinclair - Research Team Osei Kwarteng - Research Team Shruti Sharma - Access Team Summer Sekula - Access Team Overall, SASA is happy to extend a thorough congratulations to any and all Classes of 2023 in the fields of humanities and Ancient Studies. Amidst this time of uncertainty, rise in AI and seeming decrease in the human touch, and of course, the Downward Trend, we encourage your proactive pursuit of Ancient Studies, and hope to see you go far in your respective areas of study. Congratulations on becoming alumni, or as the Romans intended, “learned children” of the future.