Julius Johann Heinrich Jordan (27 October 1877 – 7 February 1945) was a German archaeologist active in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

before and after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In the 1930s he was the Director of the Baghdad Antiquities Museum.

Early life

Born in Cassel in 1877, Jordan was educated at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium there, then in the spring of 1896 was admitted to the structural engineering department of the

TU Dresden TU Dresden (for , abbreviated as TUD), also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony a ...

to study

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

. In Dresden he became a member of a group known as the Erato singers.Paul Meißner, ed., ''Alt-Herren-Verzeichnis der DS-W.-S. 1933/34'' (Leipzig, 1934), p. 246 His most important teacher was Cornelius Gurlitt, and Jordan also found a life-changing friendship with an older student,

Walter Andrae Walter Andrae (February 18, 1875 – July 28, 1956) was a German archaeologist and architect born near Leipzig. Career Archaeologist Andrae initially studied architecture at the Dresden University of Technology, where he befriended a younger st ...

. After graduating from this course around 1902, Jordan worked as a government construction manager in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

.Heinrich J. Lenzen, "Jordan, Julius", in ''

Neue Deutsche Biographie (''NDB''; Literal translation, literally ''New German Biography'') is a Biography, biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 27 volumes published thus far co ...

'' Vol. 10 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1974, ), pp. 601–602

Career

In 1904, with the help of Andrae, Jordan joined the German excavations at

Assur Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Midd ...

, working there for eight years, and he also became a pupil of

Robert Koldewey Robert Johann Koldewey (10 September 1855 – 4 February 1925) was a German archaeologist, famous for his in-depth excavation of the ancient city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. He was born in Blankenburg am Harz in Germany, the duchy of Brunswick ...

(1855–1925), who was working on the

Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of tree ...

. In 1910 Jordan received a doctorate, supervised by Cornelius Gurlitt in Dresden, with a dissertation entitled "Construction Elements of Assyrian Monumental Buildings" (''Konstruktionselemente assyrischer Monumentalbauten''). Between 14 November 1912 and 12 May 1913, a German Oriental Society team led by Jordan, assisted by Conrad Preusser, began the first systematic excavations at

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

. In that first season, he focused work on the two main temple complexes, known as the Eanna and the Rêś. During the First World War, Jordan worked in an architectural office in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He could not return to his archaeological interests in Mesopotamia, now

Mandatory Iraq The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq (), was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolution against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and a 1924 un ...

under British control, until 1926. From 1928 to 1931 he excavated again at Uruk, then from 1931 to 1939 worked for the museum service of the newly independent

Kingdom of Iraq The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq was the Iraqi state located in the Middle East from 1932 to 1958. It was founded on 23 August 1921 as the Kingdom of Iraq, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World W ...

as director of the Baghdad Antiquities Museum. During the Second World War he was a consultant at the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...

and a visiting professor of architectural history at

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

. He died of a stomach ulcer in the Franziskus Hospital in Tiergarten in February 1945."Jordan, Julius Johann Heinrich" in Register of Deaths for Tiergarten, Berlin, entry No. 331/1945 He was buried in the

Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery The Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery () is a Protestant rural cemetery in Germany. Established in 1909, the cemetery is located in the municipality of Stahnsdorf in Potsdam-Mittelmark district, Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. With a la ...

Selected publications

*Julius Jordan, ''Uruk-Warka'' (51. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 1928) *Julius Jordan, "Vorläufiger Bericht über die von der Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft in Uruk-Warka unternommenen Ausgrabungen" in ''Abhandlungen der Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften'', 1929, 1930, and 1931 *Julius Jordan, ''Die Ausgrabungen der Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft in Uruk-Warka 1930/1931'' (1933) *Julius Jordan, ''A Guide through the Ruins of Babylon and Borsippa'' (Baghdad, 1937) *Julius Jordan, ''Der nahe Osten'' (Stuttgart, 1942) *Julius Jordan, ''Leistungen und Aufgaben der deutschen Ausgrabungen im Vorderen Orient'' (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1944)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Julius 1877 births 1945 deaths Burials at Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery 20th-century German archaeologists Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin TU Dresden alumni