upright=.85, Original German cover of ''Gods, Graves and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology'' (1949)C. W. Ceram (20 January 1915 – 12 April 1972) was the pseudonym of German journalist, editor at

Rowohlt Verlag Rowohlt Verlag is a German publishing house based in Hamburg, with offices in Reinbek and Berlin. It has been part of the Georg von Holtzbrinck Group since 1982. The company was created in 1908 in Leipzig by Ernst Rowohlt. Divisions * Kinder * ...

, and author Kurt Wilhelm Marek, known for his popular works about

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

. He chose to write using a pseudonym — spelling his own name backward as an

ananym An anadrome is a word whose spelling is derived by reversing the spelling of another word. It is therefore a special type of anagram. There is a long history of names being coined as ananyms of existing words or names for entities related to th ...

, and latinizing the ''K'' as ''C'' — to avoid association with his earlier work as a propagandist for the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Ceram was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. During World War II, he was a member of the Propagandatruppe. His works from that period include ''Wir hielten Narvik'', 1941, and ''Rote Spiegel - überall am Feind. Von den Kanonieren des Reichsmarschalls'', 1943. In 1949, Ceram wrote his most famous book, ''Götter, Gräber und Gelehrte'' — published in English as '' Gods, Graves and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology'' — an account of the historical development of archaeology. Published in 28 languages, Ceram's book eventually received a printing of more than 5 million copies, and is still in print. His very first article of this type was about epigraphy entitled: ''On the Decipherment of an Unknown Script'' and was published in the Berliner Illustrierte (1935). Other books by the author include ''The Secret of the Hittites'' (1956), ''March of Archaeology'' (1958) and ''The First American'' (1971), a book on ancient North American history. Using his actual name he published ''Yestermorrow: Notes on Man's Progress'' (1961); ''Hands on the Past: The Pioneer Archaeologists Tell Their Own Story '' (1966). Kurt Marek was responsible for the publication of '' A Woman in Berlin'', the anonymous memoir of a German woman raped by Red Army troops. He died at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1972. The Ceram Prize in archaeology is named after him.

References

1915 births 1972 deaths Writers from Berlin German male journalists German journalists 20th-century German journalists German male writers Burials at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery {{Germany-journalist-stub