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 Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts ...
.
He chose to write using a pseudonym — spelling his own name backward as an
ananym, 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 Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. During World War II, he was a member of the
Propagandatruppe. His works from that period include ''Wir hielten
Narvik
( se, Áhkanjárga) is the third-largest municipality in Nordland county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Narvik. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Ankenesstranda, Ba ...
'', 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
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses acco 