Leuphana (Λευφάνα) is a city name, first mentioned by Ptolemy in the year 150 in the Atlas Geographia.
Ptolemy mentioned in Geographica 2, that ten cities unified by their not being under Roman occupation, created a settlement named Leuphana.
Johann Grässe put Leuphana in his place name dictionary on par with
Lüneburg
Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...
. Ptolemy mentioned a large number of German settlements that were not under Roman occupation, such as Ascalingium.
After Günnewig, Leuphana is located on the lowest stretch of the
Elbe
The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...
, although it is unknown on which side. Speculation is that Leuphana is near
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
,
Dömitz
Dömitz () is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe
The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of C ...
(Mecklenburg), or in the area near
Altmark
:''See German tanker Altmark for the ship named after Altmark and Stary Targ for the Polish village named Altmark in German.''
The Altmark (; English: Old MarchHansard, ''The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time ...'', Vo ...
.
However, identification of Leuphana is far from certain. Ptolemy may have been mistaken, as he was about Poleis. Grässe also may have been incorrect, both men confusing it with
Levefanum, that was located on the left side of the
Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
. The nomenclature expert Jürgen Udolph has the opinion that Leuphana has nothing to do with Lüneburg. His opinion on the matter is supported by other nomenclature experts.
Research by the Institute for
Geodesy
Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...
of
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 ...
, into a geodesic deformation analysis of the Ptolemaic map concluded that Leuphana lies to the east of Lüneburg on the Elbe, located next to
Hitzacker
Hitzacker is a town in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Elbe, approx. 8 km north of Dannenberg, and 45 km east of Lüneburg. The 2007 population of Hitzacker was 4,982, and its po ...
, which speaks in favor of the correctness of the Ptolemaic localization. This finding is supported through the archaeological excavations in Marwedel near Hitzacker, where the University of Göttingen and the Free University of Berlin and their archaeologists Olaf Fabian and Ivonne Baier located a settlement from the time period of 78/80 to 225. In 1928 and 1944, the graves of
Chieftains from Marwedel were found, two
elite tombs with rich grave offerings from the Germanic time of 150.
Since March 20, 2007, the
University of Lüneburg
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...
has adopted the name Leuphana. The advertising agency
Scholz and Friends of Hamburg proposed the name change to the university board in 2006.
''Markenentwicklung für Universitäten.''
Auf: ''markenbusiness.com.'' 29 March 2007.
References
Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at :de:Leuphana; see its history for attribution.
{{reflist
External links
''Google Earth in Antiquity.''
In: ''Der Spiegel.'' 39/2010, S. 152 ff., retrieved 7 February 2013.
Ancient cities
Settlements in Germania Magna