Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft

The Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (German:

voluntary association based in Berlin dedicated to the study of the Near East

The DOG was officially founded in January 1898 to foster public interest in

Bible lands in the late 19th century. DOG focused on the cultures of the Middle East from early times to the Islamic

The founders of the DOG included a number of well-connected members of German society, including

Kaiser Wilhelm II developed an interest in archaeology and took the DOG under his protection from 1901, funding excavations with grants from Imperial funds. It was officially a subsidiary of the German museum administration, so its finds automatically belonged to the Prussian state. Further, its activities were aided by friendly relations established between the German and Ottoman Empires

.

The DOG's activities were interrupted by the

World Wars. The DOG was reestablished in 1947, and celebrated its centennial at the Pergamon Museum

in Berlin in 1998.

Excavations

DOG undertook excavations in

Nebuchadnezzar, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Koldewey also claimed to have discovered the Tower of Babel

.

Ägyptisches Museum, was discovered among other sculptural artefacts in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose

.

Hattuša. Other excavations before the First World War took place at sites at across the Fertile Crescent - in Mesopotamia, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt - including Megiddo, Capernaum, Borsippa, Hatra, Jericho, Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, and Uruk, but the outbreak of the First World War

in August 1914 terminated DOG's excavations.

After the DOG was reestablished following the Second World War, more recent excavations have taken place at

Sarissa in 1995, Urkesh in 1998, and Qatna

in 1999.

The DOG produces the annual publications, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (MDOG) and Alter Orient aktuell.

Gallery

Some artifacts excavated by the German Oriental Society at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, 1911-1914:

Unfinished figurine of a kneeling Egyptian pharaoh holding a table. From Amarna, House P47.1, Room 5. Neues Museum, Berlin
Fragments of a royal portrait, templet of nose and lips. From Egypt, Amarna, Neues Museum, Berlin
Unfinished statuette of an Amarna pharaoh. From Egypt, Amarna, House P47.2, Neues Museum, Berlin
Unfinished statuette of an Amarna Queen or Princess. From Egypt, Amarna, House P47.2, Room 5. Neues Museum, Berlin
Bracer of Pharaoh Thutmose IV. From Amarna, House P 48.1, Egypt. 1397-1388 BCE. Neues Museum, Berlin