in memoriam - H. G. Niemeyer

We have received the sad news that Hans Georg Niemeyer has passed away. Prof. Niemeyer will be remembered as one of the founders of modern Phoenician scholarship, although his training and teaching always have been in the field of Classical archaeology. Together with Hermanfrid Schubart, he was the first to excavate a Phoenician colonial settlement on the Iberian Peninsula, Toscanos near Torre del Mar, in 1964. A few years later, the two young German archaeologists discovered the important necropolis of Trayamar near Morro de Mezquitilla. In 1986, in the wake of these investigations, Niemeyer moved his settlement orientated research to Carthage. The following excavations would proof to be his most prolific, profiting from his experiences in Spain. The final publication of this fieldwork, published earlier this year, is exceptionally in its depth and range. Fortuitously, it now proves to be a fitting conclusion to an enormous scientific output of equal depth and range. In this respect, it is appropriate to quote the words phrased by David Ridgway in Niemeyer's Festschrift of 1998:

“Throughout the sometimes controversial history of the Phoenicians' return to Western thinking, the oeuvre of Hans Georg Niemeyer has been a powerful beacon of sanity, scholarship and integrity: his name is, and will long remain, synonymous with all that is good and reliable in our growing experience and knowledge . . . which he has done much to expand [in] die Phönizier und die Mittelmeerwelt im Zeitalter Homers”

To our field, and particularly to the study of Carthage, his passing comes as a great loss. We offer our condolences to his relatives and friends, and in particular to Doris Niemeyer, his lifelong companion on his Phoenician trails.