Papers by Anne Haslund Hansen
The paradox of being forgotten is that one must first be remembered. What is not in some way or a... more The paradox of being forgotten is that one must first be remembered. What is not in some way or another remembered will not be forgotten. In this chapter, I will discuss the visual reception of Zoëga.1 The portrait as a genre is documentation and remembrance, but also interpretation. Although we may have a tendency to focus on those images that come closest to an actual representation of a self-fashioning Zoëga, the posthumous portrait is equally important—if indeed we are concerned with precisely how Zoëga has been remembered. Together these images draw a meandering line of the shifting perceptions of Georg Zoëga, spanning almost a century and a half. In an article from 1904 about portraits of Zoëga, the Danish man of letters Frederik R. Friis suggested that renderings of Zoëga had perhaps once been more numerous.2 To Friis, Zoëga’s high scholarly standing and his many artist acquaintances stood in strange contrast to the very few known portraits of him. This presumption perhaps ow...
Scientific Reports, Aug 21, 2023
The recent development of techniques to sequence ancient DNA has provided valuable insights into ... more The recent development of techniques to sequence ancient DNA has provided valuable insights into the civilisations that came before us. However, the full potential of these methods has yet to be realised. We extracted ancient DNA from a recently exposed fracture surface of a clay brick deriving from the palace of king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE) in Nimrud, Iraq. We detected 34 unique taxonomic groups of plants. With this research we have made the pioneering discovery that ancient DNA, effectively protected from contamination inside a mass of clay, can successfully be extracted from a 2900-year-old clay brick. We encourage future research into this subject, as the scientific prospects for this approach are substantial, potentially leading to a deeper understanding of ancient and lost civilisations. Near the river Tigris, outside the ancient city of Kalhu, known today as Nimrud, a brickmaker once prepared a clay brick for the construction of a new palace dedicated to his king Ashurnasirpal II (approximately 883-859 BCE). Little did he know, that almost 2900 years later, this insignificant clay brick would serve as a unique time capsule revealing details of the flora from this specific area and time, through the modern-day investigation of the ancient DNA hidden and preserved for thousands of years. The sampling material. This investigation presents the discovery of ancient DNA (aDNA) in samples from an approximately 2900-year-old clay brick kept at the National Museum of Denmark. Showcasing a novel application of aDNA analysis and its results, we provide a discussion of the identified flora in relation to the rich abundance of textual evidence available from ancient Mesopotamia (roughly modern-day Iraq and Syria) to situate our findings in broader current discussions regarding the domestication of plants in this area. The brick in question (museum number 13854) was donated to the National Museum of Denmark in 1958 by the Rask Ørsted Foundation. It was discovered during the British excavations of Nimrud, beginning in 1949. Assyriologist Jørgen Laessøe ensured financial support from the state-funded Rask Ørsted Foundation making it possible for him and other Danes to participate in the excavations. In 1958, the National Museum received a group of objects from Nimrud, including the brick in question, in acknowledgement of the support. At the time when it entered the collection at the National Museum of Denmark, it had already broken into two pieces horizontally. Due to their state, mudbricks are seemingly solid, yet delicate in nature. During an otherwise controlled handling in 2020, the lower half of the brick unfortunately split vertically into two pieces. This event presented an opportunity for a scientific study of uncontaminated clay that could be dated with relative certainty. It was from this new uncontaminated break that the samples for this study were extracted (Fig. ). Made primarily of mud collected locally near the Tigris river, mixed with some botanical material such as chaff or straw, or animal dung, the brick was shaped in a mould before it was inscribed with so-called cuneiform signs, recording a dialect of the now extinct Semitic language Akkadian, after which it was placed in the sun to dry 1,2 . Mudbricks with cuneiform inscriptions were traditionally used for the construction of monumental
Since 2019, a research project has been ongoing on the many tex le fragments that were excavated ... more Since 2019, a research project has been ongoing on the many tex le fragments that were excavated in Hisn al-Bab, near Aswan, Egypt (late sixth to early seventh century CE). Part of the study focuses on the determina on of clothing fragments. Seams are an important feature for iden fying garments. An inves ga on of these features revealed that one of Hisn al-Bab's tex le fragments provides evidence for an unusual way of joining two woven tex les without using sewing techniques.
Fra Amarna til Ølby, fra Nippur til Melby:bronzealderens glasperler på rejse
This article presents new evidence of the wide dispersion of Mesopotamian glass, 1400e1100 BCE. T... more This article presents new evidence of the wide dispersion of Mesopotamian glass, 1400e1100 BCE. The chemical analyses of glass material from Amarna, Egypt, demonstrate that glass of Mesopotamian origin reached Egypt. The recently obtained physical evidence substantiates the words of the Amarna letters, referring to glass trade between Syria and Egypt. Furthermore, the chemical analyses of glass beads from Romania, Northern Germany and Denmark demonstrate that they were made of Mesopotamian glass. The current results presented here contribute to our understanding of the long distance exchange networks between the Mediterranean and the Nordic Bronze Age cultures. Finally, on the background of the analysis results it is proposed that the chemical composition of some of the beads in question indicates a mixture of glass of Mesopotamian and Egyptian origin. Probably, the mixture of the glass material took place at secondary workshops in the Mycenaean world.
This article presents new evidence of the wide dispersion of Mesopotamian glass, 1400e1100 BCE. T... more This article presents new evidence of the wide dispersion of Mesopotamian glass, 1400e1100 BCE. The chemical analyses of glass material from Amarna, Egypt, demonstrate that glass of Mesopotamian origin reached Egypt. The recently obtained physical evidence substantiates the words of the Amarna letters, referring to glass trade between Syria and Egypt. Furthermore, the chemical analyses of glass beads from Romania, Northern Germany and Denmark demonstrate that they were made of Mesopotamian glass. The current results presented here contribute to our understanding of the long distance exchange networks between the Mediterranean and the Nordic Bronze Age cultures. Finally, on the background of the analysis results it is proposed that the chemical composition of some of the beads in question indicates a mixture of glass of Mesopotamian and Egyptian origin. Probably, the mixture of the glass material took place at secondary workshops in the Mycenaean world.
Mesopotamian glass from Late Bronze Age Egypt, Romania, Germany, and Denmark
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2016
7 An Antiquarian Depicted. The Visual Reception of Georg Zoëga
The Forgotten Scholar: Georg Zoëga (1755-1809), 2015
This paper discusses the characteristics of the visual documentation produced during the Arabian ... more This paper discusses the characteristics of the visual documentation produced during the Arabian Voyage, 1761-1767, and published as illustrations in Beschreibung von Arabien (1772), Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien, I-II (1774 and 1778) and Reisen durch Syrien und Paläs-tina (1837). The illustrations are examined with regard to their motifs and distribution within the published works. The present study demonstrates that the images have little direct correspondence with the formulated scientific goals of the expedition. The point of view of the illustrations indicates a visual mapping, which is continuously shifting between overview and detail and between the immediately recognizable and the exotic. This links to the presupposed perceptions of the Orient as expressed through the initial planning of the expedition. Other factors which influenced the published results, such as the artistic skills and preferences of the draftsmen involved and – in the process of publication – reader targeting, are also discussed.
Books by Anne Haslund Hansen
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Papers by Anne Haslund Hansen
Books by Anne Haslund Hansen