Reinhard Bernbeck Professor of Anthropology
PhD, Freie Universität Berlin, 1991
Archaeologist
rbernbec@binghamton.edu
Currently on an extended leave of absence
Reinhard is an archaeologist specializing on Western Asian prehistory and history. His interests range from the economic organization of ancient societies to ancient imperialism in comparison to its manifestations today. Another field of engagement are the often repressive conditions into which archaeology is inserted in the present, as well as the ideological dimensions of archaeology as a means to endorse the political status quo.
Reinhard has co-directed fieldwork at the prehistoric sites of Kazane and Fistikli Höyük (Turkey), Tol-e Bashi and Rahmatabad (Iran), Abu Snesleh (Jordan). At present, he co-directs a multi-year excavation project in Turkmenistan at Monjukli Depe. [http://www.topoi.org/project/innovations-turkmenistan/]
Susan Pollock and Reinhard Bernbeck have started an archaeological excavation in the middle of Germany's capital Berlin. Tempelhof Airport, famous for the Berlin Airlift of the years 1948-1949, has a much darker side in its history: it was the locus of forced labor camps under the Nazis. We are excavating the remains of a 1920s airport building, used for military purposes in WW II, and a forced labor camp run by the Deutsche Lufthansa (www.ausgrabungen-tempelhof.de).
2011 Reinhard Bernbeck and Randall H. McGuire, eds.: Ideologies in Archaeology. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
2010 Susan Pollock, Reinhard Bernbeck, and Kamyar Abdi, eds.: The 2003 Excavations at Tol-e Bashi, Iran. Social Life in a Neolithic Village. Archäologie in Iran und Turan, 10. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
2008 Maria Theresia Starzmann, Susan Pollock and Reinhard Bernbeck, eds.: Imperial Inspections: Archaeology, War, and Violence. Theme Issue, Archaeologies 4 (3).
2012 Jenseits des Affirmativismus. Perspektiven für kritische Archäologien. (Beyond Affirmation: Perspectives for Critical Archaeologies). Forum Kritische Archäologie 1: 167-196 (with Aydin Abar, Antonia Davidovic, Christoph Forster, Johannes Greger Carolin Jauss and Susan Pollock).
2012 Multitudes before Sovereignty. Theoretical Reflections on a Late Neolithic Case. In Tobias Kienlin and Andreas Zimmermann, eds.: Beyond Elites. Alternatives to Hierarchical Systems in Modelling Social Formations, pp. 147-167. Bonn: Habelt.
2010 An Archaeology of Categorization and Categories in Archaeology. Paléorient 36 (1): 37-47 (with Susan Pollock).
2010 Heritage Politics: Learning from Mullah Omar? In Ran Boytner, Lynn Swartz Dodd and Bradley J. Parker, eds.: Controlling the Past, Owning the Future. The Political Uses of Archaeology in the Middle East, pp. 27-54. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
2010 Imperialist Networks: Ancient Assyria and the United States. Present Pasts 2 (1): 142-168. doi:10.5334/pp.30.
2009 Class Conflict in Ancient Mesopotamia: Between Knowledge of History and Historicizing Knowledge. Anthropology of the Middle East 4 (1): 33-64.
2008 Structural Violence in Archaeology. Archaeologies 4 (3): 390-413.
