Hermann Parzinger

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Books by Hermann Parzinger
Preview Die frühen Völker Eurasiens

In 1992 thanks to Hermnan Parzinger I was able to
read for a few days in the Library of the Römish-
Germanische Kommission des Deutsches
Archälogischen Instituts (Frankfurt A.M.). His
fundamental work on the Prehistoric Chronology of
the Balkans and Anatolia was still a manuscript.
When a few years earlier we crossed together
Bulgaria to visit excavations and museums I had
no idea that the small drawings that Hermann
made in his notebook were in fact the seeds for the
book of the 20th century on Eurasian Prehistory –
Studien zur Chronologie und Kulturgeschichte der
Jungstein-, Kupfer- und Frühbronzezeit zwischen
Karpaten und Mittlerem Taurus (Mainz: Zabern
1993, Römisch-Germanische Forschungen Bd. 52,
ISBN 3-8053-1501-5). In early 2000s in Salt Lake I
tried to collect the most recent information on
Circumpontica. Soon it became clear that in fact
most helpful would be a new collection of research
papers. Meanwhile another scholarly giant came
out. Nobody would be surprised who was the
author. Logically, again Hermann Parzinger. Die
frühen Völker Eurasiens. Vom Neolithikum zum
Mittelalter. (München: Beck 2006, ISBN 3-406-
54961-6) is not only the book that we need but also
an example of the mission of the 21st century
archaeologists – everybody to find his/her scholarly
star and to follow it with the strength of the first love
to the end of his/her life.
We know that there are and there will be many
remarkable and extraordinary archaeologists in
different fields of research in 21st century. But when
it comes to Eurasian Prehistory – two centuries
have one and the same King with one and the
same crown – Hermann Parzinger!

Happy 50th Birth Anniversary!
March 12, 2009

Lolita Nikolova, PhD