Josef Wiesehöfer

Josef Wiesehöfer ( born April 5, 1951 in Wickede / Ruhr) is a German historian.

In his studies and doctorate at the University of Münster, where he worked as a research assistant, followed by a three-year position at the University of Hagen, and finally the Habilitation in Ancient History at the University of Heidelberg in 1988. Late as 1989 Wiesehöfer was Professor of Ancient History at the University of Kiel, where he has since been working.

Internationally known Wiesehöfer was primarily for his work on the pre-Islamic Persia, which were in many languages, including in English, French and Italian, translated. Wiesehöfer works to ensure a, the study of the ancient Near East, which is no longer considered since the 19th century by the most ancient historians as the object of the subject to better integrate into the old story again.

Next to the old Iran meadow Höfer's research interests lie in the contacts between the Greco -Roman world and its Eastern neighbors - a topic that indisputably belongs to the subject of ancient history. So he organized an international conference in 2006 to a Greek writer Ctesias, who had BC wrote an influential book on the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century. In the field of history of science Wiesehöfer operates; so he gave in 2005 an anthology of Theodor Mommsen out.

Wiesehöfer is (co - ) editor of several series of publications (eg Oriens et Occidens, Achaemenid History, Asia and Africa, Oikumene ), member of the Advisory Board of the Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy and the Chiron and the author of numerous essays and monographs, among which especially the Ancient Persia ( Dusseldorf / Zurich 1993), internationally regarded as a standard work, and has undergone several editions and translations, including into English ( Ancient Persia, London, 1996). He is also an author of the Encyclopaedia Iranica.

Wiesehöfer is a member of the board of the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum ( London), corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, corresponding member of Philology and History class of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen and principal investigator of the Kiel Graduate School Human Development in Landscapes.

Important writings in selection

• The uprising Gaumātas and the beginnings of Darius I, Bonn 1978.
• The ancient Persia. From 550 BC to 650 AD, 4th edition. Artemis and Winkler, Dusseldorf / Zurich 2005.
• The ' Dark Ages ' of Persis. Studies on the history and culture of Fārs in the early Hellenistic period ( 330-140 BC) ( Zetemata Vol 90 ), Munich 1994.
• The early Persia. History of an ancient empire, C. H. Beck, 5th Edition 2009 Munich ( Beck series knowledge )

• The Parthian Empire, and his testimonies, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1998.
• In collaboration with Henning Borm: Theodor Mommsen. Scholar, politician and writer, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2005 ISBN 3-515-08719-2
• Philip Huyse: Eran ud Anéran, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2006.
• With Norbert Henning Ehrhardt and Borm: Monumentum et instrumentum inscriptum. Labeled objects from Roman Empire and Late Antiquity as historical evidence, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2008.
• Henning Borm: Commutatio et contentio, Wellern Verlag, Dusseldorf, 2010.
• With Robert Rollinger and Giovanni Lanfranchi: The world of Ctesias. Ctesias ' world, Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 2011.