those of other lakes, both Swiss and foreign. He even started lake-dwelling research in northern Italy. His studies sought to clarify the differences between Neolithic and Bronze Age sites by defining reference corpora. He was one of the few people to question whether the so-called dwellings on water were warehouses rather than houses. He became interested in the problems of trade, and the relationships between land and lakeside dwellings, but, unlike most of his contemporaries, he always remained cautious about ethnic assimilations and peoples’ migrations. Desor worked to familiarize Swiss scientists with Nordic Mesolithic and French Paleolithic research. He closely followed French archeologist gabriel de mortillet’s work on the origins of man.

Desor is most famous for his work at the site of la tène in Switzerland, and he excavated several mounds in the Neuchâtel area. He was the first to propose a chronological division of the Iron Age (Desor 1865, 1866, 1868). He argued that the mounds (or tumuli), even without any iron objects, such as those at Favargettes, belonged to the earliest part of the Iron Age, like the Hallstatt sites, whereas the sites of La Tène, Tiefenau (Bern), and alesia (France) represented a second development, or a later Iron Age. Alesia provided a certain chronology, thus joining prehistory to history.

Desor made few detailed studies on precise subjects, but his insatiable curiosity encouraged him to try to find out all the facts he could about archaeology. With his open mind and his great scientific rigor, he considerably widened the field of prehistoric research.

Marc-Antoine Kaeser

References

Aspes, A. 1994. “A History of Research on the Lake-Dwellings in Northern Italy.” Bulletin of the XIII Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohlstoric Sciences—Forli, Italy, 1996 2: 75–78.

Desor, E. 1865. Les palafittes ou constructions lacustres du Lac de Neuchatel. Paris: Reinwald.

———. 1866. “Discours d’ouverture du Congres International Paleoethnologique de Neuchatel, 1866.” Materiaux pour l’histoire primitive et naturelle de l’homme (September–October): 471–482.

———. 1867. “Discussion sur la premiere epoque du fer.” In Congres internanonal d’anthropologieet d’archéologie préhistoriques. Compte rendu de la 2me session, Paris, 1867, 291–296. Paris: Reinwald.

———. 1868. “Le tumulus des Favargettes.” Musée Neuchatelois 5: 229–242.

Desor, E., and L. Favre. 1874. Le bel âge du bronze lacustre en Suisse. Paris and Neuchâtel: Sandoz.

Favre, L., and F. Berthoud. 1883. “Edouard Desor: Discours prononcés à l’ouverture des cours de l’Academie de Neuchâtel le 12 avril 1882.” Musée Neuchatelois 20: 29–74.

Kaenel, G. 1990. Recherches sur la période de La Tène en Suisse occidentale: Analyse des sépultures. Cahiers d’archeologie romande 90. Lausanne: Bibliotheque Historique Vaudoise.

———. 1991. “Troyon, Desor et les “Helvetiens” vers le milieu du XIXe siecle.” Archaologie der Schweiz 14: 19–28.

Rivier, H. 1931. “La Société neuchâteloise des Sciences Naturelles 1832–1932. Notice historique publiée à l’occasion de son centenaire (Chapters II–III, 1833–1882).” Bulletin de la Societé Neuchâteloise des Sciences Naturelles 56: 18–47.

Schaer, J.-P. 1994. “Pierre Jean Edouard Desor (1811–1882).” Histoire de l’Université de Neuchatel, Vol. 2, La seconde Academie. 403–408. Hauterive: Université de Neuchâtel/Attinger.

Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI)

The antecedents of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI, German Archaeological Institute) lie in the Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, which was founded in Rome in 1829 by a group of antiquarians, artists, and diplomats. The purpose of the institute was the promotion of the study of classical art, epigraphy, and topography. The Prussian crown prince (later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV) was its first patron, and in 1832, when Eduard Gerhard, the person most responsible for the creation of the institute left Rome for Berlin, the organization moved with him.

Beginning in 1859, the links between the institute and first the Prussian and later the German governments became closer until it became a government operation and the name was changed to the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the