I found this brochure I had forgotten all about in my personal library. It wasn’t dated and, after a quick search on the Internet, I found out the address of its author, Dr. Irwin Scollar, and exchanged some e-mails with my old acquaintance, obtaining his permission to publish the text on our website. After all these investigations I managed to piece together this information:

        The aerial photography exhibition regarding archaeological investigations on the Rhine Valley was opened in Bucharest, in 1975 or 1976, and was probably held at the Dalles Exhibition Hall. It enjoyed a tremendous success with the public, being one of the few western showings at that time.

        The introduction to this exhibition’s catalogue was written by the German Federal Republic’s ambassador in Romanian at that time (1971 - 1976), Dr. Erwin Wickert. More about the diplomat and writer Dr. Erwin Wickert (1915 - 2008) can be read in the obituaries published by The Independent (19 June 2008) and Times Online(28 April 2008), where there is also a photo of him.

        Dr. Irwin Scollar (about this exceptional personality - see his personal webpage) remembers that he started to prepear this exhibition regarding the first four years of aerial photographis survey over the Rhine area at the beginning of 1965.

        The exhibition was financed by Internationes, a cultural branch of the West Germany’s Foreign Ministry. At the same time an exhibition brochure was written in English and later translated in Swedish, for its first showing in 1966, in Stockholm. Many years later, Internationes sent this exhibition in other countries and translated the leaflet in the local languages. Dr. Scollar wasn’t kept informed about all of this showings, but at my request, he searched in his own archive and found a copy of the Romanian brochure he received at that time. Dr. Scollar held a series of conferences on the subject in Romania in 1973, but couldn’t remember if the exhibit was opened at that time. That’s why the time frame for the exhibition is between the years 1973 and 1976, most probably in 1975 or 1976.

        The exhibition had an important role in introducing the Romanian audience to the use of aerial photography in archaeological research, that’s why Dr. Scollar’s contribution won’t be forgotten and we fill obliged to offer it to the public once again in digitized form on the web.

Irina Oberländer-Târnoveanu
18 august 2009
Translated into English by Vlad Oberländer-Târnoveanu.