Gerhard Bersu (26 September 1889 – 19 November 1964) was a German archaeologist who excavated widely across Europe. He was forced into exile from Germany in 1937 due to anti-Semitic laws in pre-war Nazi Germany. He was interned on the Isle of Man during World War II where he made several significant archaeological discoveries such as the Viking boat burial at Balladoole. Early life He was born in Jauer in Silesia in 1889 to a Jewish father. He was interested in prehistory from a young age and began his archaeological career while still a school boy, by joining in Carl Schuchhardt's excavations near Potsdam in 1907. In successive years Bersu dug in several European countries such as France, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece. He worked under Hubert Schmidt in the excavations at Cucuteni. Romania. During the First World War he worked for the Office for the Protection of Monuments and Collections on the Western Front. After the war he was attached to the German Armistice and Peace delegations. In 1924 he began working with the German Archaeological Institute at Frankfurt-am-Main. In 1928 he became the institution's Second Director and oversaw the acquisition of new buildings. He rose to the position of Director in 1931 and the institution became a "centre at which scholars from all Europe and beyond met to discuss the problems of archaeology" under his guidance. After the Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935, Bersu was forced to resign his post as a director due to his Jewish heritage. He was reassigned to a lower position at the German Archaeological Institute as Officer of Excavations, Berlin in 1935 and then was forced to retire later that year. Little Woodbury excavations Following his forced resignation from the German Archaeological Institute and the worsening anti-Semitic laws in Germany Bersu emigrated to Britain with his wife in 1937. At the invitation of British archaeologist Osbert Crawford as the president of the Prehistoric Society, Bersu conducted excavations in 1938 and 1939 at Little Woodbury in Wiltshire, introducing novel continental methods to the study of British prehistoric sites. The site had been first identified as a crop mark from an aerial photograph of the area, but it was not until Bersu's excavations that the significance of the site was realised. Bersu's systematic investigation was revolutionary for its time in England, and his excavation helped to reinterpret earlier misconceptions of Iron Age Britain. Before Bersu's