Eckhard Unger

Eckhard Unger (Landsberg an der Warthe, 11 April 1884 – 24 July 1966) was a German assyriologist.

Unger who was the curator of the Istanbul museum described the remains of Balawat Gates that are still in the Istanbul Museum. Unger was fully aware that the major parts of the gates were in London and Paris as he had visited both locations and discussed them with the respective curators.

In 1916, as curator of the Archeological Museum of Istanbul, he identified and described a copper-alloy object in the museum collection as an ell or measuring rod from Nippur. Dating to the first half of the third millennium BC or even earlier, possibly the oldest known measuring device, it supposedly defines the Sumerian cubit at about 518.6 millimetres. During World War I he made a first detailed research in Basilica cistern (yerebatan Sarnıcı) at İstanbul.