diff --git a/src/main/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/v2/DataType.java b/src/main/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/v2/DataType.java
index a0bbd731..39401716 100644
--- a/src/main/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/v2/DataType.java
+++ b/src/main/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/v2/DataType.java
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 package dev.zarr.zarrjava.v2;
 
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonCreator;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonValue;
 
 public enum DataType implements dev.zarr.zarrjava.core.DataType {
@@ -32,6 +33,24 @@ public enum DataType implements dev.zarr.zarrjava.core.DataType {
         this.endianness = endianness;
     }
 
+    @JsonCreator
+    public static DataType fromValue(String value) {
+        for (DataType dataType : values()) {
+            if (dataType.getValue().equals(value)) {
+                return dataType;
+            }
+        }
+        // byte order is irrelevant for single-byte types, but numpy accepts (and some writers emit) "<u1" or ">u1"
+        if (value.startsWith(Endianness.LITTLE.getValue()) || value.startsWith(Endianness.BIG.getValue())) {
+            for (DataType dataType : values()) {
+                if (dataType.endianness == Endianness.UNSPECIFIED && dataType.dtype.equals(value.substring(1))) {
+                    return dataType;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported data type: " + value);
+    }
+
     public Endianness getEndianness() {
         return endianness;
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/ZarrV2Test.java b/src/test/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/ZarrV2Test.java
index 310fae62..14e3351f 100644
--- a/src/test/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/ZarrV2Test.java
+++ b/src/test/java/dev/zarr/zarrjava/ZarrV2Test.java
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
 
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
@@ -609,6 +611,16 @@ public void testZarrJsonFormat(Function<ArrayMetadataBuilder, ArrayMetadataBuild
         }
     }
 
+    @ParameterizedTest
+    @CsvSource({"|u1,UINT8", "<u1,UINT8", ">u1,UINT8", ">i1,INT8", "<b1,BOOL", ">u2,UINT16_BE"})
+    public void testReadDataTypeWithAnyByteOrder(String dtype, DataType expected) throws ZarrException, IOException {
+        StoreHandle storeHandle = new MemoryStore().resolve("array");
+        storeHandle.resolve(ZARRAY).set(ByteBuffer.wrap(("{\"zarr_format\": 2, \"shape\": [2], \"chunks\": [2], " +
+                "\"dtype\": \"" + dtype + "\", \"compressor\": null, \"fill_value\": 0, \"filters\": null, " +
+                "\"order\": \"C\"}").getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)));
+        Assertions.assertEquals(expected, Array.open(storeHandle).metadata().dataType);
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testMemoryStore() throws ZarrException, IOException {
         StoreHandle storeHandle = new MemoryStore().resolve();