Thursday, December 31, 2009

Dinner in the Tomb


Larger


For decades a print of this photograph hung on the wall just inside the door of the Research Archives.


TitleOriental Institute
ViewEgyptian Dinner 1
SeriesII: Buildings and Grounds
DescriptionArchaeologists dining in the tomb of Ramses XI, Valley of the Kings (Wadi al-Biban al-Muluk) near Luxor, Egypt. The empty chair at the head of the table is that of Lord Carnarvon who took the picture. From left to right: Dr. James Breasted, Harry Burton, Alfred Lucas, Arthur Callender, Arthur Mace, Howard Carter, and Sir Alan Gardiner.
Subject TermsBreasted, James Henry, 1865-1935 | Carter, Howard, 1874-1939 | Mace, Arthur Cruttenden, 1874-1928 | Gardiner, Alan Henderson, Sir, 1879-1963 | Lucas, Alfred, 1867-1945 | Burton, Harry, 1879-1940
PhotographerCarnarvon, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of, 1866-1923
Photograph DateUndated
Physical FormatPhotographic prints; 11.1 x 16.6 cm
LocationEgypt
CollectionArchival Photographic Files
RepositoryUniversity of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center
Image Identifier

A Postcard...



From CHUCKMAN'S collection of postcards of Chicago. Who is that in the picture? Watson Boyes? I think so - compare these for example.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

As the year ends...

Various persons and places a are producing their traditional year end lists of top this and thats. Uchiblogo, the University of Chicago Magazine's blog has a feature today called You Read it Here:

In 2009 we tried some new things on our blog UChiBLOGo and kept things interesting in the pages of the Magazine. Some ideas played out more successfully than others. Here are some of 2009's highlights, by the numbers:

Five most popular magazine stories, online

  1. "Chicago Schooled"
    Michael Fitzgerald, AB’86, writes about how the visible hand of the recession has revitalized critics of the Chicago School of Economics.

  2. "Life under wraps" and "Meresamun: A life in layers"
    On display for nine decades, the coffin of a 2,800-year-old Egyptian mummy Meresamun has never been opened. But CT imagery peeled away paint, plaster, and linen to reveal the woman inside...
Meresamun has to be the biggest OI story ever! 44,600 hits on the word in google as of today!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

News: Rita Picken Professorship

University of Chicago News, December 22, 2009.
The Oriental Institute has established a professorship in honor of the late Rita Picken, a long-time volunteer docent who, for three decades, shared her fascination with the ancient Near East with school children and adults visiting the Oriental Institute Museum.

The Rita T. Picken Professorship in Ancient Near Eastern Art will enhance the work of the Oriental Institute by adding a faculty member whose expertise in ancient art will complement the institute’s strengths in languages and archaeology, said Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute.

The professorship is being established with a $3.5 million gift from Rita Picken’s daughter, Kitty Picken, who began volunteering with her mother in 1977.

“Rita Picken was a true friend of the Oriental Institute. She loved ancient art and artifacts, and shared her enthusiasm with many generations of adults and school children as a docent in our museum,” Stein said.

Rita and Kitty Picken also sponsored the Picken Family Nubia Gallery and the Oriental Institute’s recent special exhibition on the ancient Egyptian mummy Meresamun.

Rita Picken, who was a Life Member of the Oriental Institute’s Visiting Committee, received in May the Breasted Medallion, the highest honor the institute gives for a career of volunteer service.

“She was a person whose sweetness, gentle wit and sparkling eyes always brightened up the room. The Oriental Institute was like a second family for her, and we all will miss her greatly,” Stein added.

Modern scholars rely on three complementary kinds of evidence to reconstruct early cultures, Stein explained. Archaeologists study artifacts, “to tell us about ancient behavior and what people actually did.” Scholars also examine texts written by philologists and ancient historians, which “lets us hear these ancient people describe in their own words the details of how their societies worked,” said Stein.

The third method, which the Picken professorship will help support, is the study of images that “provides insights into the ideologies of ancient people―how they expressed power and piety through visual symbols,” Stein added. This crucial third piece of the puzzle for understanding ancient Near Eastern cultures will build on the Oriental Institute’s traditional strengths in archaeology and textual studies. The institute has not had an art historian on its faculty since 1985, when the late Helene Kantor retired.

“With the Rita T. Picken Professorship in Ancient Near Eastern Art, we will be able to bring back the study of images, giving us a truly holistic perspective on the ancient Near East. I don’t know of any other research center that will have all of these powerful approaches to studying the past united under one roof in an integrated program of research and graduate training,” Stein said.

“Different cultures in the ancient Near East were closely interconnected and they were the world’s earliest globalized societies, where art objects and art styles were the currency of prestige and power. Art objects were some of the most important goods of that time, and they were traded or given as royal gifts across vast distances,” Stein said.

“We hope to attract a scholar whose knowledge of the art of multiple ancient cultures, such as Mesopotamia and Egypt, would allow him or her to understand the complexity of visual symbols in this globalized ancient world,” said Stein.

Along with her daughter Kitty, Rita Picken joined the Oriental Institute as a docent in 1977, and the mother-daughter team also enrolled in classes. “The Oriental Institute became family for us,” said Kitty Picken.

“Part of what Rita enjoyed was the feedback she received from the fourth and fifth graders on her tours,” said Kitty Picken. “She would always ask them what they thought would still be around from our own civilization 1,000 years from now. They would tell her, ‘probably Tupperware bowls,’ but that the lids would not fit. Then she’d laugh and say that archaeologists might consider the lids religious symbols if they didn’t know what they were.”


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See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Oriental Institute and Its Projects on Youtube


[Originally posted on 1 May 2009, updated 15 October 2009, updated 22 October 2010, updated December 10, 2009, updated January 10, 2009. Updated July 9, 2010. Updated 10/5/10]













Matthew Stolper, Head of the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, kicked off the event by discussing the languages of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, as a symbol of inclusiveness of the empire of many people and many languages

Cracking the Code: using language to unlock ancient history





[This first video is not on YouTube, but is still worth watching]

























and see also


Persepolis sequence from The Human Adventure


OI on Twitter

Here

Monday, December 7, 2009

Changes at the Journal of Near Eastern Studies

The Journal of Near Eastern Studies is the Departmental Journal of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and is closely associated with the Oriental Institute.

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A recent announcement from JNES reads:
The editors and publisher of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies are pleased to announce several exciting changes to JNES.

Effective with the 2010 volume, JNES will move from quarterly publication to semiannual publication, with two issues now appearing each year, in April and October. The amount of content published in JNES will not decrease, however, because each issue will contain at least twice as many pages as previously. Current subscriptions due to expire with the January 2010 issue will now expire with the April 2010 issue; current subscriptions due to expire with the July 2010 issue will now expire with the October 2010 issue. Current JNES subscribers should therefore be assured they will receive all the journal content they have paid for, and more.

Corresponding with the frequency change, we will introduce the first significant redesign of JNES since 1942. An increased trim size (8.5” × 11”) will better accommodate larger photographs and drawings, and a smoother text stock will allow for better reproduction of halftones as well as the possibility of color figures. A two-column interior format and an updated typeface will make the journal easier to read. Additionally, the full-color cover of each issue will feature a different artifact from the collection of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, to be loosely connected in terms of theme to one or more of the articles appearing in the issue.

The JNES editors will also be adjusting the balance between articles and book reviews. The aim is to focus increasingly on original research, and JNES will therefore publish more articles and fewer (though more substantial) book reviews. This goal will only be fully realized, of course, once JNES works through its considerable backlog of book reviews sometime within the next two years.

Otherwise, the traditional editorial scope of JNES—all aspects of the vibrant and varied civilizations of the Near East from ancient to premodern times—will remain unchanged.

Back issues of JNES are available in JSTOR: Journal of Near Eastern Studies
Index to JNES volumes 1 - 55

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Biographical Memoirs: Erica Reiner

Biographical Memoirs: Erica Reiner, by Martha Roth, PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY VOL. 153, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2009.
ERICA REINER was born 4 August 1924, in Budapest, to Imre,
a young lawyer, and Clara (née Ehrenfeld), both from well-to-
do modern Orthodox Jewish families. Erica and my mother,
Anna Reiner, close fi rst cousins, spent school vacations together either
in the country at my mother’s or in the city at Erica’s. My mother talked
about the elegance of Erica’s Budapest home—the Fräulein teaching
French and German to Erica and her sister, Eva; shopping at the best
stores; always the best schools. At university in Budapest, Erica studied
French literature and Semitics. Her father was by then a prominent
lawyer, and later a member of the Judenrat in the ghetto. Even during
the darkest days of 1944–45, when Jews were restricted and then pro-
hibited from public life, Erica refused to stop attending classes; she
simply removed her yellow star and went to lectures. Although many
members of the Reiner family, particularly of the older generation,
shared the fate of most Hungarian Jewry, many of Imre’s immediate
and extended family whom he had brought into the shrinking Budapest
ghetto (including my mother), survived long enough to see liberation.
In 1948 Erica received her licence from Péter University in Buda-
pest, and went off to Paris to continue her studies in French literature.
There she lived with her mother’s brother, Michel Gyarmaty, who was
the artistic director of the Folies Bergères. Michel’s apartment, like his
stage sets, was elaborate, gilded, and baroque, and he introduced Erica
to a new and exciting life in postwar Paris. In addition to giving her the
decorating and entertaining style for which Erica became famous at the
University of Chicago in Hyde Park, two important events in those
years shaped her life. First, when Erica realized that she and later her
family would not return to Hungary and that a career in French litera-
ture would elude her in Paris, she switched her studies to Semitic lan-
guages and linguistics, and began studying with Professor Jean Nou-
gayrol. Second, the twenty-four-year-old Hungarian beauty had a tragic
love affair. Her Spanish lover, an engineering student, eventually re-
turned to Spain; but he left her with a deep commitment to his Catholic
faith, which Erica made her own. As devout a Jew as she had been be-
fore, in Paris she turned her passion to Catholicism and remained a de-
vout Catholic for the rest of her life...


And see also:

Her History of the CAD: An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary

In Memoriam Erica Reiner, 1924–2005 appeared in the Oriental Institute 2005-2006 Annual Report

Obituary from the University of Chicago News and Information Office: Erica Reiner, 1924-2005, Published Jan. 3, 2006

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Remembering King Tut

An article in the Toronto Star (Nov 20 2009) on the upcoming exhibition there, includes remembrances of the 1977 show. Emily Teeter's are well represented.

#


Visit changed the lives of king's devoted servants

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919–20

In October I noted that the Oriental Institute will open a special exhibit:

Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919–20


# #

The exhibit will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with essays by archaeologists and historians. It will also be accompanied by a reprint of Pioneer to the past: The story of James Henry Breasted.

In 1977, the Oriental Institute produced another publication on Breasted's trip:
The 1919/20 Breasted expedition to the Near East : a photographic study.
In the spring of 1919, James Henry Breasted, founder of the Oriental Institute, began a year long expedition to the Near East. Accompanied by Daniel D Luckenbill and several graduate students, Breasted travelled extensively through Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. In these fiche, 163 of the photographs taken during Breasted's journey are arranged to follow the expedition's itinerary. They record the numerous archaeological sites that Breasted visited, the Arab and British leaders with whom he met, and scenes of contemporary native life. The accompanying text records the progress of the expedition, and identifies the describes the photographs. vi + 30p, 1 map (booklet), 2 b/w fiche (163 frames) (Microeditions Special Publications, Oriental Institute 1977)
The book seems to be available for an excellent price from DBB. I'm led to believe that this text/fiche publication will also appear online in some form during the exhibit.

The Oriental Institute page on facebook is offering previews of some of the photographs in the exhibition.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Just published: OIP 136. Medinet Habu IX. The Eighteenth Dynasty Temple, Part I

Just published on paper and online!

book coverOIP 136.


Medinet Habu IX. The Eighteenth Dynasty Temple, Part I: The Inner Sanctuaries With Translations of Texts, Commentary, and Glossary

by The Epigraphic Survey

Purchase Book Download PDF Terms of Use

With the present volume the Epigraphic Survey returns to its series of publications dedicated to the reliefs and inscriptions of the Medinet Habu complex, a series inaugurated in 1930 with the publication of the war scenes and earlier historical records from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III (Medinet Habu I. Earlier Historical Records of Ramses III, The Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute Publications 8, 1930). The Ramesside temple and the High Gate were to occupy the efforts of the Survey for the next four decades, ending in 1970 with the appearance of Medinet Habu VIII. In resuming the Medinet Habu series, the Survey initiates what is envisioned to be a sequence of five volumes documenting the Eighteenth Dynasty temple of Amun and subsequent additions thereto, beginning with this publication of the reliefs in the six innermost rooms of the temple. These chambers were begun during the coregency of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III and completed by the latter king during his sole reign.

  • Oriental Institute Publications 136
  • Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2009
  • ISBN-10: 1-885923-64-3
  • ISBN-13: 978-1-885923-64-6
  • Pp. xl + 92; 4 figures, 2 ground plans, 142 plates
  • $450

Earlier OI publications on Medinet Habu include:

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Oriental Institute Travel Blog: OI Splendors of the Nile

OI Splendors of the Nile
OI Splendors of the Nile is a photographic and textual complement to the Oriental Institute's Splendors of the Nile program escorted by Dr. Nadine Moeller.

This trip is a great introduction to Egypt and a treat for anyone who wants to see Egypt through the eyes of a Nile traveler. We will experience many of the famous landmarks of Egyptian history as well as exclusive site visits and on-site learning.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Research Archives Adopt-a-Journal Campaign

Research Library window

The Research Archives needs your help to maintain its position as the premier library for ancient Near Eastern studies in the Western Hemisphere. The Adopt-a-Journal Campaign is an opportunity to provide the library with its most valuable asset and demonstrate your commitment to the preservation of knowledge and learning for future generations of Oriental Institute members, scholars, students, and visitors.

Donors to the program can choose to adopt a journal annually, create a fund to ensure long-term support, or donate a personal copy of a specific journal needed in the collection. Every dollar donated goes toward purchasing new volumes, above and beyond our current subscriptions. We are pleased to recognize our donors with a permanent, personalized bookplate in the books and journals that they sponsor, as well as a mention in the pages of the Oriental Institute Annual Report. If you would like information about how to sponsor a journal, please contact Foy Scalf via phone at (773) 702-9537 or via email. We can provide you with a list of adoptable journals in your field of interest as well as the costs for sponsoring those journals. We are very grateful for your sponsorship.

Examples of personalized bookplates:


You can adopt-a-journal through our online pledge form. Under “Purpose of Gift,” simply check the box for “Research Archives Library” and type “100%” in the box (unless you are giving multiple gifts to multiple departments). Then in the “Special Instructions” field, you can simply tell us which journal(s) you would like to adopt and for how long.

You could also simply write a check made out to the “Oriental Institute” and send it to the following address:

Research Archives
Oriental Institute
1155 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Please be sure to include your instructions concerning which journal(s) you would like to sponsor. After receipt, a unique bookplate will be designed to honor your generosity and a copy will be sent to you via email.

Futher information on the Research Archives at the OIHistory blog:

Futher information on the Research Archives at the OI website:


Tuesday, November 3, 2009

News: OI Conservation Laboratory

The University of Chicago Features
By William Harms

A 300-pound fragment of a human-headed winged bull from the Neo-Assyrian city of Khorsabad sits on a table in the Oriental Institute’s conservation laboratory. The fragment, made of gypsum, is about to get the most attention it’s had since a team of archaeologists excavated it more than 70 years ago in northern Iraq.

Alison Whyte, Assistant Conservator, guides a small vacuum nozzle over the fragment’s surface—past its carved rosette decorations and over tiny bits of dirt, some of which are more than 2,000 years old. She uses a small artist’s brush with especially fine bristles to sweep up the dust...

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Alison Whyte, Assistant Conservator, and Monica Hudak, Contract Conservator, clean the 300-pound gypsum fragment of a human-headed, winged bull, an artifact in the Oriental Institute's collection. (Photo by Lloyd DeGrane)

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Books by (former) OI folk

Nina Bruhns, former student at the OI and member of the staff of the Research Archives in the early 80s found her way to oihistory. She said nice things about her time at the OI, "To this day it gets a special mention as my alltime favorite job".

She also passes along news of her new book : Shoot to Thrill, which draws heavily on her days doing fieldwork in the Sudan.

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

News: Gold of Kush

Archaeology,
Volume 62 Number 6, November/December 2009
by Geoff Emberling
When frequent ARCHAEOLOGY contributor Andrew Lawler reported on the construction of Sudan's massive Merowe Dam on the Nile River at Hamdab, some 220 miles north of the capital Khartoum ("Damming Sudan," November/December 2006), innumerable ancient sites were about to be flooded. The disastrous situation also posed a humanitarian crisis, as those in the water's path were systematically forced from their homes. The following year, University of Chicago archaeologist Geoff Emberling joined an international salvage effort to document sites before they disappeared..


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See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.


Thursday, October 8, 2009

Lectures at the OI in Celebration of the 500th Convocation

Lectures in Celebration of the 500th Convocation

Friday, Oct. 9, 2009

1:30-2:30 p.m.

“Transgressing Disciplines,” Robert McCormick Adams Jr., PhB’47, AM’52, PhD’56,
Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego. Hosted by the Department of Anthropology.
Location: Oriental Institute, Breasted Hall

Upcoming Exhibit at the OI: “Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919–20”

Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919–20
The Oriental Institute Museum will present an exhibit entitled “Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919–20” from January 12 to August 30, 2010.
# #

James Henry Breasted had received a large donation from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to establish the Oriental Institute in 1919 and quickly organized an expedition to travel across the Middle East to acquire objects for the Institute and identify sites for excavation. World War I had just ended, the political map of the Middle East had not yet been redrawn, and it was a dangerous time to be travelling through the region. The exhibit will present the incredible adventure story of the Breasted expedition through photographs, excerpts from letters, original documents from the archives, and objects purchased on the trip.

The trip also raises a number of issues about American involvement in the Middle East that still resonate today. How do archaeologists relate with people living in the areas they study? Whose history do archaeologists study and write? What is the relationship between archaeology and international politics?

Read more about the exhibit here.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

New on the OI website

A couple of interesting new items on the OI web presence

What’s New

October 6, 2009

The 'Highlights From The Collection' web page for Ancient Egypt has been updated. Thirteen objects from the Oriental Institute Museum’s collection are described in detail, accompanied by twenty-two photographs.

September 29, 2009

An Introduction and Guide to the Oriental Institute Research Archives is now available for download in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

Monday, October 5, 2009

OI 3D

There is a cute little 3D model of the Oriental Institute building here, built a couple of years ago with Google SketchUp. Even better, you can View the model in context in Google Earth.

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And for other University of Chicago buildings rendered like this go here.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Ursula Wolff Schneider, 1906-1977

Ursula Wolff Schneider, 1906-1977

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Ursula Schneider was the Photographer of the Oriental Institute from 1942 until her retirement in 1973. She was killed in a car accident on August 4, 1977. She collaborated with Erich Schmidt in the publication of the final reports on Persepolis:
She wrote the introduction to, and selected the photographs for:
She was an accomplished photographer, with a long and interesting career. The Oriental Institute Museum organized an exhibition of her work in 1978.

The Ursula Wolff Schneider collection is curated at the Milne Special Collections Department of the University of New Hampshire Library.

The Ursula Wolff Schneider collection consists of more than 7,000 negatives as well as hundreds of prints and proof sheets. The materials span the dates 1923 to 1976, and a substantial portion of it focuses on her early work in Germany (1928-1937). Subjects represented in the collection include: her work as a photo-journalist for German newspapers (1930s), studies of Greek art and architecture (1930s & 1960s), travels in Greece (1930s, 1966 & 1976), Guatemala (October 1961), Italy (1930 & 1936), Mexico (1946), the United States (1940s-1960s), and Yemen (1930-31) as well as her commercial portrait work in Germany and the United States.

This essentially photographic collection is further supplemented by manuscript materials that document Schneider’s life and work. The collection also contains scrapbooks, clippings from publications within which Schneider’s work appeared, exhibit catalogs, and biographical information.

The Miln Special Collections has an interesting biography.

Monday, September 28, 2009

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF JAMES HENRY BREASTED, 1865-1935

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS

VOLUME XVIII—FIFTH MEMOIR

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF JAMES HENRY BREASTED, 1865-1935
BY JOHN A. WILSON

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Oriental Institute in Facebook

[Originally posted 16 July 2008. Updated 22 September 2009 (Research Archives and Mummy Meresamun added]

There are several OI related facebook groups. There first of these appears to be an officially sanctioned presence, with a focus on the museum. Each of the others is user-generated. You may have to sign up for facebook to see these pages, I'm not sure. If you're not already there, it's high time you tried it, so set up your profile and join the groups that interest you!

Oriental Institute- University of Chicago

Research Archives of the Oriental Institute

Hamoukar Survivors

Zincirli Excavation 2008

Mummy Meresamun

We dig the Oriental Institute

I Live In the OI Research archives

Your Tax Dollars at Work

The National Endowment for the Humanities recently deployed a new Funded Projects Query Form which allows access to information about projects funded by NEH since 1980. A check NEH funding for Oriental Institute faculty and projects gives us the following:

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PW-50118-08
Project Director: Matthew W. Stolper (Chicago, IL 60637)
Persepolis Fortification Archive
Cataloging and digitizing administrative documents dating from 500 B.C. from Persepolis, the chief imperial residence of the Achaemenid kings in the homeland of the ancient Persian Empire.
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $350,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) HD-50482-08
Project Director: Nadine Moeller (Chicago, IL 60637)
Digital Documentation of a Provincial Town in Ancient Egypt
The development of new digital image capturing techniques enabling researchers to process data from archaeological excavations more accurately and efficiently at the site of Tell Edfu, one of the last well-preserved ancient cities in Egypt.
Project field: Archaeology
Program: Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants
Division: Miscellaneous Humanities Projects
Total awarded: $50,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RZ-50902-08
Project Director: McGuire Gibson (Chicago, IL 60637)
Nippur Monograph
The preparation for publication of six volumes documenting and interpreting the excavations at the Mesopotamian sites of Nippur and Abu Salabikh in Iraq. (36 months)
Project field: Archaeology
Program: Collaborative Research
Division: Research Programs
Total awarded: $200,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PC-50084-07
Project Director: Clemens D. Reichel (No address information)
Diyala Virtual Archive
The creation of a virtual archive of archaeological data on ancient Mesopotamia, focusing on sites in the Diyala Region of northeast Iraq (3200-1800 BCE), which incorporates a relational, expandable database to be mounted on an existing Web site at the Oriental Institute.
Project field: Archival Management and Conservation
Program: Grants to Preserve & Create Access to Humanities Collections
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $331,484

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) EE-50435-07
Project Director: Gil J. Stein (Chicago, IL 60637)
Teaching the Middle East: A Resource for High School Educators
The development of academically excellent, free, online materials on the history and culture of the Middle East for high school teachers to use in their classrooms.
Project field: Education
Program: Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development
Division: Education Programs
Total awarded: $200,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PI-50025-06
Project Director: Gil J. Stein (Chicago, IL 60637)
Accelerated Archaeological Conservation Training (ACCT)
The creation of a pilot project for a two-phase accelerated archaeological conservation education and training program for Iraqi nationals that would include a four-month preparatory phase and six-month intensive training program for four Iraqi nationals.
Project field: Archival Management and Conservation
Program: Iraqi Cultural Heritage Initiative
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $100,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PA-51300-05
Project Director: Theo P.J. Van den Hout (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Preparation of the "Chicago Hittite Dictionary," a comprehensive historical dictionary of the earliest written Indo-European language that is based on all known cuneiform texts dating from 1650 to 1180 B.C.
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Preservation/Access Projects
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $280,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PI-50008-04
Project Director: Clemens D. Reichel (No address information)
Diyala Project
The creation of a publicly accessible virtual archive of archaeological data on ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) that incorporates a relational, expandable database that would be mounted on an existing Web site at the Oriental Institute. The initial component focuses on four major sites in the Diyala Region northeast of Baghdad.
Project field: Archaeology
Program: Iraqi Cultural Heritage Initiative
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $100,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PA-50152-03
Project Director: Theo P.J. Van den Hout (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Preservation/Access Projects
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $178,674

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PA-23532-00
Project Director: Martha T. Roth (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Preservation/Access Projects
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $420,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PA-23021-97
Project Director: Martha T. Roth (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Preservation/Access Projects
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $467,980

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PA-23020-97
Project Director: Harry A. Hoffner Jr. (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Preservation/Access Projects
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $250,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-21744-95
Project Director: Marion Roth (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $250,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-21743-95
Project Director: Harry A. Hoffner Jr. (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $245,000

Walter T. Farber (Chicago, IL 60637) FA-33231-95
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637)
Ancient Mesopotamian Rituals and Incantations: The Lamastu Series
Project field: Ancient Literature
Program: Fellowships for University Teachers
Division: Research Programs
Total awarded: $30,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) PH-20685-94
Project Director: William M. Sumner (Chicago, IL 60637)
Installation of Climate Control for the Preservation of Near Eastern Artifact Collection
Project field: Near Eastern History
Program: National Heritage Preservation Projects
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $985,832

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-21349-92
Project Director: Erica Reiner (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $348,546

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-21424-92
Project Director: Harry A. Hoffner Jr. (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $326,140

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RO-22101-90
Project Director: Douglas L. Esse (Chicago, IL 60637)
Archaeological Investigations of Village Life: Tell Yaqush, Israel
Project field: Archaeology
Program: Basic Research
Division: Research Programs
Total awarded: $44,727

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-21164-90
Project Director: Erica Reiner (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $280,012

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-21152-90
Project Director: Harry A. Hoffner Jr. (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $295,722

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) FS-21849-88
Project Director: John A. Brinkman (Chicago, IL 60637)
The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, 745-539 B.C.: Their Political and Cultural History
Project field: Ancient History
Program: Seminars for College Teachers
Division: Education Programs
Total awarded: $69,493

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-20951-88
Project Director: Erica Reiner (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $295,351

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-20978-88
Project Director: Harry A. Hoffner Jr. (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $273,441

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) FS-21849-88
Project Director: John A. Brinkman (Chicago, IL 60637)
The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, 745-539 B.C.: Their Political and Cultural History
Project field: Ancient History
Program: Seminars for College Teachers
Division: Education Programs
Total awarded: $69,493

Matthew W. Stolper (Chicago, IL 60637) FA-27081-87
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637)
The Kasr Archive and Achaemenid Babylonia
Project field: Ancient History
Program: Fellowships for University Teachers
Division: Research Programs
Total awarded: $27,500

Matthew W. Stolper (Chicago, IL 60637) FT-26809-85
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637)
Reconstructing an Achaemenid Babylonian Archive
Project field: Ancient History
Program: Summer Stipends
Division: Research Programs
Total awarded: $3,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-20612-85
Project Director: Harry A. Hoffner Jr. (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Ancient Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $313,036
Funding details
Original grant (1985) $266,000
Supplement (1987) $47,036

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-20609-85
Project Director: Erica Reiner (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Near Eastern Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $349,538

Martha T. Roth (Chicago, IL 60637) FT-25982-84
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637)
Marriage Agreements and Matrimonial Property in the Neo- andLate-Babylonian Periods
Project field: Near Eastern Languages
Program: Summer Stipends
Division: Research Programs
Total awarded: $3,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-20346-83
Project Director: Erica Reiner (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Near Eastern Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $340,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RO-20355-82
Project Director: Bruce B. Williams (Chicago, IL 60637)
Nubian Publication Project
Project field: Archaeology
Program: Basic Research
Division: Research Programs
Total awarded: $45,000

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-20209-82
Project Director: Harry A. Hoffner Jr. (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Hittite Dictionary [CHD]
Project field: Asian Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $365,689

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-*2152-81
Project Director: Janet H. Johnson (Chicago, IL 60637-0000)
Demotic Dictionary Project [DED]
Project field: Near Eastern Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $169,575

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) FS-*0083-81
Project Director: John A. Brinkman (Chicago, IL 60637-1569)
The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, 745-539 B.C.: Political & Cultural History
Project field: History
Program: Seminars for College Teachers
Division: Education Programs
Total awarded: $56,042

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637) RT-*1962-80
Project Director: Erica Reiner (Chicago, IL 60637)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [CAD]
Project field: Languages
Program: Reference Materials - Tools
Division: Preservation and Access
Total awarded: $518,898

Yielding a grand total of $8,516,173 support for individuals and projects at the Oriental Institute from the National Endowment for the Humanities during the past twenty nine years.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 19/1 (2005) dedicated to Robert D. Biggs

Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 19/1 (2005) includes a number of articles by or about Robert D. Biggs:

Foreword
Editorial Board

My Career in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology
*
Robert D. Biggs

Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health in Ancient Mesopotamia
Robert D. Biggs

Recent Advances in the Study of Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine
Robert D. Biggs

The Theft and Destruction of Iraq’s Ancient Past
Robert D. Biggs

Bob Biggs―An Appreciation

Paula von Bechtolsheim

*This article first appeared in here the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 19/1 (2005): 5–27. Another version, including a few minor corrections, appears in print on pages xi - xxxiii of Studies Presented to Robert D. Biggs, June 4, 2004: From the Workshop of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, Volume 2, Martha T. Roth, Walter Farber, Matthew W. Stolper and Paula von Bechtolsheim, eds., and is also available here.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Review of a Review of The Human Adventure

In An Insult to Archaeologists and Stamp Collectors Everywhere,


the folks at Archaeopop remember that a "rather dour individual wrote a review for the New York Times of James Henry Breasted's "The Human Adventure" - a short documentary about the excavation and research activities of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute." Go ahead, click over there and read, it's nice.

And as they point out, you can register (if you're among the few who haven't already done so) and read the actual review of the film which had three showings at Carnegie Hall.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Oriental Institute back in Nubia

The Oriental Institute’s return to archaeological fieldwork in Nubia in 2006 and 2007 is detailed on the Nubian Expedition pages.

The Oriental Institute has had a long history of research in ancient Nubia. Oriental Institute Founder, James Henry Breasted traveled to southern Egypt and northern Sudan in 1905-07, to document ancient Egyptian and Nubian monuments. A selection of the Breasted Expedition photographs was exhibited in the Oriental Institute Museum in 2006. In addition to this early work by our founder, between 1960 and 1968 the Oriental Institute participated in the international archaeological campaign organized by UNESCO in the areas threatened by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Nine volumes of final reports have been published. The Robert F. Picken Family Nubia Gallery, which opened in 2006, displays some of the approximately 15,000 objects brought back to the Oriental Institute as a result of the work in the 1960s.

The return of the Oriental Institute to Nubia began in 2006 with a preliminary reconnaissance trip to evaluate the possibility of participating in an archaeological salvage project in Sudan. The Merowe Dam Project at the 4th Cataract of the Nile, upon its completion in 2008, flooded an area of approximately 100 miles in the Nile Valley. Between January and March 2007, the Oriental Institute joined internation teams in the 4th Cataract region in archaeological investigation of the area, an area that had, prior to the salvage project, received virtually no attention.

And see also the full suite of publications on Nubia from the OI, and the The 1905–1907 Breasted Expeditions to Egypt and The Sudan (1055 Photographs).

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Oriental Instutute Museum Audio Tours

The Oriental Institute has released a set of audio tours of the collections on display in the Museum.



You can download them ahead of time and play them on your own iPod as you walk through the Museum, or you can check out iPods at the Suq at no charge to members, and for a fee of $5.00 for non-members.

The first group of tours includes:

Other tours are under development.

The audio tour program is supported by a generous gift from Joyce and Roger Isaacs.

The introduction to Highlights of the Collection is spoken by OI Director Gil Stein. The remainder of Highlights is spoken by OI Museum Directory Geoff Emberling.


Tuesday, July 7, 2009

News: "Easily Overlooked Ornamentation"

WTTW's Chicago Tonight has a feature called Hidden Chicago.

On June 10, 2009 they broadcast a feature on architectural ornamentation Easily Overlooked Ornamentation. 5:10 into that broadcast is a segment on James Henry Breasted and the typmanum over the Oriental Institute doorway.


They also have a slideshow, and an extended "director's cut" of the show.

For more on the OI tympanum, see The Tympanum within the Arch on the Doorway to the Oriental Institute, and Some Decorative Motifs of the Oriental Institute Building.

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Other Lives: Keith C. Seele

A couple of weeks ago I came across Amorette Diedericka Seele Ground. I'm not sure how I encountered it, but the name caught my eye.

Mary Scriver tells the story of a recent graduate of the high school on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana:
One took me totally by surprise: Amorette Diedericka Seele Ground. I wish I could send you the photo but they didn’t make it to the website, so I’ll try for a word picture. A young woman with a Mona Lisa smile and a perfect Plains Indian profile wearing a pristine classic Stetson, loose hair, long pendant earrings and a high-collared but sleeveless lavendar blouse. The collar is buttoned but the opening below is not. In the background is a strawstack. I do not know this girl, but I know her parents, Richard Ground who married Elsie Mad Plume, and I knew Diedericka Seele.

In the Sixties Diedericka and Keith Seele came every summer in their Mercedes and with their Boston Bull terrier, Sparky. They always stayed at Moyer’s motel which had rooms with kitchenettes. According to the Glacier Reporter of Aug. 22, 1957, Keith Seele was visiting and Chewing Black Bone named him “Sits in the Middle.” Ish-tut-sick-taupi, a real Indian name inherited from a real person. A few weeks later Gary Cooper was given the name “Chief Eagle Cloud,” a suitably Hollywood name.

Chewing Black Bone was one of the last old-time Indians, a man of rock-ribbed honor and independence and an important force in the shaping of early Blackfeet self-governance. He is the old man sitting down in Bob Scriver’s sculpture called “Transition.” Blinded by trachoma, he lived in a lodge and mended his own moccassins. Keith got to know him because he was “Ahku Pitsu” in the James Willard Schultz books, a close friend of Schultz who gave him many stories and shared adventures. Keith was a dedicated admirer of Schultz and edited “Blackfeet and Buffalo : Memories of Life among the Indians” which is a collection of short stories that hadn’t been been gathered up earlier. Schultz is buried not far from where Chewing Black Bone lived with his descendants, the Mad Plumes, on Two Medicine just past the old Holy Family Mission. The Mad Plumes are a rodeo family. The grave was originally unmarked and it remains hard to get to since it’s across an irrigation ditch and up a steep bluff. Keith was the one who finally arranged for a headstone. Sid Gustafson gets up there to pull weeds every spring.

Keith’s real lifework was as an Egyptologist. He was quite famous in that field, and charged with extracting as much information as possible from the area that would be flooded by the Aswan Dam. He had begun adult life as a missionary in Germany and while he was there, he found Diedericka. The pair took marriage as seriously as is possible, considering it sacred and dedicated.

Keith didn’t want Diedericka to have any children because if she did, he felt it would not be safe to take a child into the field so that she would have to stay at home with them -- and he couldn’t bear to be parted from her. For her, this was both a protection and a burden. But there was another element: she had a weak heart so child-bearing might have killed her. Nevertheless, a doctor explained to her that she must not hurry in life -- then she would be safe. She learned to walk with long, slow steps and got along fine. They generally lived on a boat of some kind in Egypt but during the university year, they lived near the Oriental Institute attached to the University of Chicago. Keith’s books, such as his revision of “When Egypt Ruled the East,” remains vital reading.

When Keith asked for permission to marry Diedericka in Germany, the matter was considered very carefully because the family knew, even before the wars, that she would probably not return and they would never see her again. When they agreed that Keith was promising and honorable, her mother and sisters made an album of photos and other things for her to take with her as a kind of “talismanic bundle” holding a little piece of home. They were right -- she never did see them again but there were many, many fond letters.

The couple spent many happy summer days with Chewing Black Bone and the Mad Plumes. They were happy for Elsie Mad Plume when she married Richard Ground because it united two families with old-time ties. Agnes Mad Plume and Mary Ground, carriers of the heritage as the women are, were formidable grandmothers. I knew them both, but not as closely as Diedericka did. When Keith died, Elsie and Richard invited her to come live with them as their honored ancestor. She didn’t do it, but it moved her deeply...
Read the rest, it's well worth it.

The Seele's summer sojourns in Montana are well know to old timers at the Oriental Institute. Some of them (i.e. us) were even aware that Keith Seele had edited Blackfeet and Buffalo : memories of life among the Indians, by James W Schultz. Needless to say, he is far more well-known at the OI for his years of labor on the Nubian rescue expedition (and see its published manifestation), and for his years as editor of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies from 1948 to 1971. Oral tradition at the Institute also had it that Seele had certain... "unorthodox" views about languages of Native Americans. In short, rumor had it that he believed that there was a connection between Native American languages and the ancient Egyptian language. I never made any attempt to verify this, I think I asked Bruce Williams and Bob Biggs their opinions on the matter, but I don't recall that either of them had any insight about this. So I tucked it away as a mere curiosity.

Until sometime in the 90s when I got a call at the Research Archives from an anthropologist, I think at Marquette University (perhaps she'll read this and verify what I remember not very well). She was in search of Keith Seele's papers. She was aware of his life in Montana and of his friendship with and adoption by Chewing Black Bone who had named him “Sits in the Middle.” Ish-tut-sick-taupi. She was also aware of his interest in the Blackfeet language and the fact that he was trained in Egyptian philology and epigraphy. She had heard that he had transcribed lengthy and detailed phonetic renderings of stories told to him by Chewing Black Bone, stories that remained part of the tradition by which had not been otherwise recorded by members of that older generation. She wondered if these transcriptions could be found, and told me that they would be a unique and highly important source for the language and culture of the Blackfeet, and a treasured repository of the community's culture.

I asked around, and was told that such papers did not appear to be among the Seele archive, and that in fact nothing of his summer life in Montana was among his papers. The anthropologist and I spoke again a couple of times but I never heard if these manuscripts had surfaced. In the mid-1990s papers from the estate of Diederika Millard Seele made there way into the Oriental Institute Archives. I imagine - I hope - the papers relating to this episode made there way into some accessible collection.

Does anyone know any more about this?


The bookplate of Keith Cedric Seele from Bookplates of Scholars in Ancient Studies

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

John Callaway dead at 72

Any halfway worthwhile institution, and the OI is far more than just that, is built not only by its immortals (a Frankfort, an Adams, a Reiner, a Wilson, a Braidwood [well, three Braidwoods plus an in-law, actually], to name a few beyond the incomparable Breasted) but also by legions of people, working both inside and outside its walls, whose bricks are perhaps fewer in number or duller in sheen, but which nevertheless ably carry their share of the load.

John Callaway, a journalist who died suddenly on June 23, 2009 at the age of 72, was just such a bricklayer for the Institute, which of course knows a thing or two about bricks. The obit and this interview from ten years ago give something of an overview of his impressive career--it's not half-bad to be called the best interviewer in the country by William F. Buckley, even in a fairly left-handed fashion.

One of John's many successes, though, is unlikely to be given full justice in any obituary or even at the doubtlessly boisterous memorial service which I will be sorry to miss, and that was his founding and directing the Benton Fellows program, which between 1983 and 1994 brought over 120 broadcast journalists from the United States and ten other countries to the University of Chicago for a year of classes, lectures, and special programs. A can't-miss element of their experience was inevitably a visit to the Oriental Institute, highlighted by an encounter with the indomitable Erica Reiner, who I once saw forcibly eject a New York Times reporter from her office for asking the wrong questions.

Erica, however, had all the time in the world for John, and he for her: he wrote to me a while back that "she was one of my human and intellectual heroes. She always took such good care to see that we had superb Seminar sessions with her and her fine colleagues." Through the vagaries of my life, I have come across about a dozen of the Benton Fellows, most of whom remain active (and, indeed, increasingly influential) in broadcast or web journalism. About half of them spontaneously mentioned the OI/Erica experience when I brought up the U of C, and the other half, when I said that I had worked at the OI, raved about how welcoming Erica and her colleagues were, and how fascinating their work was.

About sixteen months ago, I wrote to John to ask whether he would contribute to this blog, and his reply was characteristic: he was too busy "with hundreds and hundreds of pages" of reading to produce or even promise anything for the blog, but his next book was to include a section on the OI and he'd send me something when he was drafting chapters. Sadly, he didn't and, maddeningly, I didn't nag. I just hope that he was able to get a few words about the OI down on paper, and that we can excerpt that book when it appears. John, who was unencumbered by a degree from the U of C or indeed from the U of anwyhere, was an awfully sensitive and thoughtful guy, and it would be good for all of us to know how a place like the Institute touched him.

John was one of the people who I had either the good sense or good luck to invite to contribute an inscription for the ages, when the OI's roof was being rebuilt. As it happens, I remember his submission, which focused on his wife and daughters. Then, in a different ink, he wrote: "Can you add Erica Reiner's name to the blessing? I think I should hedge my bets." Well, John, consider that bet laid, and rest in peace.

Monday, June 22, 2009

News: Meresamun's face

Even more news about Meresamun:

Cold case techniques bring mummy’s face to life, University of Chicago Press Release, June 22, 2009.
Thanks to the skills of artists who work on cold case investigations, people have a chance to see what the Oriental Institute’s mummy Meresamun may have looked like in real life.

A Chicago forensic artist and a police artist in Maryland prepared the images, which depict an engaging woman in her late 20s as she would have looked in 800 B.C. Both artists, though working independently, produced strikingly similar images. The drawings are on display at the Oriental Institute Museum, and have been placed on the institute’s Web site (http://oi.uchicago.edu/museum/special/meresamun/), on Meresamun’s Facebook page, her Wikipedia listing and on YouTube....

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See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Former OI Director Robert McCormick Adams Honored with Alumni Medal

Adams, former Oriental Institute director and anthropology professor, honored with Alumni Medal , University of Chicago Chronicle, June 11, 2009, Vol. 28 No. 18.
The Alumni Association has bestowed this year its highest honor, the Alumni Medal, on Robert McCormick Adams, a former Chicago faculty member and administrator (Ph.B.,’47, A.M.,’52, Ph.D.,’56), who is retired from the anthropology department of the University of California, San Diego...

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

In Memoriam Erica Reiner, 1924–2005

In Memoriam Erica Reiner, 1924–2005 appeared in the Oriental Institute 2005-2006 Annual Report

Professor Erica Reiner, an Oriental Institute scholar whose work revolutionized the study of the world’s oldest written languages, died Saturday, December 31, 2005. She was 81.

Erica was the John A. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita and Editor of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. Her work on the project began in 1952, when she joined the University as a research assistant. From 1973 to 1996 she was Editor in Charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.

It is difficult to overstate the significance of Erica Reiner’s contributions to the understanding of the ancient Near East. Erica combined a tough-minded commitment to intellectual excellence with a dry wit, charm, and a deep love of art, music, and literature. Erica’s passion for her work was legendary. She was someone who expected the very highest standards of scholarly rigor both in her own work and in the efforts of others. Even in retirement, she continued to play a key role assisting Martha Roth, the current Editor in Charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, in writing, reviewing, and editing entries for the final volumes. Erica’s intellectual engagement and her involvement in scholarship lasted up until the final months of her life.

Erica succeeded in securing National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funding for the dictionary in 1976, support that continued for nearly thirty years, making it one of the highest and longest funded projects of the NEH. She explained the importance of the dictionary in testimony at a meeting of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1989.

The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is not only the first comprehensive dictionary of Akkadian, also called Assyro-Babylonian language, it is at the same time an encyclopedic work encompassing the records of a past civilization, and thereby serves as a tool for research in a wide spectrum of humanistic disciplines. The records of this civilization were deciphered barely more than 100 years ago, and their relevance to our contemporary values becomes increasingly apparent as we interpret, and through the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary make them available to colleagues who work in the fields of history of religion, literature, the arts, and retrace the history of moral and philosophical value.

Erica published Your Thwarts in Pieces, Your Mooring Rope Cut: Poetry from Babylonia and Assyria, a collection of essays in 1985. Her insights in the book raised the standards expected of scholars working in Babylonian and Assyrian literature beyond translation to incorporating the best of literary criticism.

Scholars in the field consider her greatest contributions to be to the study of Babylonian history of science, including medicine and especially astronomy. She and the late David Pingree of Brown University published four volumes of Babylonian Planetary Omens. The author of numerous articles, Erica also wrote Astral Magic in Babylonia (1995)
[available online], which traced the origins of Greek science and medicine in the Babylonian scholars’ observations of their world. The book examined Babylonian magical practices that made use of plants, stones, and other ingredients, and also tried to secure the powers of the celestial bodies for their purposes.

Erica was also one of the few people in the world proficient in the ancient language of Elamite, and she published a grammar of the language in 1969. “Elamite is written in cuneiform but completely unrelated to Sumerian or Akkadian, and it was and is far less completely understood,” said Matthew Stolper, the John A. Wilson Professor at the Oriental Institute. He said her grammar on Elamite established her as a central authority in the field.

Erica completed her undergraduate degree in linguistics at the University of Budapest in 1948. After studying Elamite, Sumerian, and Akkadian in Paris at the École Practique des Hautes Études, she came to Chicago in 1952. She received her Ph.D. in 1955 and joined the faculty in 1956, after serving as a Research Associate. A manuscript for the Assyrian dictionary had not yet been drafted, although there had been three decades of planning and preparation.

“It took an extraordinary confluence of great scholars, led by A. Leo Oppenheim, to finally bring the vision to reality,” Roth said. “Reiner and Oppenheim were a magical duo, working together to inspire and lead the team that produced the first volume in 1956.”

When Oppenheim retired in 1973, Erica took over the dictionary until her own retirement in 1996. “She provided the unifying vision and intellectual rigor to see this project through. It is impossible to envision the field of Assyriology, or more broadly, of ancient Near Eastern studies without the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, and it is impossible to envision the dictionary without Erica,” Roth said. Erica had a hand in the development of each of the twenty-three volumes.

Dozens of Erica’s students have gone on to be leading professors in the field in the United States as well as around the world. Many of those scholars returned to Chicago last July for the fifty-first Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, hosted by the Oriental Institute [Proceedings available online]. Erica helped organize the first Rencontre in Paris and attended many of the subsequent annual meetings. “It was right after the war, and we wanted to renew scholarly contact that had been broken because of the war,” she said last summer. “From the very beginning, we wanted to include students. The enthusiasm we had when we started the organization is still very much in evidence when we get together.” She said she looked forward to having so many friends coming back. “We knew them when they were young scholars, and now they have become distinguished faculty members, and some of them have even retired.”

Erica was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Leiden.

A memorial service was held on Monday, May 1, at Rockefeller Chapel.

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Publications of Erica Reiner in WorldCat.

Her History of the CAD: An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is available online.

For other online publications, search for "Reiner" in Abzu.

Obituary in the New York Times: Erica Reiner Is Dead at 81; Renowned Assyrian Scholar, Published: January 22, 2006.

Obituary from the University of Chicago News and Information Office: Erica Reiner, 1924-2005, Published Jan. 3, 2006