The Oriental Institute: Fragments for a History of an Institution

Exhibition spotlight: ‘Before the Pyramids’ at the Oriental Institute

2012-01-19T10:43:00.002-06:00

Egyptological has a short illustrated Exhibition spotlight: ‘Before the Pyramids’ at the Oriental Institute Photos and commentary by Brian Alm. Published on Egyptological, In Brief, on 18th January 2012

The following short article provides a virtual tour of some of the items on show in the recent exhibition from the Oriental Institute Museum’s 2011 exhibit, Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, at the University of Chicago.

The nine-month exhibit closed Dec. 31, 2011, but the accompanying 288-page catalogue, including nearly 150 pages of essays by 22 authorities on Predynastic Egypt, is available from the Oriental Institute, 1155 E. 58th St., Chicago, IL 60637, U.S.A.; (e-mail) OI-Museum@UChicago.edu; (Web site) OI.UChicago.edu; 773-702-9520 (Emily Teeter, ed., 2011. Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago).

News: The Breasted Biography on the Radio

2011-12-19T15:51:00.001-06:00

The Oriental Institute & James Henry Breasted

Learn about this world-renowned acheological institute & the man who founded it w/ Gil Stein, McGuire Gibson & Jeffrey Abt, author of "American Egyptologist."

Download The Oriental Institute & James Henry Breasted (Right Click and Save Link As)

See Jeffrey Abt's new biography of James Henry Breasted
See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

Jeffrey Abt's new biography of James Henry Breasted

2011-12-13T13:08:00.004-06:00

Jeffrey Abt's new biography of James Henry Breasted has appeared from the University of Chicago Press.

Read the press release from UChicagoNews

Scholar, former UChicago staff member Jeffrey Abt completes book on O.I. founder

Abt to speak about America's first Egyptologist on Dec. 14
By William Harms

December 9, 2011

Archaeologist James Henry Breasted was so well known during his lifetime that he landed on the cover of Time. When he died in 1935, the last half hour of his memorial service in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel was broadcast nationally on radio.

Yet Breasted, who founded the Oriental Institute in 1919 and was instrumental in promoting understanding of the ancient Middle East for scholars and the public alike, has never been the subject of a comprehensive biography, said Jeffrey Abt, author of the new book, American Egyptologist: The Life of James Henry Breasted and the Creation of His Oriental Institute. The University of Chicago Press published the book earlier this month.

“The only other biography of Breasted is Pioneer to the Past, by his son Charles,” Abt said. “It is in part a memoir and gives scant attention to his father’s work after the mid-1920s. Also, because Charles was not a scholar, much of James Breasted’s research is not addressed,” added Abt, who is an associate professor in the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University.

The Oriental Institute will host a talk by Abt on his book at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14, in Breasted Hall. Abt will sign copies of his book after the talk, which is free and open to the public...

American Egyptologist Book Signing

Images of Objects at the Oriental Institute (and Elsewhere) in Inscriptifact

2011-12-08T20:12:00.001-06:00

The InscriptiFact Team reports in an email to registered users

We have just uploaded 2112 new images of229 new texts from the Persepolis Fortification Archive. Most of theseimages are RTI images (Reflection Transformation Imaging). The Greek,Akkadian and Old Persian tablets are now posted.

In addition, we have added the AssyrianReliefs from the Oriental Institute, RTIs of KTU 1.18, and RTIs ofobjects from USC's Archaeological Research collection and the LosAngeles Unified School District's Art and ArtifactCollection.

See here for a previous announcement about the PFA from Inscriptifact.

About InscriptiFact

The InscriptiFact Project is a database designed to allow access via the Internet to high-resolution images of ancient inscriptions from the Near Eastern and Mediterranean Worlds. The target inscriptions are some of the earliest written records in the world from an array of international museums and libraries and field projects where inscriptions still remain in situ. Included are, for example, Dead Sea Scrolls; cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia and Canaan; papyri from Egypt; inscriptions on stone from Jordan, Lebanon and Cyprus; Hebrew, Aramaic, Ammonite and Edomite inscriptions on a variety of hard media (e.g., clay sherds, copper, semi-precious stones, jar handles); and Egyptian scarabs. These ancient texts represent religious and historical documents that serve as a foundation and historical point of reference for Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the cultures out of which they emerged...

InscriptiFact Database Screens and Sample Searches
Examples of screens and searches in HTML format for viewing in a web browser.
Instructions for Using InscriptiFact (PDF)
Step-by-step instructions for conducting searches and retrieving images in InscriptiFact, in PDF format.
Instructions for Using the InscriptiFact Viewer (PDF)
Step-by-step instructions for using the InscriptiFact Viewer, featuring RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) images, in PDF format.
Bibliographic References for Text and Publication Numbers (PDF)
One possible way to search for texts in InscriptiFact is by choosing "Text or Publication Numbers," i.e., common abbreviations used in the field of Ancient Near Eastern Studies. This PDF documents gives bibliographic information for the abbreviations or references used in InscriptiFact.
Application for User Name and Password (PDF)
Download this document and fax it as stated to obtain access to InscriptiFact.
Web Site for InscriptiFact Access
Click on this link to be taken to the download site for the InscriptiFact desktop client.
Web Site for InscriptiFact Standalone Viewer

Epigraphic Survey News

2011-12-05T10:19:00.001-06:00

Ray Johnson writes to tell me that the RECENT NEWS section of the Epigraphic Survey pages on the Oriental Institute website will be updated monthly. I take the liberty of quoting from the most recent entry:

December 2, 2011
Dear Friends,

I am pleased to report that Luxor has been peaceful throughout the last few weeks, and the Chicago House team is busy and well. Our work at Medinet Habu, TT 107, and Luxor Temple has proceeded normally, and continued through the disturbances in Cairo with no interruption. The elections so far - here, in Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere - have been noteworthy for their orderliness, peaceful nature, enthusiasm, and unprecedented turnout. It's an encouraging beginning! And history in the making.

Yesterday artist Sue Osgood returned to Luxor to continue working in TT 107, the tomb of Nefersekheru, steward of Amenhotep III's Malkata palace, where Margaret has been drawing for the last month. Tomorrow conservator Hiroko Kariya arrives to resume conservation work in the Luxor Temple blockyards. On Sunday we are all heading south to see the current excavation work of faculty member Nadine Moeller, husband Gregory, and her team (including Hratch Papazian) at Tell Edfu. Nadine and the crew joined us and a number of our American (ARCE Luxor), foreign, and Egyptian colleagues for a very pleasant Thanksgiving dinner on November 24th. The cranberry sauce was home-made by artist Margaret De Jong, with fresh berries kindly hand-carried by library assistant (and OI VC member) Andrea Dudek who will be heading homeward in a few days after a very productive few weeks with us.

Thus far, outside of the election excitement, it's been a totally normal season. Two weeks ago I participated in a workshop in Cairo sponsored by AUC and the Netherlands/Flemish Institute on archaeological recording techniques, with a special emphasis on new digital recording technologies that we are using in our on site documentation work now. During the next couple of days a group of students from the Netherlands/Flemish Institute will be visiting TT 107 and Medinet Habu to see our recording methodologies in person, guided by Senior epigrapher Brett McClain and Margaret.
Despite the political uncertainties and bumps in the road, the last month and a half have been joyous in many ways. The Egyptian people are tremendously excited and proud of their new freedom to choose their leaders, and this has been a joy to witness. We gave our Egyptian staff the day off on Monday to vote, and each one proudly showed me his ink-stained finger (proof of voting) the day after. There have been other reasons to celebrate as well; I have attended two engagement parties for offspring of our workers (who were babies the last time I looked, and are now getting married?). And ten days ago Medinet Habu conservator Nahed gave birth to a baby boy, Jovan. Life is too full!
And all is well. I will write again soon. Best wishes to you all for an excellent December!

Best from Luxor,
Ray Johnson

All Chicago House Bulletins

2011-12-04T13:39:00.001-06:00

The full run of Chicago House Bulletin is now available for the first time online.

For a convenient listing of all online Oriental Institute publications, including digital manifestations of print publications and born-digital publications, see:

The Oriental Institute Open Access Publications

New Book: Ancient Israel: Highlights from the Collections of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

2011-11-04T16:15:00.003-05:00

Announced today:

OIMP 31.

Ancient Israel: Highlights from the Collections of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Gabrielle V. Novacek
Purchase Book Download PDF Terms of Use
On January 29, 2005, the Oriental Institute celebrated the official public opening of the Haas and Schwartz Megiddo Gallery. This occasion marked the return of some of the most extraordinary artifacts ever excavated in the southern Levant to permanent public display. The Oriental Institute's prolific history of exploration in the region is testament to a long-standing scholarly passion for discovery and the pursuit of knowledge. This volume draws from the momentum generated by the opening of the Megiddo Gallery and presents a selection of highlights from the Institute's greater Syro-Palestine collection.
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Stratigraphy of Megiddo
The Southern Levant Collection of the Oriental Institute
Megiddo: Cultural Crossroads of the Ancient Near East
The Early Bronze Age (ca. 3500-2000 BC)
The Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1550 BC)
The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550-1200 BC)
The Megiddo Ivories
The Iron I Period (ca. 1200-975 BC)
Where Did the Israelites Come From?
The Iron II Period (ca. 975-586 BC)
Who Built Royal Megiddo?
The Southern Levant from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Roman Era (ca. 586 BC-AD 324)
The Southern Levant in the Byzantine Period (ca. AD 324-638)
Bibliography of Works Consulted
Appendices
Indices
Oriental Institute Museum Publications 31
Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1-885923-70-7
Pp. xii, 130p, 4 b/w & 68 col photos
Paperback: $41.95

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see:

The Oriental Institute Open Access Publications

Ray Johnson talks about the Khonsu Temple

2011-10-26T16:11:00.002-05:00

Ray Johnson, Director of the Epigraphic Survey, talks about ARCE's work at the Khonsu Temple.

View it at YouTube

News: Joint Palestinian-American dig near Jericho

2011-10-26T14:55:00.000-05:00

Joint Palestinian-American dig near Jericho yields clues about early Islamic culture

By William Harms

UChicgoNews

October 26, 2011

Graduate student Michael Jennings sits on the bench of a gate discovered by a joint Oriental Institute-Palestinian team excavating Khirbet Al-Mafjar, a site near Jericho.
Photo by Don Whitcomb

As the Byzantine Empire was in decline, Islam began to dominate the Middle East, with a remarkable culture that showed a command of technology and an appreciation of art and decoration, research by archaeologists shows.

In order to study Islamic civilization in its earliest days, Donald Whitcomb, who directs the Islamic Archaeology project at the Oriental Institute, is undertaking a project with Palestinian colleagues to further excavate an early Islamic site north of Jericho that contains a palace, a bathhouse and what was probably a settlement to the north.

Whitcomb excavated the site at Khirbet Al-Mafjar last winter and will return in January as part of a joint archaeological project that will include Americans and Palestinians. The team already has uncovered a gate and a stairway that led to a residential town to the north, where the team uncovered an ornamental pool surrounded by white mosaic paving, glass vials, lamps and other artifacts...

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

Oriental Institute Symposium 2012

2011-10-24T17:33:00.001-05:00

The Oriental Institute has just announced the eighth in its annual symposia series:

Temple Topography, Ritual Practice, and Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World, organized by Deena Ragavan,
to be held March 2-3, 2012, in the Institute's Breasted Hall

Past symposia include

And the 2004 proto-symposium Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam: Archaeological Perspectives

After the conference, the Fellow assembles and edits the proceedings for publication in the series Oriental Institute Seminars (OIS), each volume of which is available for sale or for download:

OIS 7. Slaves and Households in the Near East. Edited by Laura Culbertson. 2011.
OIS 6. Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World. Edited by Amar Annus. 2010.
OIS 5. Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East: Cross-disciplinary Perspective. Jeffrey Szuchman, ed. 2009.
OIS 4. Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond Nicole Brisch, ed. 2008.
OIS 3. Performing Death: Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean Nicola Laneri, ed. 2007.
OIS 2. Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures. (second printing) Seth L. Sanders, ed. 2007.
- Download PDF (original publication, 2006) original publication, 2006
- Download PDF (second printing, 2007) second printing, 2007
OIS 1. Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam: Archaeological Perspectives. Donald Whitcomb, ed. 2004.

In Their Spare Time

2011-10-24T14:06:00.000-05:00

An interesting article in the October 24, 2011 Chicago Tribune (All the living room's a stage: For nearly 75 years, Hyde Park group has gathered to read plays) profiles The Thirty Seven Players, a Hyde Park play-reading group that has been meeting once a month since 1937. Current partcipants include Emily Teeter and Kitty Picken.

Tell Edfu Blog

2011-10-19T17:25:00.000-05:00

Tell Edfu - The 2011 Season

The site of Tell Edfu is located roughly halfway between Luxor and Aswan, Egypt. As the former capital of the 2nd Upper Egyptian nome, it has over 3000 years of history standing. The Tell Edfu Project, under the auspices of the Oriental Institute, aims to investigate the remains of this ancient city.

Read more about The OI's Edfu Project. And see the project website at Tell Edfu Project.

Entries for Edfu in Pleiades:

Subscribe to an always-updated feed of these search terms

Retrieve a KML representation using these search terms

Edfu: by thomase — last modified Sep 05, 2011 05:44 PM — Relevance: 100%
Apollonopolis Magna: The Ptolemaic temple to Horus at Edfu, and the nearby settlement. by J. Keenan — last modified Aug 02, 2011 05:57 PM — filed under: Horus — Relevance: 61%
The Temple of Horus: The center of the Edfu temple complex. by nnagy — last modified Jun 28, 2011 03:26 PM — Relevance: 60%

Susan Osgood

2011-09-30T10:56:00.000-05:00

Susan Osgood is an epigraphic artist for the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute/Epigraphic Survey in Luxor, Egypt. She is also an artist:

CAD on the wireless

2011-09-30T09:08:00.005-05:00

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Featured on WFMT’s Critical Thinking

The University News office reported that just one month after its completion was announced in early June, the dictionary logged 100,000 downloads from the Oriental Institute’s website. The 21-volume Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Project, completed 90 years after the project began, was also the subject of a two-part discussion on WFMT’s Critical Thinking, hosted by University of Chicago alum Andrew Patner.
Editor-in-charge Martha Roth, the Dean of the Division of the Humanities, and Robert Biggs, a retired professor of Assyriology who has been working on the dictionary since 1963, spoke with Patner in late August and early September about this fascinating project.
To listen to Part 1, click here.
To listen to Part 2, click here.

The Greek-Norwegian Archaeological Mission to the Sudan visits the Oriental Institute

2011-09-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

The Greek Norwegian Archaeological Mission to Sudan blogs on their Medieval Sai Project.

They recently made a visit to Chicago to examine the Nubian material at the Oriental Institute:

People of Nubia in Chicago
September 21, 2011

The return from U.S.A. to Norway signifies the close of this trilogy of entries concerning Chicago and Nubian topics. This last part will naturally concentrate to the people who are involved in Nubian Studies in Chicago.

Obviously the headquarters of such studies are based at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and inevitably if one wishes to study the material kept there from the Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition one has the honor and pleasure to work with Helen McDonald’s team in the Registration department, always willing to facilitate the progress of the work; and with Laura D’Alessandro’s team in the Conservation lab who will tirelessly search for the optimal methods to enhance the researchers’ contact and apprehension of the objects under study. Through Laura we also came in contact with Miller Prosser from the Persepolis Fortification Archive who offered us wholeheartedly some of his precious time and the experience of sharing the equipment he is using in his job aiming at facilitating the work of the scholars who study the inscriptional material from Persepolis.

Interestingly, Nubia in the Oriental Institute is not at all the isolated discipline that it quite often appears to be in the framework of the International Society for Nubian Studies. In Chicago, Nubia, from the most ancient times through the Middle Ages, finds its place aside the great civilizations of the Near and Middle East: as part of the world system of the Bronze Age states; as a periphery of Pharaonic Egypt; as an independent Empire (Kushitic, Napatan, and Meroitic) inherently linked with the civilizations of the Classical era; as part of Eastern Christianity of the Middle Ages. The halls of the museum exemplify these tendencies, while the library and the archives offer almost anything one may need to find in order to deepen in related research. The help of the head of the Archives, Foy Scalf, facilitates the procedures tremendously and always with a smile!

Read the rest here. And read their other blog entries from their visit to Chicago: Land and Water in Chicago and Nubian Studies in Chicago

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Curatorial Assistant

2011-08-19T12:58:00.003-05:00

Find it here, or see the text posted here:

Summary

Provides curatorial and administrative support. Under supervision, conducts research on museum collections. May make recommendations based on research for exhibits and displays and assist with implementation. May assist with publication production, including creating production schedules and assisting with editing. May assist with planning educational programming. Provides general administrative support, including establishing and maintaining files for related records and responding to general correspondence and routine research requests.

About the Unit

The Oriental Institute is a research organization and museum devoted to the study of the ancient Near East. Founded in 1919 by James Henry Breasted, the Institute, a part of the University of Chicago, is an internationally recognized pioneer in the archaeology, philology, and history of early Near Eastern civilizations.

Unit Job Summary

The Curatorial Assistant maintains the museum office, and provides general support of other institutional staff on a project-by-project basis. Works with the Chief Curator and preparation departments on the development and installation of rotating special exhibits. Assists label writing and graphic design work for temporary and permanent exhibits. Coordinates digitization of museum archival material, maintains image database, and provides access to images for internal and external clients. Supervises interns working with archival materials and on other museum projects. Maintains social media outlets including, but not limited to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Potential for additional digital curation depending on expertise and future training.

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in field related to collections required. Advanced degree in field related to collections preferred.

Experience

Minimum of one year relevant experience required. Knowledge of database management software preferred.

Competencies

Knowledge relevant to museum collections required.
Basic knowledge of museum standards regarding the care and handling of collections required.
Attention to detail required.
Organizational skills required.
Verbal and written communication skills required.
Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously, set priorities, and meet deadlines required.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team required.
Knowledge of computers and relevant software required.Knowledge of database management software preferred.

The Epigraphic Survey 2010-2011 Field Season

2011-08-17T05:51:00.002-05:00

The Epigraphic Survey 2010-2011 Field Season

ES professional staff photo 2010-2011

On April 15, 2011 the Epigraphic Survey, in collaboration with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities/Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs, completed its eighty-seventh, six-month field season in Luxor. Because Luxor remained secure during the enormous changes that took place during Egypt's revolution this winter, Chicago House's activities ran uninterrupted from October 15, 2010 through April 15, 2011. Projects included epigraphic documentation, conservation, and restoration work at Medinet Habu; the inauguration of a new documentation program at the Theban Tomb 107 of Nefersekheru; salvage documentation at Khonsu Temple at Karnak (in cooperation with the American Research Center in Egypt / ARCE); and conservation, restoration, and maintenance of the blockyard open-air museum at Luxor Temple, as well as documentation of blocks from the Basilica of St. Thecla in front of the Ramesses II eastern pylon. . .

Read the rest here.

"From Artifacts to People Facts at the Oriental Institute"

2011-08-15T14:14:00.004-05:00

Matt Kohlstedt is writing a PhD dissertation: From Artifacts to People Facts: The Archeological Origins of Middle East Area Studies in the Department of American Studies at The George Washington University.

As a part of his research program, he received a grant from the Rockefeller Archive Center, and the report he submitted to them is available online:

From Artifacts to People Facts at the Oriental Institute.

The Rockefeller Archive Center's (RAC) holdings are vital to my dissertation titled, “From Artifacts to People Facts: The Archeological Origins of Middle East Area Studies,” which traces the origins, content, and ramifications of interwar American academic interest in the Middle East, showing how that knowledge was utilized during the wartime and postwar expansion of the U.S. sphere of influence in the Middle East. This project is not about all of America's imaginative investment, but is rather about a relatively small group of scholars who had an outsized influence on America's relationship with the region as a whole. As U.S. interests expanded during and after World War II, this accumulated knowledge influenced governmental policies and actions, including the increased use of propaganda as a method of peddling influence through deception. . .

Most scholarship on the Oriental Institute (OI) – an archeological institution established at the University of Chicago in 1919 – focuses on the archeological expeditions and excavations made by the Institute, which were financed through the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and family, mainly John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (JDR Jr.). Although the discoveries and work completed by the Oriental Institute are significant for the field of archeology, my primary concern is not with the discoveries that were made, but rather with the contacts that were made between the OI and local workers on various expeditions. During and after WWII, American scholars who were trained as archeologists transitioned into ethnological work, where they drew on their experiences on archeological digs in order to bolster their claims about Middle Easterners. Although the RAC does not hold significant archeological expedition reports, it does hold the administrative records that explain how funding was apportioned and justified. Such records are essential to understanding how a shift in foundational emphasis may have affected the OI's scholarly focus. . .

CONCLUSION

During the 1920s and 1930s, the principle American academic interest in the Middle East was expressed through archeological expeditions that sought to illuminate the history of the ancient world. James Henry Breasted, the founder of the Oriental Institute, used Rockefeller money to mount numerous expeditions to the Near East, returning to Chicago with a trove of artifacts. A variety of factors, including the global Depression and Middle Eastern nationalism, decreased access to artifacts. The shifting interests of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Rockefeller Foundation officers also reduced the scope and scale of archeological expeditions. Studies of the contemporary Middle East were seen as more relevant to the RF's mission, as well as to the broader interests of the U.S. government. World War II solidified this trend, as many archeologists were brought into government service to formulate propaganda and policy towards Middle Easterners.

Towards the end of the war, John Wilson, Breasted's successor, attempted to make the OI the finest center for the study of the contemporary Middle East. His attempt failed due to the resistance of his colleagues, but his failure pointed towards the ways in which area studies would come to be constituted during the 1950s. The Rockefeller Foundation maintained its interest in the Middle East, but channeled its money instead towards Princeton University, where the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, under Philip Hitti, would benefit from additional funds that might have gone towards the Oriental Institute. This missed opportunity and subsequent shift eastward is an essential part of understanding how Middle Eastern area studies came into being in the United States during the early postwar period.

The full report is well worth reading. I look forward to reading the complete dissertation.

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Director of Development, Oriental Institute

2011-08-12T15:11:00.003-05:00

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Director of Development, Oriental Institute (and also here)

As a member of both the Oriental Institute's senior leadership team and the University Development Schools and Programs leadership team, the Director of Development will lead the Institute's overall development program during a university-wide, multi-billion-dollar campaign.

In anticipation of the launch of the campaign and during its silent phase, the Director will partner with Institute and University leaders to conduct the Institute's needs assessment and refine its strategic plans. Examine the Institute's prospect pool, conduct a gap analysis, set fundraising targets and outline gift opportunities. Throughout the campaign, oversee and manage the Institute's major (5-6 figure) and principal gift (7+ figure) pipeline. Brief and staff senior leaders in key meetings with prospects. Independently develop relationships with key stakeholders on behalf of the Institute and the University. Leverage the giving and volunteer potential of the Visiting Committee. Partner with other University Relationship Managers (URMs) to promote the Institute's priorities and help shape major gift proposals. Implement university development best practices.

In addition to raising larger pledges for a range of projects and programs during the campaign, the Institute must meet a seven-figure expendable fundraising goal each year. This sum is raised primarily through annual appeals and events.

Manage the development office of the Oriental Institute. Partner with the Director of the Institute, its Executive Director, the University Associate Vice President for Schools and Programs, other university administrators, faculty, researchers, trustees, the Institute's Visiting Committee, and other volunteers. Manage development staff as assigned. Align human resources to maximize fundraising potential.

Set and achieve an eight-figure overall fundraising target and meet annual fundraising goals for the Oriental Institute during the University of Chicago's upcoming capital campaign. Manage portfolio of major gift donors, serving as the university's lead strategist or URM for the benefit of the Institute. Coordinate with departments in ARD to maximize mutually beneficial fundraising results and report on them. Design and implement comprehensive strategies to identify and cultivate the highest capacity individuals. Build engagement of these individuals with the division and University. Create gift opportunities based on division priorities. Formulate and coordinate fundraising strategies and solicitations. Determine appropriate recognition and stewardship plans for significant donors.

Conceptualize, prepare and present proposals for support. Involve the president, trustees, other high-level volunteers and academic leaders in connecting these donors to the division to deepen their interest and involvement. Participate as a lead strategist in a University-wide development process to secure support for academic and capital priorities and actively build relationships through stewardship to encourage continued as well as increased gifts from key supporters over their lifetimes.

Staff Visiting Committee meetings and support individual member's fundraising efforts. Manage budget and staff to execute responsibilities in an efficient, timely and cost-effective manner. Monitor expenditures and use University resources prudently. Actively set a professional example for staff leadership of other strategic priorities of the University.

Seek opportunities for professional development that will enhance job performance. Perform other duties as assigned.

A New Project: The Jericho Mafjar Project

2011-08-10T15:48:00.001-05:00

[First posted in oihistory 4 January 2011. Updated 10 August 2011]

A New Project:

August 9, 2011

The Oriental Institute announces a new archaeological project: the Jericho Mafjar Project (JMP), the first joint Palestinian-American archaeological excavation, making it a unique milestone for scholarship.

Khirbet al-Mafjar is located north of Jericho in the Palestinian territories. Famed as one of the most important of the "desert castles" of the early Islamic period, the site was excavated by Dimitri Baramki from 1934 to 1948. These excavations revealed a palace and great bath, both of which were intensively decorated with fine mosaics and elaborate stucco figures, as well as stone sculpture and frescoes, placing Mafjar as one of the most important monuments in the history of Islamic Archaeology.

The Oriental Institute was involved in support of the original publication by R. W. Hamilton in 1959. This monograph, and Creswell's repetition of its information, remain the scholarly basis for the fame of these monuments. This was assumed to have been the product of a short period of building and occupation in the early 8th century; in the absence of any final report on the site, the archaeology of Khirbet al-Mafjar stands in serious need of revision and presentation.

Help support the project.

See all of The Oriental Institute's Archaeology Projects

News: Oriental Institute exhibit examines commerce, trade in ancient Near East

2011-08-10T15:35:00.004-05:00

Oriental Institute exhibit examines commerce, trade in ancient Near East

August 10, 2011

Among the items in the "Coins and Currency" exhibit is this clay tablet, which was a receipt for the delivery of a dead lamb. Written in wedge-shaped cuneiform script, it dates from about 2,100 B.C.

Courtesy of Oriental Institute

A new exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum, “Commerce and Coins in the Ancient Near East,” examines the role of commerce and trade from 3000 B.C. to the third-century B.C. On view in the museum’s Mesopotamian Gallery from Aug. 11-28, the exhibit is presented in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money, which is being held Aug. 16-20 in Chicago.

Commerce, trade and early forms of currency can be documented for thousands of years before the first coins were minted in southwestern Turkey in the sixth-century B.C. Exchanges of goods and services before that time were tracked by detailed receipts and notations that took many forms. Among the earliest are represented in the exhibit by clay balls that contain small tokens that represented numbers and commodities. Once the delivery was made, the ball was broken open to verify that the amount of goods matched the tokens in the ball.

Among the other receipts in the show is one for the delivery of a dead sheep written in wedge-shaped cuneiform script on a clay tablet. A third tablet, dating to about 2000 B.C., is a request for money to purchase a female slave.

Egyptian and Mesopotamian weights and measures document the standardization of trade in early barter economies. In Mesopotamia, the adoption of a silver standard that equated measures of barley with a set amount of silver is illustrated by a rare example of a spiral coil of silver dating to about 1500 B.C., lengths of which were snipped off to pay debts.

Among the early coins is a silver stater coin probably of king Croesus (570-547 B.C.) of Lydia (southwestern Turkey) that was excavated by the Oriental Institute at Persepolis in southwest Iran, and large bronze coins from Egypt that illustrate the state’s effort to spread the use of standard coins. Other examples of very early coins from Egypt include a gold stater of Ptolemy I (305 B.C.), and coin molds that show how Roman coins were made and forged.

Brittany Hayden and Andrew Dix, both doctoral students at the Oriental Institute, are curating the exhibit.

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

News: Islam’s origins

2011-08-02T16:06:00.001-05:00

Islam’s origins
Historian Fred Donner offers a new reading of an old story.

By Asher Klein, AB’11
Image courtesy of Fred Donner

An early Quran leaf, found in Yemen: it dates to the first century of Islam, Donner says, offering evidence that the holy book was written soon after Muhammad’s death.

Since the 19th century, Western scholarship has taken for granted that in the first 100 years after Muhammad’s revelations, Islam was practiced much the same way it is today. Western scholars explained the birth and early expansion of what is now one of the world’s largest religions through the development of its army and political institutions, the need for social change among Arabian nomads, or simple economics. But “they seldom talked about the religious motivation,” says Islamic scholar Fred M. Donner.

A professor of Near Eastern history at the Oriental Institute and head of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Donner instead believes Islam’s origins shared features with the genesis of Christianity.

The idea that Christianity didn’t spring fully formed from Judaism with Jesus’s preaching is well accepted; scholars and laypeople alike understand that there was an early germinal stage before the canon was worked out at the Council of Nicea and subsequent Church council meetings.

Donner says that Islam too went through an early “ecumenical phase” when Muhammad’s followers were a loosely defined community—Donner, following the Quran, calls them “the Believers”—that may have included Jews and Christians. These followers were committed more to monotheism than they were to Muhammad. “It was more of a monotheistic revival movement,” Donner says. In 2010 he posited this theory in Muhammad and the Believers (Belknap). Islam, he writes, began as a religious movement, “not as a social, economic, or ‘national’ one. The early Believers were concerned with social and political issues but only insofar as they related to concepts of piety and proper behavior needed to ensure salvation.”

Donner’s conclusions diverge from the traditional view, which “sees Islam as being codified from the very first day,” he says. According to that story, the prophet Muhammad settled in the Arabian town of Medina after being expelled from nearby Mecca, and soon afterward he began to spread Islam. After Muhammad’s death in 632 AD, his teachings disseminated through the Middle East via military and bureaucratic expansion, eventually moving beyond Arabia...

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

News: The definition of persistence

2011-08-02T16:01:00.001-05:00

The definition of persistence
A 90-year project chronicling the ancient Akkadian language culminates in the 21st volume of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.

By Jeff Carroll
Photography courtesy Chicago Assyrian Dictionary

Technology has changed since these University researchers worked in the 1930s, but the goal remained the same: to build a comprehensive record of early human civilization.

In 1921 a team of University of Chicago researchers, led by editor in charge Daniel D. Luckenbill, began transferring information from excavated clay tablets, unearthed in what is now Iraq, onto five-by-eight index cards. The cards, serving as the University's data set, were reproduced with a hectograph, a hand-operated ancestor of the modern photocopier.

For the first three-plus decades of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project, this is how it went. Information was gathered, either from existing tablets housed in museums or from new excavations in the former Mesopotamia, then transferred onto cards at the Oriental Institute. In cataloging the 5,000-year-old Akkadian language, researchers created a comprehensive cultural encyclopedia of early human civilization...

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

News: Chicago Assyrian Dictionary hits 100,000 downloads

2011-08-01T16:23:00.002-05:00

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary hits 100,000 downloads

By William Harms

August 1, 2011

The 21-volume Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, which identifies and examines languages from ancient Mesopotamia, has become popular on the Internet, earning more than 100,000 downloads.

Photo by Jason Smith

The University’s recently completed reference work to a dead Mesopotamian language has a lively following.

Soon after its completion was announced in early June, downloads of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, published at the Oriental Institute, skyrocketed — going from 4,429 in May to 64,301 for the month of June. Interest continued strong, and by the end of July, the dictionary had garnered more than 100,000 downloads from the Oriental Institute’s website. The Oriental Institute provides free electronic access to all its published material and also sells most of its publications in print form.

The response has pleased Martha T. Roth, editor-in-charge of the Assyrian Dictionary. A conference held to mark the completion of the 21-volume publication in early June drew a large international crowd of more than 100 scholars, she said...

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

A Special Exhibition: Commerce and Coins in the Ancient Near East

2011-07-28T10:40:00.004-05:00

Commerce and Coins in the Ancient Near East

A Mini-Exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum, August 11-28, 2011

Commerce and Coins in the Ancient Near East, a mini-exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum, looks at commerce and trade from 3000 BC to the 4th century BC. The exhibit is presented in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money being held in Chicago August 16 - 20th, 2011. The exhibit will be on view from August 11 to August 28.

Commerce, trade, and early forms of currency can be documented for thousands of years before the first coins were minted in southwestern Turkey in the 7th century BC. Exchanges of goods and services before that time were tracked by detailed receipts and notations that took many forms. Among the earliest are represented in the show by clay balls that contain small tokens that represented numbers and commodities. Once the delivery was made, the ball was broken open to verify that the amount of goods matched the tokens in the ball. Among the other receipts in the show is one for salt written in ancient Egyptian on a flake of pottery, and another for the delivery of a dead sheep written in wedge-shaped cuneiform script on a clay tablet. A third tablet, dating to about 2000 BC, is a request for money to purchase a female slave.
Egyptian and Mesopotamian weights and measures document the standardization of trade in early barter economies. In Mesopotamia, the adoption of a silver standard that equated measures of barley with a set amount of silver is illustrated by a rare example of a spiral coil of silver, lengths of which were snipped off to pay debts. Among the early coins is a silver stater probably of king Croesus (570-547 BC) of Lydia (southwestern Turkey) that was excavated by the Oriental Institute at Persepolis in southwest Iran. Other examples of very early coins from Egypt include a gold stater of Ptolemy I (305 BC), and coin molds that show how Roman coins were made — and forged.
The Oriental Institute is an interdisciplinary institute at the University of Chicago, focused on the study of the languages, history, archaeology and cultures of the ancient Near East. The Museum of the Oriental Institute has galleries devoted to Mesopotamia, Assyria, Anatolia, Palestine/Israel, Egypt, Nubia and Persia. "Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization" is on view through December 31.

The Museum is open Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays. Admission is free, although a donation of $7 for adults, $4 for children is appreciated.
The Oriental Institute Museum is located on the campus of the University of Chicago, approximately 20 minutes south of the Loop at 1155 East 58th Street.

News: MN firm's 3-D X-ray machine is solving ancient mysteries

2011-07-15T14:27:00.001-05:00

MN firm's 3-D X-ray machine is solving ancient mysteries

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Katharine Grayson, Staff Writer
Date: Friday, July 15, 2011, 2:03pm CDT

View photo gallery (3 photos)

An image taken by one of North Star's scanners of a model ancient clay ball. The objects contain tokens, which represent items exchanged during a transaction.

Katharine Grayson
Reporter
Email: kgrayson@bizjournals.com
Northstar Imaging Inc. ’s 3-D X-ray machines are often used to scan medical devices and aerospace products. This week, though, the company’s technology is helping solve an ancient mystery.

The University of Chicago ’s Oriental Institute is using Rogers-based Northstar’s CT scanners to peer into “clay balls” that date back to 3,500 B.C.

The artifacts are akin to a receipt for a business transaction. They contain tokens that represent items exchanged during a transaction.

Experts at the Oriental Institute didn’t want to break open the clay balls to see what was inside, which is where Northstar’s imaging technology comes in. The company’s CT scanners can see through the balls’ outer shells and reveal the shapes of the objects inside.

The clay balls tie in with a larger special exhibit, called Visible Language, that was held at the Oriental Institute from ran from last fall through March 2011. (You can read a New York Times story on that exhibit here.)
There’s no word yet on exactly what the imaging work uncovered. (Scans were being taken Thursday and Friday.)

Northstar’s technology has been used in other archaeological endeavors. The Science Museum of Minnesota used it to scan a 150 million-year-old fossilized crocodile skull, for instance.

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

New Book from The Oriental Institute: Bir Umm Fawakhir, Volume 2: Report on the 1996-1997 Survey Seasons

2011-07-15T11:05:00.003-05:00

Announced today:

OIC 30.
Bir Umm Fawakhir, Volume 2: Report on the 1996-1997 Survey Seasons

By Carol Meyer, with contributions by Lisa Heidorn, Alexandra A. O'Brien, and Clemens Reichel

Purchase Book Download PDF Terms of Use

Bir Umm Fawakhir is a fifth-sixth century A.D. Coptic/Byzantine gold-mining town located in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt. The Bir Umm Fawakhir Project of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago carried out four seasons of archaeological survey at the site, in 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997; one season of excavation in 1999; and one study season in 2001. This volume is the final report on the 1996 and 1997 seasons.
The goals of the 1996 and 1997 field seasons were to complete the detailed map of the main settlement, to continue the investigation of the outlying clusters of ruins or "Outliers," and to address some specific questions such as the ancient gold-extraction process. The completion of these goals makes the main settlement at Bir Umm Fawakhir one of the only completely mapped towns of the period in Egypt. Not only is the main settlement plotted room for room and door for door, but also features such as guardposts, cemeteries, paths, roads, wells, outlying clusters of ruins, and mines are known, and some of these are features not always readily detectable archaeologically.
This volume presents the pre-Coptic material; a detailed discussion of the remains in the main settlement, outliers, and cemeteries; the Coptic/Byzantine pottery, small finds, and dipinti; as well as a study of ancient mining techniques.
Oriental Institute Communications 30
Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2011
ISBN-13:978-1-885923-71-4
ISBN-10:1-885923-71-6
Pp. xxviii + 220; 53 figures, 108 plates, 1 table
Softbound 9.00" x 11.75"
$49.95
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Plates
Table
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Chapter 1. Introduction. Carol Meyer
Chapter 2. Pre-Coptic Remains. Carol Meyer and Lisa Heidorn
Chapter 3. Main Settlement 1996 and 1997 Surveys. Carol Meyer
Chapter 4. Outliers. Carol Meyer, with contributions by Lisa Heidorn, Alexandra A. O'Brien, and Clemens Reichel
Chapter 5. Cemeteries and the Question of Religion. Carol Meyer
Chapter 6. Pottery from the 1996 and 1997 surveys. Carol Meyer and Lisa Heidorn
Chapter 7. Small Finds and Dipinti. Carol Meyer
Chapter 8. Ancient gold Mining, Miners, and Ore Reduction. Carol Meyer
Chapter 9. Conclusions. Carol Meyer
Appendix A. 1996 and 1997 registered objects
Appendix B. Main settlement Room Sizes
Appendix C. Outliers 12 and 13 Buildings
Index
Plates 1-107

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see:

The Oriental Institute Open Access Publications

William Sumner former director of the Oriental Institute has died

2011-07-12T20:08:00.005-05:00

William Sumner, director emeritus of the Oriental Institute, 1928-2011

Published on July 12, 2011

By William Harms

William M. Sumner, a leading figure in the study of ancient Iran and director of the Oriental Institute from 1989 to 1997, died July 7 in Columbus, Ohio. Sumner, who oversaw a major expansion of the institute’s building, was 82.

Sumner, a resident of Columbus, was a 1952 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He served in the Navy until 1964, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander.

He developed his interest in archaeology during naval service in the Mediterranean. Visits to ancient sites in Italy and Greece inspired him to pursue a graduate education. While serving in Iran, he developed a keen interest in the country’s ancient civilization, and he pursued that interest by taking a class taught at Tehran University by Prof. Ezat Ngahban, a graduate of the University of Chicago.

He resigned from the Navy to pursue graduate work in anthropology. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and was a member of the anthropology faculty at Ohio State University from 1971 until 1989, when he joined the UChicago faculty as professor in the Oriental Institute and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations.

“Bill Sumner was an outstanding archaeologist and a transformational leader at the Oriental Institute,” said Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute. “His survey and excavations at the urban center of Malyan in the highlands of Iran made a lasting contribution to our understanding of the Elamite civilization and the deep roots of the Persian empire. He trained an entire generation of archaeologists who went on to become major scholars in their own right in the study of ancient Iran and Anatolia.

“As director of the Oriental Institute, Bill Sumner had the vision, the drive and the organizational skills to conceptualize and carry out the building of our new wing, and the complete reinstallation of our permanent museum galleries. Most of all, Bill was a man with tremendous personal integrity, who led by example. His death is a sad loss for our field, and we will miss him very deeply,” Stein added.

At the Oriental Institute, Sumner encouraged the use of new technologies to expand the work of archaeologists in the field and in the laboratory.

“He saw the value, and sensed the impending importance of digital communication and publication, and laid the foundations for the next decade of development along these lines in the OI,” said Gene Gragg, professor emeritus at the Oriental Institute, who succeeded Sumner as director.

Sumner recognized the value to archaeology and history of the use of computational technologies and scientific instrumentation. “Bill was a visionary, one of the first who understood the ways that digitalization and computational tools could transform the humanistic and social science disciplines,” said Martha T. Roth, the Chauncey S. Boucher Distinguished Service Professor of Assyriology in the Oriental Institute and dean of the Humanities Division. “And he was a scholar and person of deep personal and professional integrity.”

He also oversaw the initiation of the largest expansion of the Oriental Institute building since it was constructed in 1931. With the help of a federal grant and a $10.1 million campaign, the institute built anew wing to provide space for climate-control equipment, as well as provide space for proper and climate-controlled artifact and archival storage. The new wing also houses a modern artifact conservation laboratory.

The Oriental Institute’s museum also underwent a massive redesign that began under his leadership. That led to a rearrangement of the galleries and an updated presentation of the museum’s art and artifacts from throughout the ancient Middle East.

Sumner’s own academic specialty was ancient Iran. From 1972 to 1978 he directed the University of Pennsylvania’s excavations at the site of Tal-i Malyan, ancient Anshan, in the Fars province in western Iran. Sumner oversaw the publication of a series of monographs based on five seasons of fieldwork there.

The Malyan archaeological project was seminal, not only in discovering the highland Elamite city of Anshan, known locally as Malyan, but also in the cycles of nomadism and sedentism in the region of Fars, that operated in the region from at least the fifth-millennium B.C., said Abbas Alizadeh, an Oriental Institute archaeologist who specializes on Iran.

In addition to his work on the Malyan monograph series, Sumner wrote many articles on the development of civilization in ancient Iran.

He is survived by wife, Kathleen Sumner; children, William (Kristin) Sumner, Jane Sumner; step-children, Douglas (Jamie) MacLean and Megan (Savady) Yem; sister, Ida VSW Red; grandchildren, Katrina MacFarland, Eirian Yem, Dylan Yem, Shane Yem, Devon Yem, Lachlan MacLean and Emma MacLean; and great-grandchildren, Nolan and Adeline MacFarland, Anthony Sumner, and Ashley and Colin Sizemore.

At his request, there will be no services.

On the CAD

2011-06-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

[First posted 4/14/11. Updated 6/15/11. Updated 9/30/11]

With the announcement on April 13, 2011 of the appearance in print and online of last volume of the The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, the project is complete.
I am collecting here a variety of things most but not all of them open access, written about the CAD:

For a selection of the reporting on the completion of The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, see: News Roundup: The Completion of the Assyrian Dictionary

On Monday, June 6, 2011 2:00 pm, the Oriental Institute celebrated the completion of the Assyrian Dictionary with a symposium:
An Adventure of Great Dimension: A Conference Celebrating the Completion of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD)

Annual Reports of The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Project

THE CHICAGO ASSYRIAN DICTIONARY AT SEVENTY
By Matthew W. Stolper, Professor, The Oriental Institute and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago
(This article originally appeared in The Oriental Institute News and Notes, No. 129, May-June 1991, and is made available electronically with the permission of the editor.)

I. J. Gelb, Introduction, The Assyrian Dictionary, Volume 1: A, Part 1, pp. vii-xxi
(This article constitutes the Introduction to the first volume (A 1 - 1964) of The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD))

Erica Reiner's history of the CAD: An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is available online

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...

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

How We Wrote the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
By Martha T. Roth, The University of Chicago
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, April 2010, Volume 69, Number 1 [hyperlinks added below], and is accessible online to subscribing individuals and institutions

With the final volume of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD) due for publication, it is time to set down the practices and norms of writing the articles followed by the past generations of Editors in order to assist future generations of readers in using the Dictionary. The history of the project has been told by I. J. Gelb in his “Introduction” to CAD A/1, published in 1964, and by Erica Reiner in her 2002 An Adventure of Great Dimension. Each of these two works, idiosyncratic and subjective, is important for understanding the personalities and decision-making of the formative years of the Dictionary. Yet the only published “guides” to reading the CAD are A. L. Oppenheim’s 1956 “Foreword” to the first published CAD volume and notes imbedded within a 1966 review by J. A. Brinkman. What follows, then, is based on the oral legacy passed on by Erica Reiner, and on a variety of documents, manuals, and files used by the Editors in Charge (A. Leo Oppenheim, Erica Reiner, and Roth) and especially by the manuscript Editors Richard T. Hallock (G, Ḫ), Elizabeth Bowman (D, E, I/J, Z, Ṣ), Marie-Anne Honeywell (Ṣ), Jane Rosenthal (A/1), Jean Eckenfels (B, A/2), Marjorie Elswick (A/2, K, L, M/1, M/2), Claire Lincoln, Peter T. Daniels (N/1, N/2, Q, S, Š/1, Š/2, Š/3), Julie Robinson (S, Š/1, Š/2, Š/3), Carol Meyer (Š/1, Š/2, Š/3), and Linda McLarnan (R, P, Š/1, Š/2, Š/3, T, Ṭ, U/W)...

The CAD was funded over the years by the federal governement. See: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Featured on WFMT’s Critical Thinking

The University News office reported that just one month after its completion was announced in early June, the dictionary logged 100,000 downloads from the Oriental Institute’s website. The 21-volume Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Project, completed 90 years after the project began, was also the subject of a two-part discussion on WFMT’s Critical Thinking, hosted by University of Chicago alum Andrew Patner.
Editor-in-charge Martha Roth, the Dean of the Division of the Humanities, and Robert Biggs, a retired professor of Assyriology who has been working on the dictionary since 1963, spoke with Patner in late August and early September about this fascinating project.
To listen to Part 1, click here.
To listen to Part 2, click here.

There are many journalistic accounts of and comments on the CAD, notably Israel Shenker's piece Akkadians Had A Word for It in the May 21, 1978, Sunday New York Times Book Review [available online for a fee], republished as the essay A Gaggle of Dictionaries in his collection Harmless drudges : wizards of language--ancient, medieval and modern (Bronxville, 1979).

And of course, the CAD itself

The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD) | List of volumes in print

Volume 1:1, A:1. 1964.
Volume 1:2, A:2. 1968.
Volume 2, B. 1965.
Volume 3, D. 1959.
Volume 4, E. 1958.
Volume 5, G, 1956
Volume 6, H [het]. 1956.
Volume 7, I/J. 1960.
Volume 8, K. 1971.
Volume 9, L. 1973.
Volume 10:1, M:1. 1977.
Volume 10:2, M:2. 1977.
Volume 11:1, N:1. 1980.
Volume 11:2, N:2. 1980.
Volume 12, P. 2005.
Volume 13, Q. 1982.
Volume 14, R. 1999.
Volume 15, S. 1984.
Volume 16, S [tsade]. 1962.
Volume 17:1, S [shin]:1. 1989.
Volume 17:2, S [shin]:2. 1992.
Volume 17:3, S [shin]:3. 1992.
Volume 18, T. 2006.
Volume 19, T [Tet]. 2006.
Volume 20, U/W. 2010.
Volume 21, Z. 1961.

As well as:

Materials for the Assyrian Dictionary (MAD)

MAD 5. Sargonic Texts in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. I. J. Gelb., 1970.
MAD 4. Sargonic Texts in the Louvre Museum. I. J. Gelb., 1970.
MAD 3. Glossary of Old Akkadian. I. J. Gelb., 1957.
MAD 2. Old Akkadian Writing and Grammar I. J. Gelb., 1952
MAD 1. Sargonic Texts from the Diyala Region I. J. Gelb., 1952.

An earlier roundup on the CAD by me: Projects: The CAD [updated Sept 10, 2008]

News Roundup: The Completion of the Assyrian Dictionary

2011-06-15T14:59:00.003-05:00

A selection of the reporting on the completion of The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

The definition of persistence
A 90-year project chronicling the ancient Akkadian language culminates in the 21st volume of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.

By Jeff Carroll

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary hits 100,000 downloads
William Harms
August 1, 2011

Do you speak assiro?

La Stampa

15/06/2011

Assyrian Dictionary Project completed after ninety years

GizMag

By Paul Ridden
06:47 June 14, 2011

Scholars finally crack code for 2000-year-old language
Catholic Online - ‎Jun 14, 2011‎

By Cordelia Hebblethwaite BBC News

13 June 2011

‎The sound of ancient Mesopotamia
BBC News - ‎Jun 13, 2011

The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is finished!

MobyLives13 June 2011

What a Babylonian laundry list says about you

CNN

June 10th, 2011

02:11 PM ET

What Would Hammurabi & Nebuchadnezzar Say?: 21-Volume Ancient Assyrian ...

Care2.com (blog) - Kristina Chew - ‎Jun 10, 2011

Dictionary of Akkadian Language Links Modern Civilization with Ancient Origins

VOA News

June 09, 2011

«Umu», cioè «giorno». In assiro-babilonese

L'Università di Chicago completa il dizionario dopo 90 anni di lavoro

Corriere della Sera

June 8, 2011

After 90 Years, a Dictionary of an Ancient World

New York Times

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Published: June 07, 2011

Mesopotamian dictionary completed after 90 years' work

The Guardian - ‎Jun 7, 2011‎

Huge Ancient Language Dictionary Finished After 90 Years

ScienceBlog.com (blog) - ‎Jun 6, 2011‎

After 90 Years, University of Chicago Scholars Finish Dictionary

Wall Street Journal (blog) - Christopher Shea - ‎Jun 6, 2011

University of Chicago institute completes dictionary of ancient language after 9 decades
21-volume sets will be sold to libraries for $1,400 each

By William Mullen, Tribune reporter:23 p.m. CDT

June 5, 2011

Scholars complete dictionary of lost language after 90 years

A dictionary of a long dead language has been completed after a team of scholars worked on it for 90 years.

By Nick Allen, Los Angeles

10:00AM BST 06 Jun 2011

Huge Ancient Language Dictionary Finished After 90 Years

Released: 6/5/2011 2:30 PM EDT

Source: University of Chicago

Ancient world dictionary finished – after 90 years

Huffington Post
SHARON COHEN | June 4, 2011 09:56 AM EST

After 90 years, U. of C. completes dictionary documenting humanity’s earliest days
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com Jun 3, 2011 8:08PM

And see also: On the CAD

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

News: Four more on the completion of the CAD

2011-06-06T18:30:00.001-05:00

After 90 Years, a Dictionary of an Ancient World
New York Times
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: June 07, 2011

Ninety years in the making, the 21-volume dictionary of the language of ancient Mesopotamia and its Babylonian and Assyrian dialects, unspoken for 2,000 years but preserved on clay tablets and in stone inscriptions deciphered over the last two centuries, has finally been completed by scholars at the University of Chicago.

This was the language that Sargon the Great, king of Akkad in the 24th century B.C., spoke to command what is reputed to be the world's first empire, and that Hammurabi used around 1700 B.C. to proclaim the first known code of laws. It was the vocabulary of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the first masterpiece of world literature. Nebuchadnezzar II presumably called on these words to soothe his wife, homesick for her native land, with the promise of cultivating the wondrous Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

On all levels, this was the language of enterprise, the irrigation of lands and shipments of cultivated grain, and of fate foretold. Medical texts in Babylonia gave explicit instructions as to how to read a sheep's liver to divine the future.

At a conference on Monday, historians, archaeologists and specialists in ancient Semitic languages assessed the significance of the comprehensive dictionary, which Gil Stein, director of the university's Oriental Institute, said "is an indispensable research tool for any scholar anywhere who seeks to explore the written record of the Mesopotamian civilization."

One scholar who has relied on the project's research at various stages since the 1960s, Jerrold Cooper, professor emeritus in Semitic languages at Johns Hopkins University, said the dictionary's importance "can't possibly be overestimated." It opens up for study "the richest span of cuneiform writing," he said, referring to the script invented in the fourth millennium B.C. by the earlier Sumerians in Mesopotamia...

University of Chicago institute completes dictionary of ancient language after 9 decades
21-volume sets will be sold to libraries for $1,400 each

By William Mullen, Tribune reporter
9:23 p.m. CDT, June 5, 2011

Some might wonder if it is a bit late in the game, but scholars at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute have finally completed the Assyrian Dictionary, listing 28,000 words of a language that hasn't been used for more than 2,000 years.

Published in 21 volumes, the dictionary project was started in 1921. In all, 88 scholars worked 90 years to compile it. At $1,400 a set, it will be sold mostly to universities, enabling students and scholars to study and read a reproduction of millions of original documents — sun-baked clay cuneiform tablets — left behind by the world's first civilizations.

Wedge-shaped indentations pressed into the clay formed the first known written language. The tablets hold the written history of life over 2,500 years in early nation-states in what is modern-day Iraq. The writers recorded transactions, laws, marriages, divorces, legal disputes, literature, religious texts and personal correspondence. The vast correspondence even includes a bratty letter from a spoiled rich kid...

Scholars complete dictionary of lost language after 90 years
A dictionary of a long dead language has been completed after a team of scholars worked on it for 90 years.

By Nick Allen, Los Angeles

10:00AM BST 06 Jun 2011

The project to create the Assyrian dictionary, based on words recorded on clay or stone tablets unearthed from ruins in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, began at the University of Chicago in 1921.

The language had not been spoken for more than 2,000 years.

Over several generations scholars from Vienna, Paris, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, Berlin, Helsinki, Baghdad and London travelled to Chicago to work on the endeavour.

The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is now officially complete. It contains 21 volumes of Akkadian, a Semitic language, with several dialects, including Assyrian, that was in use for 2,500 years Gil Stein, director of the university's Oriental Institute, said: "The Assyrian Dictionary gives us the key into the world's first urban civilisation.

"Virtually everything that we take for granted has its origins in Mesopotamia, whether it's the origins of cities, of state societies, the invention of the wheel, the way we measure time, and most important the invention of writing...

Huge Ancient Language Dictionary Finished After 90 Years

Released: 6/5/2011 2:30 PM EDT
Source: University of Chicago

21-volume work details the language and culture of ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia

Newswise — An ambitious project to identify, explain and provide citations for the words written in cuneiform on clay tablets and carved in stone by Babylonians, Assyrians and others in Mesopotamia between 2500 B.C. and A.D. 100 has been completed after 90 years of labor, the University of Chicago announced June 5.

To mark the completion of the 21-volume Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, the Oriental Institute at the University, where the project was housed, will hold a conference Monday, June 6, during which scholars from around the world will discuss the significance of the achievement...

And see also: On the CAD

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An Adventure of Great Dimension: A Conference Celebrating the Completion of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD)

2011-06-05T16:59:00.000-05:00

An Adventure of Great Dimension: A Conference Celebrating the Completion of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD)

When: Monday, June 6, 2011 2:00 pm
Where: Oriental Institute, Breasted Hall
1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL
Description:
This conference, sponsored by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, marks the completion this year of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD). Ninety years in the making, the CAD is internationally recognized as the authoritative reference and research resource for the ancient Akkadian language. The detailed entries in the CAD constitute an unrivalled “cultural encyclopedia” for ancient Mesopotamia. The conference highlights the centrality of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary’s current and future intellectual contribution to Mesopotamian studies. Leading scholars in Mesopotamian studies will discuss the ways that the CAD has enriched research in their particular fields of study –Art History, Archaeology, Sumerology, and History and Biblical Studies. The conference will also feature a talk presenting an overview of the CAD project by Editor–in-Charge and Dean of the Humanities Prof. Martha Roth.

The conference will be held in the Oriental Institute’s Breasted Auditorium, 1155 East 58th St., Monday June 6, 2011, from 2:00-6:00 pm, and will be followed by a reception in the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery.

2:00PM — Welcome
Gil J. Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute, The University of Chicago

2:10 PM — “The Assyrian Dictionary”
Martha T. Roth, CAD Editor-in-Charge and Dean of the Humanities, The University of Chicago

2:40 PM — “The CAD: Oxygen for the Sumerologist”
Jerrold S. Cooper, Johns Hopkins University

3:10 PM — Coffee break

3:30 PM — “The Achievement of the CAD: Notes from the Periphery”
Peter Machinist, Harvard University

4:00 PM — “Archaeological Perspectives”
McGuire Gibson, The University of Chicago

4:30 PM — “Art Historical Perspectives”
Irene Winter, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

5:00 PM — “Concluding Remarks of a Dictionary Worker”
Hermann Hunger, University of Vienna

5:30 PM — Questions and discussion

6:00 PM — Open reception for speakers and all conference attendees in the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery

Cost: FREE
Contact: Oriental Institute - Events Coordinator
773-834-9775

Calendars: OI, Conferences, Forums, Lectures, Special Events

Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in this event should contact the event sponsor for assistance. For events on the Student Events Calendar, please contact ORCSA at (773) 702-8787.
Information on Assistive Listening Device

And see also: On the CAD

News: Ancient world dictionary finished – after 90 years

2011-06-04T13:21:00.000-05:00

Ancient world dictionary finished – after 90 years
SHARON COHEN | June 4, 2011 09:56 AM EST |

CHICAGO — It was a monumental project with modest beginnings: a small group of scholars and some index cards. The plan was to explore a long-dead language that would reveal an ancient world of chariots and concubines, royal decrees and diaries – and omens that came from the heavens and sheep livers.

The year: 1921. The place: The University of Chicago. The project: Assembling an Assyrian dictionary based on words recorded on clay or stone tablets unearthed from ruins in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, written in a language that hadn't been uttered for more than 2,000 years. The scholars knew the project would take a long time. No one quite expected how very long.

Decades passed. The team grew. Scholars arrived from Vienna, Paris, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, Berlin, Helsinki, Baghdad and London, joining others from the U.S. and Canada. One generation gave way to the next, one century faded into the next. Some signed on early in their careers; they were still toiling away at retirement. The work was slow, sometimes frustrating and decidedly low-tech: Typewriters. Mimeograph machines. And index cards. Eventually, nearly 2 million of them.

And now, 90 years later, a finale. The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is now officially complete – 21 volumes of Akkadian, a Semitic language (with several dialects, including Assyrian) that endured for 2,500 years. The project is more encyclopedia than glossary, offering a window into the ancient society of Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, through every conceivable form of writing: love letters, recipes, tax records, medical prescriptions, astronomical observations, religious texts, contracts, epics, poems and more...

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

News: After 90 years, U. of C. completes dictionary documenting humanity’s earliest days

2011-06-03T20:57:00.001-05:00

After 90 years, U. of C. completes dictionary documenting humanity’s earliest days

BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com Jun 3, 2011 8:08PM
Martha Roth, finished a 90 year project at the University of Chicago, creating a 21-volume dictionary of language and culture of ancient Mespotamian, here her work at U of C Oriental Institute, 59th and University Avenue, Thursday, June 2, 2011. | John H. White~Sun-Times.

Love notes and divorce papers. Accounting ledgers and legal briefs. Omens, letters between kings, thoughts on the benefits of flaxseed and the fortune-telling properties of sheep livers.

All were carved in stone or written in cuneiform on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia — the cradle of human civilization — between 2500 BC and AD 100. Scholars at the University of Chicago have worked for nearly a century on a comprehensive guide for those reading the ancient language in which some of the earliest days of human history were written.

Ninety years in the making, the 21-volume, 28,000-word Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is complete. Started in 1921, the dictionary was created over the years by about 85 employees writing on millions of index cards in up to five large offices at the school’s Oriental Institute at University Avenue and 58th Street.

The first volume was published in 1956. Forty years after that, the current editor saw the beginning of the end.
“My goal since I took over in 1996 as the editor in charge was to bring the project to an end, not keep it going,” said Martha Roth. “My way of understanding my job was to complete it.”

The dictionary project was started by Oriental Institute founder James Henry Breasted, a Middle Eastern archeologist who envisioned the Chicago school being able to “recover the lost story of the rise of man.”
Organized more like an encyclopedia, the dictionary is a primary source used by scholars, students or any one researching ancient Mesopotamia. While it’s called the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, the Assyrian language is a dialect of Akkadian, another Semitic language. All Akkadian dialects are included in the Chicago dictionary.
While Roth has been the project’s editor since 1996, she first started working on the dictionary in 1979 as a post-doctorate with a “brand new PhD in Assyriology.” Her degree was from the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked on a Sumerian dictionary project inspired by the Chicago Assyrian dictionary.

Roth joined the U. of C. faculty in 1980 and in 1996, she was named the dictionary’s editor. She said she never found the project overwhelming — though the end of the project came as an “abrupt jolt.”

“It’s hard for many people to understand the kind of stick-to-it this kind of project takes,” she said. “It’s not just this current world where everyone’s attention span is short. Many people like to dabble in things. They don’t like to sit for hours.”

Or in her case, years. Spending time developing the entries brought her a rare depth of insight and diversity of scholarship, she said.

“Usually a scholar will specialize in a particular genre or period,” she said. “When you work on a project like this dictionary project, it’s like basically being in an intellectual smorgasbord. You’re sampling things all the time.”

At various points during the project’s long history, scholars tried to modernize the process, including attempting to put portions of the project on IBM hole punch cards in the 1960s. Transferring all the cards onto computers would have taken decades, Roth said. Instead, they now are going into a safe archive.

For Roth, now that the dictionary is complete, there won’t be any celebratory vacation to lands near the Fertile Crescent. She’s still working as a professor as well as dean of humanities and doesn’t anticipate her schedule freeing up.

“You don’t retire from being an Assyriologist,” she said. “I’ve always been engaged in working in legal history and now I’m able to spend more time with that. I look forward to it.”

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

"History and Narrative in a Changing Society: James Henry Breasted and the Writing of Ancient Egyptian History in Early Twentieth Century America"

2011-04-20T05:17:00.001-05:00

A new dissertation from The University of Michigan:

History and Narrative in a Changing Society: James Henry Breasted and the Writing of Ancient Egyptian History in Early Twentieth Century America
by Ambridge, Lindsay J., Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2010, 192 pages; AAT 3441141

[If you are inside the University of Chicago domain, you will find this title here. If not, you need to search through your own institution which has a license to ProQuest, UMI Dissertations]

This study is a critical analysis of the foundational historiography of ancient Egypt, focused on the scholarship of James Henry Breasted (1865-1935), the first American professor of Egyptology. Breasted wrote prolifically and broadly during his thirty-year career. His work is a reference point from which to investigate the effects of political, cultural, and economic variables on the historical narratives of ancient Egypt during his generation. My aim is to establish the political and cultural context in which he worked, examining the degree to which the social discourse of the era influenced the interpretation of ancient Egyptian history.

Primary source material includes four of Breasted's major academic works, a selection of his shorter writings, and archival material from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller Archive Center. Breasted's written work has been the subject of very little critical analysis despite its long standing as fundamental scholarship in the discipline. Intending to establish a new, scientific Egyptology in America, he wrote A History of Egypt (1905) as a popular demonstration of the type of history that could be produced using his methods of meticulous textual research. I argue that his interpretation of the Egyptian past was heavily influenced by both evolutionary and diffusionist theories of social change, and he was an important disseminator of these ideas for the popular audience. From 1914 onward, Breasted's writing exhibits an increasing tendency to explicate the forces which drive civilization and to trace them to their origin; the intersecting axes of geography, chronology and race became guiding concerns of his work. Amidst early twentieth century political and social upheaval, he constructs an image of an ordered world in which imperialism, economic exploitation and industrialism were necessary to human advancement. Concern for processes of cultural evolution continues with his interpretations of ancient Egyptian religion, in which he correlates industrial development and imperial expansion with spiritual growth. His explanation of religious development is best understood when it is seen as in dialogue with his understandings of socio-economic class, environment, and morality.

News: Ancient Egyptian art unpacked at the Oriental Institute

2011-03-29T15:21:00.001-05:00

Museum officials and scholars work together inspecting a limestone statue of the Egyptian King Khasekhem (ca 2685 B.C.) and an ancient Egyptian palette, or grindstone, bearing battlefield images from about 3100 B.C. at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago after it arrived on loan from Oxford University.

Uploaded by ChicagoTribune on Mar 29, 2011

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Newly Online from the Oriental Institute's Backlist: Three More Megiddo volumes

2011-03-15T13:22:00.002-05:00

OIP 33. Megiddo Tombs. P. L. O. Guy. Originally published in 1938.
OIP 52. The Megiddo Ivories. Gordon Loud. Originally published in 1939.
OIP 62. Megiddo 2. Seasons of 1935-39: Text and Plates. Gordon Loud. Originally published in 1948.

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see:

AWOL - The Ancient World Online - 2: The Oriental Institute Electronic Publications Initiative.

Newly Online from the Oriental Institute's Backlist: Four Megiddo volumes

2011-03-09T15:31:00.001-06:00

OIC 9. New Light from Armageddon: Second Provisional Report (1927-29) on the Excavations at Megiddo in Palestine. P. L. O. Guy. Originally published in 1931.
OIP 26.Material Remains of the Megiddo Cult. Herbert Gordon May. Originally published in 1935
OIP 32. The Megiddo Water System. Robert S. Lamon. Originally published in 1935.
SAOC 17.Notes on the Megiddo Pottery of Strata VI-XX. Geoffrey M. Shipton. Originally published in 1939.

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see

AWOL - The Ancient World Online - 2: The Oriental Institute Electronic Publications Initiative.

New Book: Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization.

2011-03-03T17:06:00.001-06:00

Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization.
Edited by Emily Teeter
Oriental Institute Museum Publications 33
Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2011

Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization

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This catalog for an exhibit at Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum presents the newest research on the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods in a lavishly illustrated format. Essays on the rise of the state, contact with the Levant and Nubia, crafts, writing, iconography, and evidence from Abydos, Tell el-Farkha, Hierakonpolis, and the Delta, were contributed by leading scholars in the field. The catalog features 129 Predynastic and Early Dynastic objects, most from the Oriental Institute's collection, that illustrate the environmental setting, Predynastic and Early Dynastic culture, religion, and the royal burials at Abydos. This volume will be a standard reference and a staple for classroom use.
Table of Contents
The Chronology of Early Egypt
Introduction. Emily Teeter
List of Contributors
Map of Principal Areas and Sites
Sequence Dating and Predynastic Chronology. Stan Hendrickx
Petrie and the Discovery of Earliest Egypt. Patricia Spencer
Political Organization of Egypt in the Predynastic Period. Branislav Andelkovic
Hierakonpolis. Renée Friedman
The Predynastic Cultures of the Nile Delta. Yann Tristant and Béatrix Midant-Reynes
The Predynastic/Early Dynastic Period at Tell el-Farkha. Krzysztof M. Cialowicz
Material Culture of the Predynastic Period. Alice Stevenson
Iconography of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods. Stan Hendrickx
Relations between Egypt and Nubia in the Naqada Period. Bruce B. Williams
Crafts and Craft Specialization. Stan Hendrickx
The Invention of Writing in Egypt. David Wengrow
Early Interaction between Peoples of the Nile Valley and the Southern Levant. Eliot Braun
The Rise of the Egyptian State. E. Christiana Köhler
Tomb U-j: A Royal Burial of Dynasty 0 at Abydos. Günter Dreyer
The First Kings of Egypt: The Abydos Evidence. Laurel Bestock
The Narmer Palette: A New Interpretation. David O'Connor
Catalog of Objects
Concordance of Museum Registration Numbers
Checklist of the Exhibit
Bibliography
Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization
Edited by Emily Teeter
Oriental Institute Museum Publications 33
Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2011
ISBN 978-1-885923-82-0
Pp. 288; 196 figures (most in color), 129 objects (all in color)
$39.95

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see

AWOL - The Ancient World Online - 2: The Oriental Institute Electronic Publications Initiative.

News: Egyptian Town Anxiously Awaits Tourists' Return

2011-02-27T13:33:00.000-06:00

Egyptian Town Anxiously Awaits Tourists' Return

by Corey Flintoff

February 27, 201

Weekend Edition Sunday

[4 min 27 sec]

February 27, 2011
The political upheaval of Egypt's revolution barely touched the tourist town of Luxor, but the economy was hit hard. Tourists fled the temples, tombs and resorts in the first days of the revolution, and hotels have been virtually empty ever since. Most people in the industry have been laid off, and they're watching desperately as the first tourists begin to show up.

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

Exhibition Preview: Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization

2011-02-24T15:40:00.000-06:00

Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization

Oriental Institute Museum displays some of Egypt's earliest artifacts
Visitors will have a chance to get a rare look at beautifully made statues, vessels, figurines, and other artifacts from the dawn of the Egyptian culture at a special exhibition at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago.

"Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization" will run from March 29 to December 31, 2011, at the museum, 1155 East 58th Street. The museum holds the Chicago area's largest collection of Egyptian art and artifacts as well as galleries devoted to the other cultures of the ancient Middle East.

The new exhibition shows that the most fundamental aspects of ancient Egyptian civilization — architecture, hieroglyphic writing, a belief in the afterlife, and allegiance to a semi-divine king — can be traced to Egypt's Predynastic and Early Dynastic eras more than 1,000 years before the pyramids were built...

Teaching the Middle East: A Resource for Educators

2011-02-16T15:13:00.001-06:00

Teaching the Middle East: A Resource for Educators

Scholars from the University of Chicago developed this teacher resource to provide an overview of Middle Eastern cultures and their contributions to the world.

Discover the great currents of continuity and change throughout Middle Eastern history…

This resource was written by many of the best scholars in the field of Middle Eastern studies and created in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities and three University of Chicago units, the Oriental Institute, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the eCUIP Digital Library Project.

The goal of Teaching the Middle East: A Resource for Educators is to provide teachers of Middle Eastern history and culture with a rich, reliable, and easily accessible resource that draws upon sound humanities scholarship to help build student understanding of Middle Eastern history and culture. Drawing upon the unparalleled expertise of renowned scholars from the University of Chicago, the archaeological resources of a world-famous research facility and museum, and the inherent flexibility and strengths of the Internet, it is our hope that this resource will enhance teaching and learning about the Middle East in the nation’s classrooms.

Academically rigorous, thoughtful, and stimulating, Teaching the Middle East seeks to offer new ways of seeing and understanding by crossing cultural divides and illuminating how our shared human concerns cross oceans, time, and cultures.

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see

AWOL - The Ancient World Online - 2: The Oriental Institute Electronic Publications Initiative.

New Chief Curator for the Oriental Institute Museum

2011-02-16T06:31:00.000-06:00

Announced 2/15/11 at What's New

Dr. Jack Green has been selected as the new Chief Curator for the Oriental Institute Museum. Dr. Green is coming to us from the Ashmolean Museum where he is Curator for the Ancient Near East. Prior to his current role, he held positions in the British Museum as well as the University of Liverpool. He received his PhD from the Institute of Archaeology at the University College London. Dr. Green will begin his appointment on August 1, 2011.

Audio Tours of Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East

2011-02-08T13:42:00.000-06:00

What’s New: February 8, 2011

Nine audio tours of the Oriental Institute Museum's current exhibit, Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East are now available for free download, so that you can use your own iPod or other MP3 player to listen to museum staff discuss the exhibition as you view it.

Oriental Institute Museum Self-guided Audio Tours

Look at the Oriental Institute!

2011-02-01T11:07:00.001-06:00

The OI spycam. Unless someone there comes out and waves at the camera, there isn't much happening.

Newly Reprinted: OIP 82, The Egyptian Book of the Dead

2011-01-25T10:56:00.000-06:00

Announced yesterday on What's New

Dating from 1960, and out of print for years, OIP 82, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, edited by Thomas George Allen, has been digitally reprinted, and is available for purchase in hardback format. It remains available for downloading in the Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf) as well.

Recent Open Access Dissertations from NELC

2011-01-21T09:58:00.001-06:00

A number of recent dissertations from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations have been made accessible free of charge through Open Access ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT Open):

Agents, archives, and risk: A micronarrative account of Old Assyrian trade through Salim-ahum's activities in 1890 B.C.
by Stratford, Edward Paul, Ph.D. The University of Chicago. 2010: 492 pages; AAT 3419777.

Incubation as a type-scene in the Aqhatu, Kirta, and Hannah stories: A form-critical and narratological study of KTU 1.14 I--1.15 III, 1.17 I--II, and 1 Samuel 1:1--2:11
by Kim, Koowon, Ph.D. The University of Chicago. 2010: 469 pages; AAT 3397291.

The shehnamecis of Sultan Suleyman: `Arif and Eflatun and their dynastic project
by Eryilmaz Arenas Vives, Fatma Sinem, Ph.D. The University of Chicago. 2010: 302 pages; AAT 3419770. Supplemental Files.

Jordan first: A history of the intellectual and political economy of Jordanian antiquity
by Corbett, Elena Dodge, Ph.D. The University of Chicago. 2009: 532 pages; AAT 3362463.

The geographical background of the Persepolis tablets
by Arfaee, Abdolmajid, Ph.D. The University of Chicago. 2008: 150 pages; AAT 3300414.

The Oriental Institute in Atlas Obscura

2011-01-13T15:48:00.000-06:00

Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago
By M Rebekah Otto / January 6, 2011

Curators typically organize museums with some editorial guidelines. In art, it may be by era, style, or nation; in the natural sciences, by geography, genus, or age. But some museums (usually museums married to a university rather than purely for the public visitor) resemble the curiosity cabinets of yore. Their crowded display cases say, “Look at all the cool stuff I found.”

Based out of the University of Chicago’s Archaeology Department, The Oriental Institute rests nicely in between; the collection is one of the few places to view a university's acquisitions from archaeological digs, as most universities keep their closed to the public. I visited the museum last week, drawn by an exhibit on the origins of written language...

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum

2010-12-02T12:51:00.000-06:00

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum

The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute is an internationally recognized research center for studying the archaeological and textual record of the ancient Near East. A primary unit within the Institute is its Museum, which houses over 300,000 registered objects from across the Near East. We seek applicants for the position of Chief Curator, who reports to the Director of the Oriental Institute and is responsible for the successful management of all museum operations, notably exhibits and collections management. The ideal candidate combines museum experience with a commitment to research and publication. The Chief Curator interacts regularly with the Institute's research faculty, who serve as its governing board. Candidates must have academic qualifications in a Near Eastern field of specialty, ideally in one of the areas covered by the Oriental Institute's collections (Egypt, Nubia, Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, Anatolia, Iran). Candidates must also have demonstrated leadership and project management skills enabling them to conduct and supervise curatorial tasks, exhibit development and grant writing. Based on the selected applicant's qualifications, a secondary academic appointment as Research Associate in the Oriental Institute will be considered. To apply for this position, please go to http://jobs.uchicago.edu, create a profile and apply for requisition #085902.

Review of applications will begin on December 10, 2010.

Email inquiries can be directed to oi-administration@uchicago.edu with the subject heading "Chief Curator Search".

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer.

Oriental Institute Symposia

2010-12-01T14:17:00.000-06:00

The Oriental Institute has just announced the seventh in its annual symposia series:

Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond, organized by Natalie Naomi May.
To be held April 8-9, 2011.

Past symposia include

And the 2004 proto-symposium Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam: Archaeological Perspectives
After the conference, the Fellow assembles and edits the proceedings for publication in the series Oriental Institute Seminars (OIS), each volume of which is available for sale or for download:

OIS 6. Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World. Edited by Amar Annus. 2010.
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OIS 5. Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East: Cross-disciplinary Perspective. Jeffrey Szuchman, ed. 2009.
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OIS 4. Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond Nicole Brisch, ed. 2008.
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OIS 3. Performing Death: Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean Nicola Laneri, ed. 2007.
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OIS 2. Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures. (second printing) Seth L. Sanders, ed. 2007. Purchase Book
- Download PDF (original publication, 2006) original publication, 2006
- Download PDF (second printing, 2007) second printing, 2007
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OIS 1. Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam: Archaeological Perspectives. Donald Whitcomb, ed. 2004.
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News: Jill Kamil talks to director Ray Johnson about the work in progress at Epigraphic Survey at Chicago House in Luxor

2010-11-26T17:05:00.000-06:00

Never bettered, never better
Al-Ahram Weekly
25 November - 1 December 2010, Issue No. 1024

As the Epigraphic Survey at Chicago House in Luxor enters its 87th six-month season in Luxor, Jill Kamil talks to director Ray Johnson about the work in progress.

"Preserving Egypt's ancient records for present and future generations is what we strive to do," says Ray Johnson, director of Chicago House, the iconic home of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute archaeological team in Luxor. Johnson says that the documentation techniques pioneered by founder James Henry Breasted, while now augmented with new digital tools, have never been surpassed. "When a photograph or a scan is not clear enough, or the wall surface is terribly damaged, we use non-invasive photographic and digital images as the basis for precise line drawings that continue to set the standard for epigraphic recording everywhere," he says. "This technique has become known simply as the Chicago House method, and it still sets the disciplined and meticulous course of the work of our documentation teams...

Clockwise: Medinet Habu blockyard moving, coordinated by conservator Lotfi Hassan; conservator Hiroko Kariya preparing display group; Khonsu Temple epigraphic team Brett McClain, Jen Kimpton, and Keli Alberts puzzle over an inscribed block; open-air museum at Luxor Temple

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.

The OI's Edfu Project

2010-11-24T13:51:00.000-06:00

The Tell Edfu Project

The remains of what once had been the provincial capital of the 2nd Upper Egyptian nome can be found at Tell Edfu, which is one of the best well-preserved ancient towns in Egypt. The continuous occupation over several millennia led to the constant build up of settlement layers which created an artificial mound or a tell of considerable height. Tell Edfu is one of the rare examples where almost three thousand years of ancient Egyptian history are still preserved in the stratigraphy of a single site and therefore provides an enormous potential for increasing our understanding of ancient urbanism in Egypt, a topic that is still poorly understood since it relies almost entirely on archaeological data. There are only very few ancient Egyptian settlement sites currently accessible and even fewer have been excavated and published. The past excavation seasons (2005-2010) at Tell Edfu have focused along the eastern part of the tell which yielded evidence for the early administrative center of the town. So far we excavated a small part of this area and the first results already proved to be spectacular such as the large grain silos that are so far unique in the archaeological record in Egypt. For the first time it has been possible to discover archaeological settlement remains that complement the abundant textual sources dealing with the complex system of administration. Not surprisingly it seems that texts and archaeology do not always tell the same story! At Tell Edfu we have the chance to gather completely new archaeological data for the study of an important urban center in southern Egypt and its development during the whole pharaonic period. Urbanism and settlement studies dealing with ancient Egypt are very rare and this stands in sharp contrast to other regions in the Near East where the exploration of tell sites is a common phenomenon. Thus, the Tell Edfu Project has a significant impact on our knowledge of Egyptian urbanism in general.

For more information see:

Tell Edfu Project

The Epigraphic Survey 2009-2010 Field Season

2010-11-10T09:57:00.000-06:00

The Epigraphic Survey 2009-2010 Field Season

The Luxor Temple blockyard conservation program coordinated by Hiroko Kariya assisted by Tina Di Cerbo and Nan Ray continued with final preparations for the Luxor Temple blockyard open-air museum. This three-year project, supported by the World Monuments Fund (a Robert W. Wilson Challenge to Conserve Our Heritage grant) was completed and opened to the public on March 29, 2010 in a ribbon-cutting ceremony presided over by SCA Luxor director Mansour Boraik and about 100 friends and colleagues. More than sixty-two fragment groups have now been reassembled chronologically for public display with educational signage in English and Arabic. Sandstone pavement, protective fencing, and lighting for nighttime viewing are now in place to the east of the Luxor Temple sanctuary along platforms that support reassembled fragment groups from the Middle Kingdom through the Ptolemaic, Roman, Christian, and Islamic periods. Other platforms display material recovered during the USAID-supported dewatering trenching to the east of Luxor Temple by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), a conservation section, and a rotating exhibit section that now features "Egyptian Creatures" in art and inscriptions. An online catalogue of the museum displays is being prepared that will eventually be accessible from this Web site...

News: Mandarin Audio tour of the OI Museum

2010-10-29T08:30:00.000-05:00

Museum in Chicago to attract more Chinese visitors with Mandarin audio tour
English.news.cn 2010-10-29 13:24:29

CHICAGO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago now offers a Mandarin audio tour to attract more Chinese visitors.

The tour features highlights of the museum to help visitors understand the remarkable artifacts on display from the ancient Middle East.

"It is a great opportunity to show Chicago as such a global city," Joleen Haran, assistant director of tourism at the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, told Xinhua. Haran said that China has been a fast-growing market of international travelers to the United States since both countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2007...

Oriental Institute Museum Self-guided Audio Tours

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News: Three Articles About “Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond”

2010-10-19T18:16:00.001-05:00

Hunting for the Dawn of Writing, When Prehistory Became History
New York Times, Art & Design
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
Published: October 19, 2010

CHICAGO — One of the stars of the Oriental Institute’s new show, “Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond,” is a clay tablet that dates from around 3200 B.C. On it, written in cuneiform, the script language of ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia, is a list of professions, described in small, repetitive impressed characters that look more like wedge-shape footprints than what we recognize as writing... [read the rest...]

Olaf Tessmer, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin

A clay tag from around 3200 B.C. has signs that scholars call proto-cuneiform.

Invention of Writing Exhibition
Fine Books Magazine Blog
By Nate Pedersen on October 15, 2010 9:54 AM

Early writing developed independently at four spots around the ancient world: Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, and Mesoamerica. For the first time in 25 years, examples of writing from all four civilizations are on display together at the Oriental Institute's new exhibition Visible Language, viewable now through March, 2011 at the University of Chicago.

The highlights of the exhibition are the earliest known cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, dated to 3200 B.C., which have never before been shown in America. The Oriental Institute has the tablets on loan from the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin. Other items on display include ancient labels from the tombs of the first Egyptian kings, inscribed oracle bones from China, and a miniature altar with Mayan hieroglyphics... [read the rest...]

Oriental Institute exhibit draws on history of writing
“Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East” features artifacts ranging from cuneiform tablets to papyrus manuscripts.
The Chicago Maroon
By Sara Hupp
Published: October 15th, 2010

If Indiana Jones were still at the U of C, he’d probably consider the Oriental Institute's latest exhibition the holy grail — of linguistics, at least.

While you won’t find any crystal skulls or lost arks, a new exhibit at the Oriental Institute displays some of the oldest examples of writing; “Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East” features artifacts ranging from cuneiform tablets to papyrus manuscripts.

“The invention of writing was the first information revolution,” said Chief Curator Geoff Emberling, an archaeologist specializing in Mesopotamia. “Today, we are living through a revolution in the storage and processing of information, so it is very timely that we look back.”... [Read the rest...]

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Oriental Institute Enterprises, Limited

2010-10-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

Several copies of this document, a blank shares certificate in

Oriental Institute Enterprises, Limited

turned up in a desk drawer in the Oriental Institute some time in the 1980's. Oral tradition current at the time suggested that it was a membership premium issued some time earlier. I've never seen reference to it in published OI Annual Reports or anywhere else for that matter.

The Human Adventure is Online

2010-10-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

The Human Adventure is now online at The Oriental Institute's Youtube Channel.

This 1935 film, produced by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago under the supervision of Dr. James Henry Breasted was written and told by his son, Charles Breasted. Though we no longer think about archaeology in the same way, this film gives us insight into the early days of the field.

Data (minimal) on the Human adventure at IMDb, and at Turner Classic Movies.
And see a Review of a Review of The Human Adventure.

News: Did Uruk soldiers kill their own people?

2010-09-23T07:58:00.003-05:00

Did Uruk soldiers kill their own people? 5,500 year old fratricide at Hamoukar Syria
Heritage Key
Submitted by owenjarus on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 03:28

Five years ago an archaeological team broke news of a major find that forever changed our views about the history of the Middle East.

Researchers from the Oriental Institute, and the Department of Antiquities in Syria, announced in a press release that they had found the “earliest evidence for large scale organized warfare in the Mesopotamian world.”

They had discovered that a city in Syria, named Hamoukar, had been destroyed in a battle that took place ca. 3500 BC by a hostile force. Using slings and clay bullets these troops took over the city, burning it in the process. Their motive may have been to gain control over trade in the area – particularly that of copper coming from Southern Turkey.

The likeliest culprit for this act is a city named Uruk – located to the south in modern day Iraq. The artifacts found at Hamoukar which postdate the battle, were created in the same style as those discovered at Uruk.

"If the Uruk people weren't the ones firing the sling bullets, they certainly benefited from it. They took over this place right after its destruction," site excavator Dr. Clemens Reichel told the New York Times, back in 2005.

But now archaeologists have made a new discovery that sheds more light on this battle. They have found evidence that an Uruk colony near Hamoukar was also destroyed in this conflict.

So, if the invading army was from Uruk, did they kill their own people? If so why?

The information was first released in the 2008-2009 annual report on the Oriental Institute’s website. Before now it has not appeared in popular media.

This story is a long one so bear with me....

An archaeologist uncovers a skeleton at the Uruk colony. Was this person killed by his/her own people? Photo courtesy Professor Clemens Reichel

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OI News & Notes 2010 Summer and Fall issues

2010-09-22T15:47:00.000-05:00

The 2010 Summer and Fall issues of the Oriental Institute's News & Notes are now available for download.

News & Notes is a Quarterly Publication of The Oriental Institute, printed for members as one of the privileges of membership.
2010 Winter (#204) Spring (#205) Summer (#206) Fall (#207)
2009 Winter (#200) Spring (#201) Summer (#202) Fall (#203)
2008 Winter (#196) Spring (#197) Summer (#198) Fall (#199)
2007 Winter (#192) Spring (#193) Summer (#194) Fall (#195)
2006 Winter (#188) Spring (#189) Summer (#190) Fall (#191)
2005 Winter (#184) Spring (#185) Summer (#186) Fall (#187)
2004 Winter (#180) Spring (#181) Summer (#182) Fall (#183)
2003 Winter (#176) Spring (#177) Summer (#178) Fall (#179)
2002 Winter (#172) Spring (#173) Summer (#174) Fall (#175)

For years prior to 2002 only the Lead Article(s) from various issues are being made available electronically with the permission of the editor.

For a listing of all Oriental Institute publications available online see: AWOL - The Ancient World Online - 2: The Oriental Institute Electronic Publications Initiative

News: Pictures at an excavation In central Turkey, OI faculty and staff help get to the bottom of a puzzling ruin.

2010-09-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

Pictures at an excavation: In central Turkey, OI faculty and staff help get to the bottom of a puzzling ruin.
University of Chicago Magazine, July-August 2010

“The great expanse of ruins, once teeming with life and resounding with the voices of a powerful people who dominated most of Asia Minor, now lies mute and barren.” So wrote archaeologist H. H. van der Osten in 1926 about Kerkenes Dag, the low mountain in Turkey where a vast city once stood. Those who had seen the ruin couldn’t agree on its age, so James Henry Breasted asked his colleague Erich Schmidt, who was stationed nearby codirecting the Oriental Institute’s Hittite Survey, to look more closely.

Schmidt’s succinct wire back, “kerkenes posthittite preclassical + schmidt,” confirmed that the city belonged to the late Iron Age—not a period of immediate interest to the OI expedition. That was the end of any serious digging at Kerkenes for seven decades.

Fast-forward to 1993, when Geoffrey and Françoise Summers of Middle East Technical University launched a new excavation that soon drew researchers affiliated with the OI. Scott Branting, AM’96, then a Chicago master’s student in Hittitology and Anatolian Archaeology, wound up writing his dissertation on the city plan at Kerkenes. Today Branting is a codirector of the excavation as well as director of the OI’s Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL) and assistant research professor.

Last summer Branting and assistant conservator Alison Whyte spent time working at Kerkenes. When they returned, they fielded questions about the significance of the site and the role of conservators at an excavation.

Read the rest...

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When:	Monday, June 6, 2011 2:00 pm
Where:	Oriental Institute, Breasted Hall 1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL
Description:	This conference, sponsored by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, marks the completion this year of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD). Ninety years in the making, the CAD is internationally recognized as the authoritative reference and research resource for the ancient Akkadian language. The detailed entries in the CAD constitute an unrivalled “cultural encyclopedia” for ancient Mesopotamia. The conference highlights the centrality of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary’s current and future intellectual contribution to Mesopotamian studies. Leading scholars in Mesopotamian studies will discuss the ways that the CAD has enriched research in their particular fields of study –Art History, Archaeology, Sumerology, and History and Biblical Studies. The conference will also feature a talk presenting an overview of the CAD project by Editor–in-Charge and Dean of the Humanities Prof. Martha Roth. The conference will be held in the Oriental Institute’s Breasted Auditorium, 1155 East 58th St., Monday June 6, 2011, from 2:00-6:00 pm, and will be followed by a reception in the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery. 2:00PM — Welcome Gil J. Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute, The University of Chicago 2:10 PM — “The Assyrian Dictionary” Martha T. Roth, CAD Editor-in-Charge and Dean of the Humanities, The University of Chicago 2:40 PM — “The CAD: Oxygen for the Sumerologist” Jerrold S. Cooper, Johns Hopkins University 3:10 PM — Coffee break 3:30 PM — “The Achievement of the CAD: Notes from the Periphery” Peter Machinist, Harvard University 4:00 PM — “Archaeological Perspectives” McGuire Gibson, The University of Chicago 4:30 PM — “Art Historical Perspectives” Irene Winter, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 5:00 PM — “Concluding Remarks of a Dictionary Worker” Hermann Hunger, University of Vienna 5:30 PM — Questions and discussion 6:00 PM — Open reception for speakers and all conference attendees in the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery
Cost:	FREE
Contact:	Oriental Institute - Events Coordinator 773-834-9775
Calendars:	OI, Conferences, Forums, Lectures, Special Events
	Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in this event should contact the event sponsor for assistance. For events on the Student Events Calendar, please contact ORCSA at (773) 702-8787. Information on Assistive Listening Device

2010	Winter (#204)	Spring (#205)	Summer (#206)	Fall (#207)
2009	Winter (#200)	Spring (#201)	Summer (#202)	Fall (#203)
2008	Winter (#196)	Spring (#197)	Summer (#198)	Fall (#199)
2007	Winter (#192)	Spring (#193)	Summer (#194)	Fall (#195)
2006	Winter (#188)	Spring (#189)	Summer (#190)	Fall (#191)
2005	Winter (#184)	Spring (#185)	Summer (#186)	Fall (#187)
2004	Winter (#180)	Spring (#181)	Summer (#182)	Fall (#183)
2003	Winter (#176)	Spring (#177)	Summer (#178)	Fall (#179)
2002	Winter (#172)	Spring (#173)	Summer (#174)	Fall (#175)

The Oriental Institute: Fragments for a History of an Institution

Exhibition spotlight: ‘Before the Pyramids’ at the Oriental Institute

News: The Breasted Biography on the Radio

The Oriental Institute & James Henry Breasted

Jeffrey Abt's new biography of James Henry Breasted

Scholar, former UChicago staff member Jeffrey Abt completes book on O.I. founder

Abt to speak about America's first Egyptologist on Dec. 14

Images of Objects at the Oriental Institute (and Elsewhere) in Inscriptifact

Epigraphic Survey News

December 2, 2011

All Chicago House Bulletins

New Book: Ancient Israel: Highlights from the Collections of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

OIMP 31.Ancient Israel: Highlights from the Collections of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

Gabrielle V. Novacek

Ray Johnson talks about the Khonsu Temple

News: Joint Palestinian-American dig near Jericho

Oriental Institute Symposium 2012

In Their Spare Time

Tell Edfu Blog

Susan Osgood

CAD on the wireless

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Featured on WFMT’s Critical Thinking

The Greek-Norwegian Archaeological Mission to the Sudan visits the Oriental Institute

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Curatorial Assistant

The Epigraphic Survey 2010-2011 Field Season

"From Artifacts to People Facts at the Oriental Institute"

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Director of Development, Oriental Institute

A New Project: The Jericho Mafjar Project

August 9, 2011

News: Oriental Institute exhibit examines commerce, trade in ancient Near East

News: Islam’s origins

News: The definition of persistence

News: Chicago Assyrian Dictionary hits 100,000 downloads

A Special Exhibition: Commerce and Coins in the Ancient Near East

Commerce and Coins in the Ancient Near East

A Mini-Exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum, August 11-28, 2011

News: MN firm's 3-D X-ray machine is solving ancient mysteries

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Katharine Grayson, Staff Writer

New Book from The Oriental Institute: Bir Umm Fawakhir, Volume 2: Report on the 1996-1997 Survey Seasons

Bir Umm Fawakhir, Volume 2: Report on the 1996-1997 Survey Seasons By Carol Meyer, with contributions by Lisa Heidorn, Alexandra A. O'Brien, and Clemens Reichel

William Sumner former director of the Oriental Institute has died

On the CAD

Annual Reports of The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Project

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Featured on WFMT’s Critical Thinking

News Roundup: The Completion of the Assyrian Dictionary

News: Four more on the completion of the CAD

An Adventure of Great Dimension: A Conference Celebrating the Completion of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD)

News: Ancient world dictionary finished – after 90 years

News: After 90 years, U. of C. completes dictionary documenting humanity’s earliest days

"History and Narrative in a Changing Society: James Henry Breasted and the Writing of Ancient Egyptian History in Early Twentieth Century America"

News: Ancient Egyptian art unpacked at the Oriental Institute

Newly Online from the Oriental Institute's Backlist: Three More Megiddo volumes

Newly Online from the Oriental Institute's Backlist: Four Megiddo volumes

New Book: Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization.

Table of Contents

News: Egyptian Town Anxiously Awaits Tourists' Return

Egyptian Town Anxiously Awaits Tourists' Return

by Corey Flintoff

Exhibition Preview: Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization

Oriental Institute Museum displays some of Egypt's earliest artifacts

Teaching the Middle East: A Resource for Educators

New Chief Curator for the Oriental Institute Museum

Audio Tours of Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East

What’s New: February 8, 2011

Look at the Oriental Institute!

Newly Reprinted: OIP 82, The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Recent Open Access Dissertations from NELC

The Oriental Institute in Atlas Obscura

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum

Oriental Institute Symposia

News: Jill Kamil talks to director Ray Johnson about the work in progress at Epigraphic Survey at Chicago House in Luxor

The OI's Edfu Project

The Epigraphic Survey 2009-2010 Field Season

News: Mandarin Audio tour of the OI Museum

News: Three Articles About “Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond”

Oriental Institute Enterprises, Limited

The Human Adventure is Online

News: Did Uruk soldiers kill their own people?

OI News & Notes 2010 Summer and Fall issues

OIMP 31.

Ancient Israel: Highlights from the Collections of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

Bir Umm Fawakhir, Volume 2: Report on the 1996-1997 Survey Seasons

By Carol Meyer, with contributions by Lisa Heidorn, Alexandra A. O'Brien, and Clemens Reichel