Itamar Singer

Itamar Singer (born November 26, 1946 in Dej , Romania ; died September 19, 2012 in Cholon , Israel ) was a Romanian-Israeli Hittitologist and Near Eastern archaeologist .

Itamar Singer, 2010

Itamar Singer was the son of Zoltán and Gertrude Singer, members of the Hungarian minority in Romania . In 1958 the family moved to Israel, where Singer attended school in Cholon. He then studied archeology and geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , where he graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree. During his following four years of military service, he also successfully completed his master’s degree at Tel Aviv University before continuing his studies at Marburg University . There he received his doctorate from the Hittite scientist Heinrich Otten in 1978 . The title of his doctoral thesis was "The Hittite KI.LAM Festival" .

After returning to Israel, he worked for the Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and taught at the Department of Jewish History. For many years he set up the Hittitology department at Tel Aviv University. In 1996 he was appointed full professor there. For health reasons, he left the university in 2006.

His main research interests were the early days of the Hittites , their administration and the reasons for their downfall , whereby he was the first to introduce the theory of internal disputes as the reason for their downfall into the discussion. Singer also coined the expression Pax Hethitica for a stable time of inner and outer calm of the Hittite Empire during the 13th century BC. Chr.

Singer was invited to lectures and lectures in Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Turkey, the United States, Japan, Australia and Argentina. For many years he was on the editorial board of Antiguo Oriente magazine . In 2010 he received the Israeli Emet Prize for Art, Science and Culture, endowed with one million dollars, for his scientific pioneering work .

Fonts (selection)

A comprehensive bibliography up to 2010 is offered by: Yoram Cohen, Amir Gilan, Jared L. Miller (eds.): Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbors in Honor of Itamar Singer (= Studies on the Boğazköy texts. Volume 51 ). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 5–16.

• The Hittite KI.LAM Festival. Two volumes. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1983–1984.
• Muwatalli's Prayer to the Assembly of Gods through the Storm-god of Lightning. Scholars Press, Atlanta 1996.
• with Harry A. Hoffner: Hittite Prayers. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2002.
• The Hittites and their Civilization. Mwsad Byaʼliyq, Jerusalem 2009 (in Hebrew).
• The calm before the storm. Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2011.

literature

• Yoram Cohen, Amir Gilan, Jared L. Miller (eds.): Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbors in Honor of Itamar Singer (= studies on the Boğazköy texts. Volume 51). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 1–3.

Web links

• Biography on the Emet Prize Winners' website
• Necrology of the Antiguo Oriente magazine