Jean-Vincent Scheil

Professor Scheil (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) - Lecture at the Sorbonne (Sorbonne Library, NuBIS)

Jean-Vincent Scheil (born June 10, 1858 in Königsmachern ; † September 21, 1940 in Paris ) was a French Assyriologist who, through the deciphering of the Codex Hammurapi and the discovery and translation of the so-called Kischafel or English Scheil dynasty tablet, a version of the Sumerian King List that became famous.

Jean Scheil entered the Dominican Order in 1882 and was given the name Vincent. After he had completed the usual degree in theology and was ordained a Catholic priest, Scheil began studying Egyptology and Assyriology at the École pratique des hautes études and at the Collège de France with Arthur Amiaud , Jules Oppert , Gaston Maspero and Pierre-Paul in 1887 Guieysse .

In 1890 he became a member of the Mission archéologique française du Caire and took part in the investigation of the necropolis of Thebes . 1892–93 he cataloged the Egyptian and ancient Near Eastern monuments in the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul (then in the holiday season until 1898). In 1894 he directed the Sippar excavation . In 1895 he succeeded Arthur Amiaud as a professor of Assyriology at the École pratique des hautes études (retired in 1933).

From 1899 he was a member of the Mission Archéologique en Perse under Jacques de Morgan , which carried out the excavations of Susa . During the investigation in December 1901 and January 1902 Scheil was there at the discovery of a stele from basalt involved, the text of the Code of Hammurabi handed. Scheil immediately deciphered the stele and translated the codex from Akkadian into French. This made him world famous.

Pope Leo XIII. appointed him in 1903 as a consultator of the Pontifical Biblical Commission . His appointment to the chair of Assyriology at the College de France after Jules Oppert's retirement in 1905 failed because he was a Catholic clergyman. Jean-Vincent Scheil was accepted into the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in December 1908 .

Stele of the Codex Ḫammurapi

Publications (selection)

• Inscription assyrienne archaïque de Šamši-Ramman IV, roi d'Assyrie (824-811 av. J.-C.) , Paris 1889
• with Arthur Amiaud: Les Inscriptions de Salmanazar II, roi d'Assyrie (860-824 av. J.-C.) , Paris 1890
• Recueil de signes archaïques de l'écriture cunéiforme , Paris 1898
• with Charles Fossey : Grammaire assyrienne , Paris 1901
• Code des lois de Hammourabi, roi de Babylone, vers l'an 2000 av. J.-C. , In: "Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse" 4, Paris 1902, pp. 111-162
• Une Saison de fouilles a Sippar , Cairo 1902
• La loi de Hammourabi (vers 2000 av. J.-C.) , Paris 1904 full text (PDF; 739 kB)
• Annales de Tukulti Ninip II , Paris 1909
• Esagil, ou le Temple de Bêl-Marduk à Babylone , Paris 1913
• Le prisme d'Assaraddon , Paris 1914
• Recueil de lois assyriennes , Paris 1921

Web links

• Entry in the Dictionnaire critique des historiens de l'art actifs en France de la Révolution à la Première Guerre mondiale (with indication of secondary literature)
• Jean-Vincent Scheil, le "Champollion Lorrain"
• Jean-Vincent Scheil. In: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative