Martin Bernal

Martin Gardiner Bernal (born March 10, 1937 in London , † June 9, 2013 in Cambridge ) was a British sinologist . His three-volume, controversially discussed work Black Athena , which assumes that the culture of ancient Greece is derived from the cultures of the Phoenicians and Egyptians, and thus the origins of western civilization in Asia and Africa, attracted particular attention .

Life

Martin Bernal was born in 1937 as the son of the physicist John Desmond Bernal and the writer Margaret Gardiner in London and grew up in a politically left-wing environment. The Egyptologist Alan Gardiner was his maternal grandfather. Bernal attended Dartington Hall School near Totnes in Devon . He then did his national service for two years . In 1957 he started oriental studies at the King's College of the University of Cambridge to study. From 1960 to 1961 he studied at Beijing University . Here, Bernal not only deepened his knowledge of standard Chinese , but also developed a lifelong interest in Chinese culture and history. In 1961 he graduated with first-class honors from King's College and married his fellow student Judy Pace. In 1963, their first child, a daughter, was born in the United States , where the couple lived, as Bernal continued his postgraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University . 18 months later, in Cambridge, they had twin sons. In 1966 , Bernal received his Ph.D. The topic of his dissertation was early Chinese socialism.

In 1972 he became an Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University in Ithaca , New York . In 1976, the now divorced Bernal met Professor Leslie Miller, who taught at Wells College . The two married and in 1979 a son was born. His wife brought a son from a previous marriage into the marriage. In 1984 he became adjunct professor in the Department of Near Eastern studies . In 1988 he became a full professor at Cornell University. In 2001 he retired .

Publications (selection)

• Chinese Socialism to 1907 (1976)
• Black Athena. The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (1987, Rutgers University Press)
• Cadmean Letters: The Westward Diffusion of The Semitic Alphabet Before 1400 BC (1990)
• Black Athena. Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence (1991, Free Association Books)
• David Chioni Moore (Eds.), Martin Bernal: Black Athena Writes Back (2001)
• Black Athena. The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence (2006, Rutgers University Press)

Web links

• Martin Bernal obituary , June 21, 2013, The Guardian
• Professor Martin Bernal, 'Black Athena' author, dies at 76 , June 14, 2013, Cornell Chronicle