Thorkild Jacobsen

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Thorkild Peter Rudolph Jacobsen (born June 7, 1904 in Copenhagen , † May 2, 1993 in Bradford , New Hampshire , USA ) was a Danish archaeologist and sumerologist from the Middle East .

life and career

Thorkild Jacobsen first studied Semitic and Assyriology at the University of Copenhagen . His main academic teachers were Otto Emil Ravn and Svend Aage Pallis . He later went to the University of Chicago . He did his Master of Arts in Copenhagen in 1927 and his Ph.D. in Chicago in 1929. At the invitation of Edward Chieras , Jacobsen took part in the Iraq expedition of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1937 . Here he took part in excavations in Dur Sarrukin (Khorsabad), Tell Asmar , Ḫafāǧī and Jerwan . A quick career followed at the Chicago Oriental Institute : in 1937 he became an instructor , 1942 assistant professor, 1947 associate professor and 1946 professor of social institutions . From 1946 to 1948 he was director of the institute, from 1948 to 1951 dean of the humanities faculty. As director, he ensured the appointment of German scientists to the institute who were persecuted as Jewish researchers. This included people like Benno Landsberger , Hans Gustav Güterbock and Adolf Leo Oppenheim . Between 1955 and 1959 Jacobsen published the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary . Here he was instrumental in the development of new approaches that took the dictionary to a new level after the Second World War . In 1962/63 he was initially visiting professor , then from 1963 to 1974 professor of Assyriology at Harvard . He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1962, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965, and the British Academy in 1977. For 1968 he was awarded a Guggenheim scholarship . In 1993 he was President of the American Oriental Society . Jacobsen has been visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Columbia University in New York City , the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor , the University of London and St John's College at the University of Oxford . As a visiting professor at UCLA, he helped establish the subject at the university in 1974.

Alongside Samuel Noah Kramer and Adam Falkenstein , Jacobsen is considered to be a central figure in the reconstruction of Sumerian grammar , literature and history . With his fundamental research on assumed racist conflicts between Sumerians and Semites , the early political institutions as well as questions of irrigation and the problems resulting from it, he showed the subject new ways. Jacobsen's research on subjects such as cosmology , mythology and religion was no less influential . He edited the standard edition of the Sumerian King List as well as poetic texts in translations. He is also considered one of the pioneers of archaeological surface surveys , which made it possible to reconstruct the history of entire regions without excavations . Jacobsen's ability to grasp the meaning of Sumerian texts is praised, some of which differ greatly in form from modern texts. He benefited greatly from his knowledge of Iraq about the country . He was considered a brilliant mind, deep and systematic thinker.

Publications

  • Sumerian King List (1939)
  • Towards the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture (1970)
  • The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (1976)
  • The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man. An Essay of Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East (1977)
  • The Harps that Once… Sumerian Poetry in Translation (1987)

literature

Web links

Individual proof and note

  1. ^ Member History: Thorkild Jacobsen. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 11, 2018 .
  2. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed June 13, 2020 .
  3. ^ Thorkild Jacobsen, was professor of Assyriology at Harvard ( The Boston Globe . Boston, May 6, 1993)
personal data
SURNAME Jacobsen, Thorkild
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jacobsen, Thorkild Peter Rudolph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish archaeologist and sumerologist from the Middle East
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1993
Place of death Bradford