Conference on Assyriology to draw 300 scholars
By William Harms
News Office
An international conference on Assyriology that will begin Monday,
July 18, at the Oriental Institute will be something of a homecoming
for nearly 40 of the 300 participants as they return to the place
where they completed important work early in their careers.
The academics, now all leading scholars in Near Eastern studies,
did post-graduate research with the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary,
the primary research resource for Akkadian, the ancient language
of Mesopotamia. The conference will celebrate the imminent completion
of the dictionary, the latest volume of which covers the letter
P. That volume will be published in time for the gathering.
"The Oriental Institute is the world's premiere research
institute for the study of the ancient Near East. Many of the
scholars who are leaders in the field studied here, and they
will enjoy seeing each other again, talking with colleagues and
listening to the presentations," said Martha Roth, Professor
in the Oriental Institute and Deputy Provost for Research and
Education. Roth, Editor-in-Charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary,
is organizing the conference, along with Jennie Myers, a Research
Associate in the Oriental Institute, and Walter Farber, Professor
in the Oriental Institute.
The conference, officially the 51st Rencontre Assyriologique
Internationale (International Congress of Assyriology and Near
Eastern Archaeology), brings together scholars from throughout
the world, including those from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and elsewhere
in the Middle East.
"This is the only international meeting at which the texts,
art and archaeology of the ancient Near East are examined at
the same conference," Roth said. The Rencontre, usually
held in Europe, was last held at the University in 1967. Scholars
will attend presentations during the weeklong conference on the
scholarship of texts and recent excavations and interpretations
of the development of urban civilization in the region.
The conference will have a particularly contemporary aspect this
year as a special session will be held in the Max Palevsky Cinema
on Saturday, July 23, to discuss current threats to Iraq's cultural
heritage. This session will be open to the public.
President Randel, Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute,
and Wilfred van Soldt, President of the International Association
of Assyriology at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, will
each welcome the participants when they gather at 9:30 a.m. Monday,
July 18, in Max Palevsky Cinema. Van Soldt did some of his post-graduate
work at the Oriental Institute and was a collaborator on the
Assyrian Dictionary.
Research achievements of the Oriental Institute will be presented
by Erica Reiner, the John A. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor
Emerita in the Oriental Institute, who will discuss Assyriology;
Miguel Civil, Professor Emeritus in the Oriental Institute, who
will present a talk on Sumerology; Theo van den Hout, Professor
in the Oriental Institute, who will lecture on Hittitology; and
McGuire Gibson, Professor in the Oriental Institute, who will
address Mesopotamian archaeology. Robert McCormick Adams, former
Professor and Director of the Oriental Institute and former Provost,
will moderate and respond to the presenters.
"A remarkable aspect about the University's commitment to
scholarship is exemplified in the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary,"
said Stein. "It was conceived of as a multi-generational
project, something greater than one person's career. The people
who are returning for the Rencontre demonstrate the value of
that continuity. The Oriental Institute also has made a distinguished
contribution to archaeology in the region, and this conference
gives us a chance to discuss that work with colleagues as well.
We also will be able to share experiences on efforts to protect
artifacts and sites in Iraq."
The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project was founded in 1921.
Its first volume was published in 1956, and two volumes, in addition
to P, are in press. A final volume of the dictionary will be
sent to press in 2006. Roth said scholars will review this volume
for three years before it is published in its final form.
Reiner, Editor-in-Charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary from
1973 to 1996, and Civil helped organize the 1967 gathering in
Chicago. "We look forward to having so many friends coming
back. We knew them when they were young scholars, and now they
have become distinguished faculty members, and some of them have
even retired," Reiner said.
Reiner helped organize the original Rencontre in Paris and has
attended many of the annual meetings since then. "It was
right after the war, and we wanted to renew scholarly contact
that had been broken because of the war," she said. "From
the very beginning, we wanted to include students. The enthusiasm
we had when we started the organization is still very much in
evidence when we get together," she said.
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