Anson Rainey
Encyclopedia
Anson Frank Rainey was Professor Emeritus of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and Semitic
Linguistics at Tel Aviv University. He is known in particular for contributions to the study of the Amarna tablets, the legendary administrative letters from the period of Pharaoh Akhenaten
's rule during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He authored and edited books and articles on the cultures, languages and geography of the Biblical lands.
in 1930. Upon the death of his father that same year he was left with his maternal grandparents.
He entered Brown Military Academy (San Diego, California
) from 1943 to 1946. After one semester of study there (as a Cadet Battalion Commander), he served as Assistant Commandant at the Southern California Military Academy (Long Beach, California
; Spring Semester, 1947), before transferring to John Brown University (Siloam Springs, Arkansas).
. He went on to enroll in the California Baptist Theological Seminary (Covina, California), where he took three degrees: M.A. in Old Testament (May 1953); B.D. in Biblical Theology (May 1954); M.Th. in Old Testament (May 1955).
From September 1953 until May 1954, he was a teaching fellow in Hebrew, Old Testament and New Testament Introduction. In 1954 he was appointed Assistant Professor and taught for two more years. From 1955–56, he studied at the University of California, Los Angeles
and completed the B.A. with Honors in August 1956. In 1957, he began graduate study at Brandeis University
, where he earned an M.A. in June 1959. He spent a third year of residence (1959–60), studying for his Ph.D He came to Israel in June 1960, as the sole American recipient of the Government of Israel Award. From 1960-61, he studied at the Hebrew University, first in an intensive Hebrew course and then in Archaeology
and in the Egyptian
, Coptic
and Phoenician languages
(all in Hebrew). At the same time, he completed the basic research for his doctoral dissertation. In 1961, he returned to Brandeis as a research assistant. Upon completion of his dissertation on the Social Structure of Ugarit
, he was awarded his Ph.D. in June 1962.
However, his main activity for the academic year, 1962–63, was research and study under a grant from the Warburg Fund at the Hebrew University. This award was renewed for 1963-64, and the book that resulted was translated into Hebrew and published by the Bialik Institute (August 1967). It was a revision of the earlier dissertation, expanded to include new source material that had subsequently become available. He began teaching Ugaritic and Akkadian at the Tel Aviv University
. From 1965–66, he served as acting chairman of the Ancient Near Eastern Studies Department. In 1966, his status was changed to Lecturer in Semitic Languages. A year later he was appointed Senior Lecturer. In 1970 he was elevated to Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. The department was reorganized under the title, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, in which he served as coordinator for Mesopotamian Studies until October 1975. A new department of Semitic Linguistics was also organized, and from 1971-72 he was its acting chairman. He was promoted to the rank of Full Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and Semitic Linguistics effective July 1, 1981.
. He continued his connection with the American Institute of Holy Land Studies (now the Jerusalem University College
), teaching Historical Geography and for six years, from 1964 to 1969, conducting their intensive program of geographical field trips. During the 1960s and 1970s, he pursued additional studies at the Hebrew University in Akkadian, Sumerian
and Egyptian. He took a sabbatical leave in 1970-71, during which time he deemed it advisable to remain in Jerusalem to study. For a second sabbatical, he was awarded a grant by the American Council of Learned Societies
. On the basis of this award he was able to spend 1976-77 as an Honorary Research Fellow at Harvard University
. Grants from the Research for Peace Project of the Tel Aviv University made possible three visits to the Cairo Museum from 1980-82 and the el-‘Amârna Tablets in the Museum were all collated.
From 1982-85 he began teaching part-time at Bar Ilan University in the Department of Eretz-Israel Studies. During a third sabbatical in 1983-84, he was Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania
. During a fourth sabbatical in 1988-89, he was again Visiting Research Scholar at the University. During a fifth sabbatical for 1995-96, he was again Visiting Research Scholar at the University where he also taught a seminar in Northwest Semitic inscriptions. From 1996 until September 30, 1998, he continued to teach as Full Professor at Tel Aviv University
. On October 1, 1998 he became Emeritus Professor there but taught a course in Historical Geography during the academic years 1998-99, 1999–2000 and 2000-2001.
He spent July 1999 in Jordan studying historical geography and archaeology. In August and September of 1999 he spent the sabbatical time working at the British Museum collating el-‘Amârna tablets. 66 texts were read and many substantial corrections were discovered. Four days were spent at the Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin where eleven texts were collated, some with new readings and corrections. Further collations were made at the Metropolitan Museum of New York in November 1999, and at the British Museum and at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in January and February of 2000, bringing the total of collated texts up to about 100. A third visit to the United Kingdom
in April 2001 was made to complete the collation of texts in the British Museum and also those in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Fall 2001 was spent at the University of California, Los Angeles
, where consultation began with the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative in digitizing the Amarna tablets in the Berlin Museum. During the Spring 2002 semester he was invited to teach as a visiting professor of Historical Geography and Ancient Hebrew at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea. In August and September 2002 he was a visiting research scholar at the University of Melbourne
, Australia
.
From 2002-07 he taught as adjunct professor at Bar Ilan University and Orot College and at the Jerusalem University College. From 2003-04 he spent ten months collating the el-‘Amârna tablets at the Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin and at other venues in Europe. A completely new edition of the tablets is envisioned along with photographic and internet recording. The edition of the texts and the notes derived from collations will be placed on the internet. During the 53rd Rencontre of the International Association of Assyriologists in Moscow
in July 2007, he collated the last three el-‘Amârna tablets (at the Pushkin Museum).
Semitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
Linguistics at Tel Aviv University. He is known in particular for contributions to the study of the Amarna tablets, the legendary administrative letters from the period of Pharaoh Akhenaten
Akhenaten
Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
's rule during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He authored and edited books and articles on the cultures, languages and geography of the Biblical lands.
Early life
Anson Rainey was born in Dallas, TexasDallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
in 1930. Upon the death of his father that same year he was left with his maternal grandparents.
He entered Brown Military Academy (San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
) from 1943 to 1946. After one semester of study there (as a Cadet Battalion Commander), he served as Assistant Commandant at the Southern California Military Academy (Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
; Spring Semester, 1947), before transferring to John Brown University (Siloam Springs, Arkansas).
Education
From 1948-49 he worked as Assistant Commandant at the Brown Military Academy of the Ozarks, in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, while attending university. He took the B.A. degree there in Religious Education in August 1949. From 1949-51, he worked as a social worker for the County Welfare Department, San Bernardino, CaliforniaSan Bernardino, California
San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area , and serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States...
. He went on to enroll in the California Baptist Theological Seminary (Covina, California), where he took three degrees: M.A. in Old Testament (May 1953); B.D. in Biblical Theology (May 1954); M.Th. in Old Testament (May 1955).
From September 1953 until May 1954, he was a teaching fellow in Hebrew, Old Testament and New Testament Introduction. In 1954 he was appointed Assistant Professor and taught for two more years. From 1955–56, he studied at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
and completed the B.A. with Honors in August 1956. In 1957, he began graduate study at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, where he earned an M.A. in June 1959. He spent a third year of residence (1959–60), studying for his Ph.D He came to Israel in June 1960, as the sole American recipient of the Government of Israel Award. From 1960-61, he studied at the Hebrew University, first in an intensive Hebrew course and then in Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and in the Egyptian
Egyptian language
Egyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
, Coptic
Coptic language
Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
and Phoenician languages
Phoenician languages
Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called "Canaan" in Phoenician, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, "Phoenicia" in Greek and Latin, and "Pūt" in Ancient Egyptian. Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup; its closest living relative is Hebrew, to...
(all in Hebrew). At the same time, he completed the basic research for his doctoral dissertation. In 1961, he returned to Brandeis as a research assistant. Upon completion of his dissertation on the Social Structure of Ugarit
Ugarit
Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...
, he was awarded his Ph.D. in June 1962.
However, his main activity for the academic year, 1962–63, was research and study under a grant from the Warburg Fund at the Hebrew University. This award was renewed for 1963-64, and the book that resulted was translated into Hebrew and published by the Bialik Institute (August 1967). It was a revision of the earlier dissertation, expanded to include new source material that had subsequently become available. He began teaching Ugaritic and Akkadian at the Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
. From 1965–66, he served as acting chairman of the Ancient Near Eastern Studies Department. In 1966, his status was changed to Lecturer in Semitic Languages. A year later he was appointed Senior Lecturer. In 1970 he was elevated to Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. The department was reorganized under the title, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, in which he served as coordinator for Mesopotamian Studies until October 1975. A new department of Semitic Linguistics was also organized, and from 1971-72 he was its acting chairman. He was promoted to the rank of Full Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and Semitic Linguistics effective July 1, 1981.
Scholarship
Rainey served on the editorial boards of Israel Oriental Studies, an annual, and of Tel Aviv, a quarterly, both publications of Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
. He continued his connection with the American Institute of Holy Land Studies (now the Jerusalem University College
Jerusalem University College
Jerusalem University College, founded in 1957 as the American Institute of Holy Land Studies is an undergraduate and graduate academic institution operated by a consortium of 100 American theological seminaries and Christian colleges and universities. It provides a two-year graduate program of...
), teaching Historical Geography and for six years, from 1964 to 1969, conducting their intensive program of geographical field trips. During the 1960s and 1970s, he pursued additional studies at the Hebrew University in Akkadian, Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
and Egyptian. He took a sabbatical leave in 1970-71, during which time he deemed it advisable to remain in Jerusalem to study. For a second sabbatical, he was awarded a grant by the American Council of Learned Societies
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
. On the basis of this award he was able to spend 1976-77 as an Honorary Research Fellow at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Grants from the Research for Peace Project of the Tel Aviv University made possible three visits to the Cairo Museum from 1980-82 and the el-‘Amârna Tablets in the Museum were all collated.
From 1982-85 he began teaching part-time at Bar Ilan University in the Department of Eretz-Israel Studies. During a third sabbatical in 1983-84, he was Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. During a fourth sabbatical in 1988-89, he was again Visiting Research Scholar at the University. During a fifth sabbatical for 1995-96, he was again Visiting Research Scholar at the University where he also taught a seminar in Northwest Semitic inscriptions. From 1996 until September 30, 1998, he continued to teach as Full Professor at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
. On October 1, 1998 he became Emeritus Professor there but taught a course in Historical Geography during the academic years 1998-99, 1999–2000 and 2000-2001.
He spent July 1999 in Jordan studying historical geography and archaeology. In August and September of 1999 he spent the sabbatical time working at the British Museum collating el-‘Amârna tablets. 66 texts were read and many substantial corrections were discovered. Four days were spent at the Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin where eleven texts were collated, some with new readings and corrections. Further collations were made at the Metropolitan Museum of New York in November 1999, and at the British Museum and at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in January and February of 2000, bringing the total of collated texts up to about 100. A third visit to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in April 2001 was made to complete the collation of texts in the British Museum and also those in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Fall 2001 was spent at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
, where consultation began with the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative in digitizing the Amarna tablets in the Berlin Museum. During the Spring 2002 semester he was invited to teach as a visiting professor of Historical Geography and Ancient Hebrew at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea. In August and September 2002 he was a visiting research scholar at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
From 2002-07 he taught as adjunct professor at Bar Ilan University and Orot College and at the Jerusalem University College. From 2003-04 he spent ten months collating the el-‘Amârna tablets at the Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin and at other venues in Europe. A completely new edition of the tablets is envisioned along with photographic and internet recording. The edition of the texts and the notes derived from collations will be placed on the internet. During the 53rd Rencontre of the International Association of Assyriologists in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in July 2007, he collated the last three el-‘Amârna tablets (at the Pushkin Museum).
External Links
- Faculty webpage at Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...