Abraham (Abe) Sachs (1915 – April 22, 1983) was an American Assyriologist. He earned his PhD in

Assyriology Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The fie ...

in 1939 at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. Of note is his collaboration with

Otto Neugebauer Otto Eduard Neugebauer (May 26, 1899 – February 19, 1990) was an Austrian-American mathematician and historian of science who became known for his research on the history of astronomy and the other exact sciences as they were practiced in an ...

, whom he met in 1941 when the latter visited the Oriental Institute in Chicago. Neugebauer and Sachs worked jointly on the publication of Babylonian astronomical texts. In 1948, Sachs was offered (and declined) the Chair in Assyriology at

in succession to William Albright. In 1949, he worked at the Pontificio Instituto Biblico. In 1952, he received a

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

travel grant to study

Babylonian astronomical diaries The Babylonian astronomical diaries are a collection of Babylonian cuneiform texts written in Akkadian language that contain systematic records of astronomical observations and political events, predictions based on astronomical observations, weat ...

in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, where he had access to the texts stocked by the pioneer British assyriologist

Theophilus Pinches Theophilus Goldridge Pinches M.R.A.S. (1856 – 6 June 1934 Muswell Hill, London), was a pioneer British assyriologist. Pinches was originally employed in father's business as a die-sinker, but, following an amateur interest in cuneiform in ...

between 1895 and 1900. Sachs died due to cancer, leaving the task to Austrian assyriologist Hermann Hunger. Attention has been drawn to Sach's well-informed and humorous rebuttal of

Immanuel Velikovsky Immanuel Velikovsky (; rus, Иммануи́л Велико́вский, p=ɪmənʊˈil vʲɪlʲɪˈkofskʲɪj; 17 November 1979) was a Russian-American psychoanalyst, writer, and catastrophist. He is the author of several books offering Pseudohi ...

's use of ancient astronomical texts during a debate at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1965, which Velikovsky failed to contest ever afterwards."ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM SACHS AT BROWN UNIV. 3/15/65"
transcript provided by C. Leroy Ellenberger, with comments (retrieved April 28, 2015)

References

1915 births 1983 deaths American Assyriologists Johns Hopkins University alumni 20th-century American historians {{archaeologist-stub