Erica Reiner (4 August 1924 – 31 December 2005) was an American

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

and author. From 1974, she was editor of the '' Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'', which was published in 21 volumes over 55 years, being completed in 2011 after her death. Reiner was associated with the Oriental Institute at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Her work concentrated on developing the '' Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'', the basic reference work for understanding the

Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218–280 was an East Semitic language that is attested ...

, the predominant language of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

from 2400 BC to 100 AD.

Early life and education

Erica Reiner was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. She graduated from the

University of Budapest A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

in 1948. She went to the University of Chicago in 1952 for graduate work and received a Ph.D. in 1955.

Academic career

Reiner joined the Chicago faculty in 1956. Extensive documentation and planning for the ''Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' had been underway at the university since 1921. Reiner, along with A. Leo Oppenheim, led the team after World War II to publish the first of what would be 21 volumes in 1956. She took over the project at Oppenheim's death in 1974; in total, she worked on the project for 44 years. Twenty volumes were released over 55 years. Reiner was the John A. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita in the university's Oriental Institute, and the longtime Editor of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (1974-1996). Among other accomplishments, Reiner was one of the few people in the world proficient in the

Elamite Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Scythic, Median, Amardian, Anshanian and Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was recorded in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite i ...

language. She wrote numerous books and articles. Upon her retirement in 1996, she continued to contribute to the Dictionary. She trained many graduate students in Assyriology during her years at the

, including the late

Joan Goodnick Westenholz Joan Goodnick Westenholz (1 July 1943 – February 2013) was an Assyriologist and the chief curator at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. She held positions related to academic research at the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago), Ha ...

, who was curator at the

Bible Lands Museum The Bible Lands Museum (, ) is an archaeological museum in Jerusalem, that explores the culture of the peoples mentioned in the Bible including ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, Arameans, Hittites, Elamites, Phoenicians, Persians and J ...

in Jerusalem; Francesca Rochberg, the Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor of Near Eastern Studies at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

; and Grant Frame, now Professor Emeritus at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and Curator Emeritus of the Babylonian Section of the

Penn Museum The Penn Museum is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City, Philadelphia, University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, at the intersection of 33rd and Sout ...

Selected works

* ''Your Thwarts in Pieces, Your Mooring Rope Cut: Poetry from Babylonia and Assyria'' (1985) * ''Astral Magic in Babylonia'' (1995)

Legacy and honors

* Guggenheim Fellow * Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* Fellow of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

* Awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania and the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

. * ''Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' (2011)

References

External links

"Erica Reiner"
''New York Times'' obituary, 22 January 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Reiner, Erica 1924 births 2005 deaths American Assyriologists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences University of Chicago faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society University of Chicago alumni Hungarian emigrants to the United States