Julius (Jules) Oppert (9 July 1825 – 21 August 1905) was a French- German

Assyriologist Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia'') is the archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic study of Assyria and the rest of ancient Mesopotamia (a region that encompassed what is now modern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeas ...

, born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

parents.

Career

After studying at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constit ...

, he graduated at

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

in 1847, and the next year went to France, where he was a teacher of German at Laval and at Reims. His leisure was given to

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...

, in which he had made great progress in Germany. In 1851 he joined the French archaeological mission to

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

and

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass ...

under

Fulgence Fresnel Fulgence Fresnel ( or ; ; (15 April 1795 – 30 November 1855) was a French Orientalist. He was brother to the noted physicist Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827). Fresnel was an Orientalist scholar who led one of the first archaeological teams t ...

.Larsen, M.T., ''The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land,'' Routledge, 2014, pp 307-08 and p. 315 On his return in 1854, he was naturalized as a French citizen in recognition of his services. He occupied himself with analyzing the results of the expedition, with special attention to the

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...

inscriptions he had collected. His account of the Fresnel mission and the results of his consequent study were published as ''Expédition Scientifique en Mésopotamie'' (1859–1863), with the second volume entitled ''Déchiffrement des inscriptions cunéiformes''. The work was especially notable as most of the mission's excavations were lost in the Al Qurnah disaster. In 1855 he published ''Écriture Anarienne'', advancing the theory that the language spoken originally in Assyria was Turanian (related to Turkish and Mongolian), rather than

Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...

or Semitic in origin, and that its speakers had invented the cuneiform writing system. Although the classification of the "Casdo-Scythian" inscriptions as Turanian would later be rejected by scholars, research would confirm Oppert in his identification of the distinctness of the

Sumerian language Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer. It is one of the oldest attested languages, dating back to at least 3000 BC. It is accepted to be a local language isolate and to have been spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, in the area that is modern-da ...

(as he renamed it in 1869) and the origin of its script. In 1856 he published ''Chronologie des Assyriens et des Babyloniens''. In 1857 he was appointed professor of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the la ...

and comparative

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

in the school of languages connected with the

National Library of France National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

, and in this capacity he produced his ''Grammaire Sanscrite'' (1859). But his attention was chiefly given to

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

and cognate subjects. In 1865 he published a history of Assyria and

Chaldaea Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...

(''Histoire des Empires de Chaldée et d'Assyrie'') in the context of new archaeological findings. His Assyrian grammar, ''Éléments de la grammaire assyrienne'', was published in 1868. In 1869 Oppert was appointed professor of Assyrian philology and archaeology at the College de France. In 1876 Oppert began to focus on the antiquities of ancient Media and its language, writing ''Le Peuple et la langue des Médes'' (1879). In 1881 he was admitted to the Academy of Inscriptions and in 1890, he was elected to its presidency. He died in Paris on 21 August 1905.

Bibliography

Oppert was a voluminous writer upon Assyrian mythology and

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...

, and other subjects connected with the ancient civilizations of the East. Among his other works may be mentioned: *''L'Immortalité de l'âme chez les Chaldéens'', (1875) *''Salomon et ses successeurs'' (1877) *''Doctrines juridiques de l'Assyrie et de la Chaldée'' (1877, with Joachim Menant). A list of his articles may be found in Muss-Arnolt, "The Works of Jules Oppert", in Delitzsch and Haupt, ''Beiträge zur Assyriologie'', ii.523-556, Leipzig, 1894.Isidore Singer & Louis Gray
Jules."
''Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906.

References

External links

"Jules Julius Oppert,"
Jewish Virtual Library, from ''Encyclopaedia Judaica.'' * * *''Jewish Encyclopedia''
"Oppert, Jules"
by Isidore Singer & Louis Gray (1906).
Julius Oppert
on data.bnf.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Oppert, Julius 1825 births 1905 deaths Heidelberg University alumni University of Kiel alumni 19th-century archaeologists Archaeologists from Hamburg Jewish archaeologists French Assyriologists German Assyriologists 19th-century German Jews Jewish orientalists Collège de France faculty Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres French emigrants to Germany 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers German emigrants to France Officiers of the Légion d'honneur

Career

Bibliography

See also

References

External links