Wilfred George Lambert FBA (26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011) was a historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and

Near Eastern Archaeology Near Eastern archaeology is a regional branch of the wider, global discipline of archaeology. It refers generally to the excavation and study of artifacts and material culture of the Near East from antiquity to the recent past. Definition The ...

Early life

Lambert was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, and, having won a scholarship, he was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham. He obtained two degrees, in Classics and

Oriental Languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tur ...

, at Christ's College,

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

Academic career

Lambert taught and researched at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

for thirty years, during which period he made weekly trips to work on deciphering

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 wedge-sh ...

tablets in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. After retirement, he worked with the Museum on their Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals Project, dealing with the inscriptions on the seals. In January 2010, Professor Lambert and Dr Irving Finkel identified pieces from a cuneiform tablet that was inscribed with the same text as the

Cyrus Cylinder The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay cylinder, now broken into several pieces, on which is written a declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of Persia's Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great. Kuhrt (2007), p. 70, 72 It dates from the 6th c ...

. Lambert was an external consultant for the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. His work, 'Introduction: the transmission of the literary and scholarly texts', in ''Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art II: Literary and scholastic texts of the first millennium BC'', was used as background material for The

Higher Education Academy Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

's project, ''Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire''. He was also noted for his new discoveries in relation to the

Gilgamesh sux, , label=none , image = Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg , alt = , caption = Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an Assy ...

text.

Personal life

Lambert was a

Christadelphian The Christadelphians () or Christadelphianism are a restorationist and millenarian Christian group who hold a view of biblical unitarianism. There are approximately 50,000 Christadelphians in around 120 countries. The movement developed in the ...

, and a conscientious objector. From 1944, he worked in a horticultural nursery north of Birmingham in lieu of

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require ...

and supervised

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

prisoners of war in their work. Later, in his spare time, he was editor of one of his church's quarterly magazines.

Appointments and memberships

* 1959–64: Associate Professor and Chair of Oriental Seminary,

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

* 1970–93: Professor of Assyriology,

. * 1984: President of the Society for Old Testament Study. Lambert was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971. He was also a presenting member of the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (International Congress of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology).

Bibliography

This is a partial bibliography:

Books

* ''Morals in ancient Mesopotamia'' Jaarbericht 15. Ex Oriente Lux. (1957–58) pp184–196. * ''Babylonian Wisdom Literature'' 1960. (221.849.2 L222) * ''A new Babylonian Theogony and Hesiod'' W. G. Lambert and Peter Walcot (1931–2009). Kadmos 4 (1965) pp64–72. * ''Ancient Near Eastern seals in Birmingham Collections'' (1966) * ''Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood'' by W. G. Lambert, A. R. Millard, and Miguel Civil. (Oxford 1969). * ''Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum'' (Jan. 1992) * ''Art of the Eastern World'' by Geza Fehérvári, W. G. Lambert, Ralph H. Pinder-Wilson, and Marian Wenzel (1996) * ''The Qualifications of Babylonian Diviners'' W.G. Lambert in ''Festschrift für Rykle Borger'' (1998). * ''Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume II: Literary and Scholastic Texts of the First Millennium BC'' edited by Ira Spar and W. G. Lambert. (2005) * ''Babylonian Oracle Questions'' Eisenbrauns, 2007 () *''Babylonian Creation Myths'' Eisenbrauns, 2013

In honour of

* ''Wisdom, Gods and literature: studies in Assyriology in honour of W.G. Lambert'' By Wilfred G. Lambert, A. R. George, Irving L. Finkel 2002 462pp

Conference papers

* ''Babylonian Siege Equipment''. 52e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Krieg und Frieden im Alten Vorderasien, Münster, 17–21 July 2006(International Congress of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology) Munster 2006
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Book Reviews

* Review of Erica Reiner ''Astral Magic in Babylonia'' in ''The Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 1999 * Review of Charles Penglase ''Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod.'' 1997 in ''The Journal of the American Oriental Society''

References

External links

Entry for Wilfred Lambert, British Academy
*
Birmingham-born historian and archaeologist Wilfred Lambert dies
, ''Birmingham Post'' (01/12/11) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert, Wilfred G. 1926 births 2011 deaths English Assyriologists Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Birmingham Christadelphians English Christians British conscientious objectors Johns Hopkins University faculty Assyriologists Presidents of the Society for Old Testament Study