Adolf Leo Oppenheim (7 June 1904 – 21 July 1974), one of the most distinguished

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, sout ...

s of his generation was editor-in-charge of the ''

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD) or The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is a nine-decade project at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute to compile a dictionary of the Akkadian language an ...

'' of the Oriental Institute from 1955 to 1974 and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. Oppenheim was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, where he received his Ph.D. at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...

in 1933. His parents died in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, and his wife, Elizabeth, barely escaped. Oppenheim and his wife emigrated to the United States. After a couple of lean years, he became a research associate at the

in 1947, and he was made a faculty member in 1950. He became an associate editor of the university's ''Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' in 1952. The dictionary had been planned since 1921, and it would eventually stretch to more than twenty published volumes. Assisted by

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

, Oppenheim remained editor-in-charge until his sudden death, still at the height of his intellectual powers. E. A. Speiser once said that Oppenheim had read more

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- ...

than any other living person;Quoted in obituary by

Erle Leichty Erle may refer to: Places * Erle, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia * Erle, California, a former settlement in the United States * Erle (river), a river of Thuringia, Germany *, a borough of the German city of Gelsenkirchen *, a village in the German muni ...

, ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 95.3 (July 1975, pp. 369–370), p. 369. his deep knowledge of

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...

informed his discerning view of Mesopotamian daily life and culture. A. Leo Oppenheim's most famous work is ''Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization.''''Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization.'' (1964), revised edition 1976. (). His attempt to reform the field, embodied in ''Assyriology— Why and How?'', was taken personally by some other Assyriologists. Its tone of pessimism at the impossible prospect of reviving a living understanding of Mesopotamian culture belied his personal optimism and sociability.

Works

* * * (reprint ) * * (edited by

and Johannes Renger) *

Notes

External links

Oppenheim, Adolf LeoGuide to the Adolf Leo and Elizabeth Oppenheim Papers 1988-1980
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oppenheim, A. Leo American Assyriologists Austrian academics Austrian Assyriologists University of Chicago faculty University of Vienna alumni Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss Writers from Vienna 1904 births 1974 deaths 20th-century Austrian historians Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy