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

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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, southea ...

, 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""The ...

parents.

Career

After studying at

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

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and

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, 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, 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

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under Fulgence Fresnel.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 wedge-sh ...

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 {{Short description, List of groups of people Turanian is a term that has been used in reference to diverse groups of people. It has had currency in Turanism, Pan-Turkism, and historic Turkish nationalism. Many of the uses of the word are obsolete. ...

(related to Turkish and Mongolian), rather than Aryan 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 (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 late ...

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 th ...

in the school of languages connected with the

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, 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 (''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 An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

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 a ...

, 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 Joachim Menant (16 April 1820 – 30 August 1899) was a French magistrate and orientalist. He was born in Cherbourg. He studied law and became vice-president of the tribunal civil of Rouen in 1878, and a member of the court of appeal three ye ...

). 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