William Wolfgang Hallo (March 9, 1928 – March, 27, 2015In Memoriam: William W. Hallo, expert on ancient Near East"
''Yale News,'' March 30, 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2017.obituary
''The New Haven Register,'' Mar. 29, 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2017.) was professor of

Assyriology 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, southe ...

and

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...

n Literature and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Babylonian collection at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

. He was born in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

, Germany. Hallo was a Master of Morse College, one of the twelve

residential college A residential college is a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship wi ...

s at

, between 1982 and 1987. Hallo and Van Dijk were known for publishing the first translations and book-length discussion of the work of the Sumerian priestess and poet Enheduanna in 1968.Hallo, William W. and Van Dijk, J.J.A., ''The Exaltation of Inanna'', Yale University Press (1968).

Biography

Born in Kassel, Germany, in 1928, Hallo left Germany in 1939 for England, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1941. He received his B.A. from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and studied in the Netherlands through a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

. There he met and married Edith Pinto, with whom he had two children. After the death of Edith in 1994, he married Nanette Stahl. Hallo studied for his Ph.D. 1951–1956 at the Oriental Institute with a

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher educatio ...

from 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 ...

under Professor I.J. Gelb. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked at

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

’s Jewish Institute of Religion. In 1962, Hallo became assistant curator (and later

) of the Babylonian Collection and professor of Assyriology at Yale, which he taught until his retirement in 2002.

Works

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Translations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallo, William W. American Assyriologists Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States 2015 deaths Yale University faculty 1928 births University of Chicago alumni Harvard University alumni Assyriologists