Dietz-Otto Edzard

Dietz Otto Edzard ( born August 28, 1930 in Bremen, † June 2nd 2004 in Munich) was one of the most important German orientalists of the 20th century.

Dietz Otto Edzard grew up in his native city of Bremen, where he passed his Abitur 1950. 1950/51 he attended Heidelberg, the first school for interpreters. His interest in languages ​​and history nachkommend, he studied in Heidelberg and Paris, French, Turkish, Assyriology, Semitic and Ancient History. His formative teachers were René Labat and Louis Bazin in Paris and especially Adam Falkenstein, where he studied Oriental and Semitic Studies in Heidelberg, as well as the ancient historian Hans Schaefer. Edzard in 1955 received his doctorate. His dissertation The "second interval " Babylonia was published two years later and won. Even here, he showed that historical studies can only be made on the basis of extensive philological knowledge.

The following years Edzard in the Baghdad branch of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI ) was employed. Here He gained during excavations in Uruk practical experience. In addition, here his great interest in the "Iraq - Arab " made ​​out. Years later, he wrote an article about it in the Journal of the German Oriental Society. Then was Edzard assistant Wolfram von Soden in Vienna during the creation of a " hand Akkadian dictionary". In 1960 he qualified as a professor in Munich for the subject of Assyriology and 1961 ibid lecturer. Since September 3, 1963 Dietz Otto Edzard was until his retirement on 1 October 1998 at this point Professor on a newly created Chair of Assyriology at the later Institute of Assyriology, and Hittite, which he headed until 1999 as a director and he was instrumental coined. Calls for Harvard (1960 /61), Bochum (1966 ), Baltimore (1967 ) and Freiburg ( 1972) he refused.

Center of Edzards works were the ancient Near Eastern languages ​​Sumerian and Akkadian, which he always sought to explore within the Semitic world and the history of the ancient Near East. His work on the Sumerian word and verbal education were generated momentum. He always tried to be uniformly meet two great Mesopotamian language groups, as is the philology and historiography. In addition to studies Edzard also presented several editions of sources, especially to law and economic documents. As in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ebla in excavations from 1974 to 1976 a large number of documents were found, was not last Dietz Otto Edzard one of the main agents of the findings and gave the Ebla Research decisive impulses. Also in the communication of research findings to a wider audience Edzard was involved. So he wrote for the Fischer World History, the Little Pauly, the New German Biography, the Encyclopedia Britannica and Kindler ( New) Literatur Lexikon.

An up to his death enlarged scope of his work was in 2000 in a published in the journal of Assyriology bibliography of 14 monographs, 115 articles and contributions in collective works and more than 400 encyclopedia articles, 167 book reviews and annotations and translations from French and Russian specified. In addition, Edzard also worked as an editor, such as the " Hittite Handwörterbuch " or 1982-2000 ( co-editor since 1971 ) of the "Journal of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology ." Perhaps most important was here the editorship of the Real Dictionary of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology, which he was in charge since 1972.

For his achievements Dietz Otto Edzard has received many awards. He was a member of the DAI, in 1976 foreign member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands, 1992 Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society, full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences ( BAdW ) and foreign member of the American Philosophical Society since 1961 Correspondent.

A personal inclination Edzards was collecting grammars from around the world. He spoke several languages ​​and still learned new and surprising his death, last Mongolian and Yiddish.

Publications (selection)

  • The "second interval " of Babylonia. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1957.
  • Sumerian legal documents of the III. Millennium from the time before the III. Dynasty of Ur. Publisher of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich, 1968 ( Publications of the Commission for the development of cuneiform texts, St. 4; treatises of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences of Humanities class, NF, H. 67).
  • The Iterativstämme the Akkadian verb. The question of their origin, their function, their dissemination. C. H. Beck, Munich 1996 ( Proceedings of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences of Humanities class, born in 1996, H. 2) ISBN 3-7696-1586-7.
  • Sumerian Grammar. Handbook of Oriental Studies 71 Brill, Leiden 2003 ISBN 90-04-12608-2.
  • History of Mesopotamia. From the Sumerians to Alexander the Great. CH Beck, Munich 2004 ( Beck's historical library ) ISBN 3-406-51664-5.
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