Jeremy Black; Oxford Assyriologist
Hyfler/Rosner
Oxford Assyriologist with a love of Iraq
25 May 2004
Jeremy Allen Black, Assyriologist: born Isleworth,
Middlesex 1 September 1951; Research Associate, Oriental
Institute, University of Chicago 1981-82; Assistant
Director, then Director, British Archaeological Expedition
to Iraq 1982-88; University Lecturer in Akkadian, Oxford
University 1988-2004, Senior Proctor 1995-96, Chairman of
the Faculty Board of Oriental Studies 1999-2001; Fellow,
Wolfson College, Oxford 1988-2004; married 1987 Ellen McAdam
(marriage dissolved); died Oxford 28 April 2004.
In 1988, the Assyriologist Jeremy Black was appointed
University Lecturer in Akkadian (the principal ancient
language of Mesopotamia) at Oxford University.
In addition to grammar and lexicography, Black was concerned
with literature, his thinking culminating in Reading
Sumerian Poetry (1998). In partnership with A.R. Green, he
produced Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia
(1992), while other fruitful collaborations resulted in A
Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (1999, with J.N. Postgate and
A. R. George), and the standard cuneiform publication
Literary Texts from the temple of Nabű (1996, with D.J.
Wiseman).
He served Oxford University as Senior Proctor in 1995-96,
and from 1999 until 2001 was Chairman of the Faculty Board
of Oriental Studies. He also found time to administer the
innovative and much-appreciated online corpus of Sumerian
literature, for which he was awarded outside funding, which
enabled him to establish a research team, whose work will
continue in the Oriental Institute in Oxford.
Black was born in 1951, the only son of a tea taster. His
early childhood was hard. Isolated in hospital for a year at
the early age of two as a polio victim, he had then to
contend with the death of his mother when he was five.
Jeremy was educated at Slough Grammar School, and went up as
Exhibitioner in Classics to Worcester College, Oxford, in
1969.
After finals he then changed to the study of Sumerian and
Akkadian under Professor Oliver Gurney, and grew to become
an exceptionally able cuneiformist and a careful editor of
inscriptions, with a particular concentration on Sumerian.
His Oxford BPhil of 1975 was followed by a DPhil in 1980 on
Sumerian Grammar in Babylonian Theory, partly supervised by
Edmond Sollberger. Before completing this he left Oxford to
work at St Catherine's Foundation at Windsor Great Park.
From 1981 to 1982 he was Research Associate at the Oriental
Institute in the University of Chicago, and between 1982 and
1988 was successively Assistant Director and Director of the
British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq, where his many
years surveying archaeological digs while pursuing
philological work left him with a deep love and knowledge of
the country. He was not always practical, and a typical
Baghdad episode describes Black's grumbling at the poor
nature of a white cheese he had spread over toast and put
under the grill, oblivious to the fact that it was vanilla
ice-cream.
Black's ability for friendship and talking to people on many
levels on a wide range of subjects was one of his greatest
gifts. He had a great love of music, was adept at the flute
and recorder and loved playing music of the Baroque and
Classical eras. He also sang in many Oxford choirs. In
company he was immensely engaging, a connoisseur of good
food and drink, and well-polished, hand-made shoes.
Jeremy Black's 1987 marriage to the archaeologist and fellow
Near Eastern scholar Ellen McAdam ended in divorce, but they
remained on friendly terms, and indeed had been planning
together an exhibition on the Sumerians. At the time of his
death, he was also planning to return to Baghdad.
Irving Finkel and Stephen Roe
Hyfler/Rosner
"Daddy Freddy" <daddy_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:olg5b0lbdq5gigtmd...@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 24 May 2004 22:46:11 -0400, "Hyfler/Rosner"
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >Oxford Assyriologist with a love of Iraq
>
>
really ought to be more
> specific with those subject lines!
Not sure what you mean.
