Ephraim Avigdor Speiser (January 24, 1902 – June 15, 1965) was a Polish-born American
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 ...
. He discovered the ancient site of
Tepe Gawra
Tepe Gawra (Kurdish for "Great Mound") is an ancient Mesopotamian settlement 15 miles NNE of Mosul in northwest Iraq that was occupied between 5000 and 1500 BC. It is roughly a mile from the site of Nineveh and 2 miles E of the site of Khors ...
in 1927 and supervised its excavation between 1931 and 1938.
Speiser was married to Sue Gimbel Dannenbaum, granddaughter of Charles Gimbel of the
Gimbel Brothers
Gimbel Brothers (known simply as Gimbels) was an American department store corporation that operated for over a century, from 1842 until 1987. Gimbel patriarch Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the comp ...
. They had two children together, Jean and Joel.
Early life
Speiser was born in
Skalat
Skálat (; pl, Skałat, links=no, yi, סקאלאט, Skalat) is a town in Ternopil, Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Skalat urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population:
History
Skal ...
,
Galicia (then in
Austrian Poland
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...
, now
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
) on January 24, 1902. He went to school in Lemberg (later called Lwow, now
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
), attending the Imperial Gymnasium of Lemberg and later graduating from the College of Lemberg in 1918. Two years later, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States and eventually became a US citizen in 1926.
In the United States, Speiser received his M.A. in Semitics at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 1923, studying under J.A. Montgomery and
Max Margolis
Max Leopold Margolis (born in Meretz (Merkinė), Vilna Governorate, October 15, 1866 – April 2, 1932 in Philadelphia) was a Lithuanian Jewish and American philologist. Son of Isaac Margolis; educated at the elementary school of his native town ...
. He continued his studies under Max Margolis and earned his Ph.D. from
Dropsie College in Philadelphia in 1924.
Career
From 1924 to 1926, Speiser was a Harrison Research Fellow in Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1926, he won a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
to study the remains of the ancient Mitanni and Hurrians in northern Iraq. The members of the Mittani-Hurrian tribes still spoke Hittite; Speiser was one of few in the United States who could speak the language.
In 1927, while in northern Iraq, Speiser discovered the Tepe Gawra (or “Great Mound”), one of the earliest known examples of civilization. During this time, he was Director of the Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental Research and taught at the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
.
From 1930-32 and 1936–37, Speiser served as Field Director of the Joint Excavation of the
American Schools of Oriental Research
The American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Alexandria, Virginia which supports the research and teaching of ...
and the
University Museum
A university museum is a repository of collections run by a university, typically founded to aid teaching and research within the institution of higher learning. The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in England is an early example, o ...
, undertaking excavations in
Tepe Gawra
Tepe Gawra (Kurdish for "Great Mound") is an ancient Mesopotamian settlement 15 miles NNE of Mosul in northwest Iraq that was occupied between 5000 and 1500 BC. It is roughly a mile from the site of Nineveh and 2 miles E of the site of Khors ...
and
Tell Billa
Tell Billa (also Tell Billah and Baasheikhah) is an archaeological site near Bashiqa in Nineveh Province (Iraq) 20 kilometers northeast of Mosul. Beginning in Middle Assyrian times the ancient city, not far from Assur, was named Shibaniba. Its ear ...
, also known as
Shibaniba
Tell Billa (also Tell Billah and Baasheikhah) is an archaeological site near Bashiqa in Nineveh Province (Iraq) 20 kilometers northeast of Mosul. Beginning in Middle Assyrian times the ancient city, not far from Assur, was named Shibaniba. Its ear ...
. In 1936, Speiser also took over the position as field director for the excavation of the Sumerian site of
Khafajeh after the
University Museum
A university museum is a repository of collections run by a university, typically founded to aid teaching and research within the institution of higher learning. The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in England is an early example, o ...
took it over from the
Oriental Institute in Chicago.
In 1928 he was appointed assistant professor of Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania, and full professor in 1931. Only a few years later, he was appointed as Chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies, a position he used to develop the study 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, southea ...
at the University of Pennsylvania.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Speiser left academia to become chief of the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
' Near East Section of the Research and Analysis Branch in Washington, D.C. This position earned him a Certificate of Merit. He was one of many American students and scholars of Orientalism who entered and served in the intelligence services during World War II.
Following the war, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania as Chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies from 1947 until his death in 1965. While there, he was appointed A.M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures in 1954.
Beginning in 1955, Speiser joined the translation committee of the
Jewish Publication Society of America
The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskop ...
’s Bible translation project that produced an English version of the Torah.
Speiser also held positions as President of the
American Oriental Society
The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship.
The Society encourages basic ...
, Vice President of the American Association for Middle East Studies, Vice President of the
Linguistic Society of America
The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...
, and a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. He was also given an honorary doctorate in Hebrew Letters by the
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 ...
and was appointed to its Archeological School’s Board of Overseers.
In 1964, a year prior to his death, Speiser was named a University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, indicating his multidisciplinary work and achievements.
On June 15, 1965, Speiser died in
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the northern suburbs outside of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roughly from Cent ...
.
Selected works
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speiser, Ephraim Avigdor
1902 births
1965 deaths
Judaic studies
American Assyriologists
Polish Assyriologists
Jewish orientalists
Translators of the Bible into English
Jewish biblical scholars
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Austro-Hungarian Jews
Ukrainian Jews
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish translators of the Bible
20th-century translators
20th-century Jewish biblical scholars
20th-century American archaeologists
Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty