Georges Gilles Joseph Dossin (4 February 1896, in
Wandre, near
Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
– 8 December 1983, in Liège) was a Belgian
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
,
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 ...
and
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
.
Biography
He studied in Liège and Paris, earning doctorates in
classical philology
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
(1921) and oriental history and literature (1923).
[Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française]
edited by François Pouillon From 1924 to 1945 he taught classes on the art history of
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
at the Institut Royal d'Histoire de l'Art et d'Archeologie de Bruxelles, and in the meantime, taught various courses in the fields of art history and archaeology at the
University of Liège
The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...
(1924–1935); classes in
Akkadian language
Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...
at the Institut des Hautes Études de Belgique in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
(1929–39), and classes in oriental history and
Assyro-Babylonian languages at the
Université libre de Bruxelles (1935–1941).
[Prosopo]
Sociétés savantes de France
After
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 ...
, he continued work as a lecturer at the Institut des Hautes Études de Belgique (1945–1955) and at the Université libre de Bruxelles (1946–1951), eventually serving as a professor of Assyriology and
comparative grammar
Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
Genetic relatedness i ...
of
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...
at the University of Liège (1951–1966).
[
Under the directorship of ]François Thureau-Dangin
François Thureau-Dangin (3 January 1872 in Paris – 24 January 1944 in Paris) was a French archaeologist, assyriologist and epigrapher. He played a major role in deciphering of the Sumerian and Akkadian languages.
He studied under Julius ...
, he performed excavatory work at Arslan Tash
Arslan Tash ( tr, Arslan Taş "Lion Stone"), ancient Hadātu, is an archaeological site in Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, around east of Carchemish and the Euphrates and nearby the town of Kobanî.
History
The city was the center of an Ar ...
(1928) and Til-Barsip
Til Barsip or Til Barsib ( Hittite Masuwari, modern Tell Ahmar; ar, تل أحمر) is an ancient site situated in Aleppo Governorate, Syria by the Euphrates river about 20 kilometers south of ancient Carchemish.
History
The site was inhabited ...
(1931) in northern Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, and later on, spent a number years working with André Parrot
André Charles Ulrich Parrot (15 February 1901 – 24 August 1980) was a French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East. He led excavations in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, and is best known for his work at Mari, Syria, where he led i ...
at the excavation site of Mari (1937–1939, 1951–1953).[ Dossin is credited with deciphering thousands of ancient tablets.][Akkadica]
General information about the Foundation Georges Dossin
He was a member of the Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique and a ''membre correspondant étranger'' of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...
(1944).[ With Thureau-Dangin, he was co-founder of the ''Rencontres Assyriologiques''.][
]
Published works (selection)
* ''Autres textes sumériens et accadiens'', 1927 – Other Sumeria
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
n and Akkadian texts.
* ''Arslan-Tash'', 1931 (with François Thureau-Dangin).
* ''Lettres de la première dynastie babylonienne'', 1933 – Letters on the First Babylonian Dynasty
The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumer, Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dy ...
.
* ''Til-Barsib'', 1936 (with François Thureau-Dangin).
* ''Benjaminites dans les textes de Mari'', 1939 – Benjamites in the texts from Mari.
* ''Archives royales de Mari'', 1946 (with André Parrot) – Royal archives of Mari.OCLC Classify
published works
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dossin, Georges
1896 births
1983 deaths
Academic staff of the University of Liège
Assyriologists
Belgian art historians
Belgian orientalists
Belgian archaeologists
Belgian philologists
20th-century archaeologists
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
20th-century philologists
Belgian expatriates in France