Itamar Singer (November 26, 1946 – September 19, 2012) was an Israeli author and historian of Jewish-Romanian origin. He is known for his research of the Ancient Near East and as a leading

Hittitologist Hittitology is the study of the Hittites, an ancient Anatolian people that established an empire around Hattusa in the 2nd millennium BCE. It combines aspects of the archaeology, history, philology, and art history of the Hittite civilisation. Li ...

, pioneering the study of this ancient Anatolians culture in Israel and elucidating the tensions which brought about its demise.

Personal background

Itamar Singer was born on November 26, 1946, in Dej, in the multiethnic

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

n region of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. He was the son of Zoltán and Gertrude Singer. The Hungarian-speaking family moved to

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , le ...

(''Kolozsvár'') when Singer was five years old. They relocated to Israel in 1958, where they settled in the new town of

Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. ...

. Singer married Argentinean-born Egyptologist, Dr. Graciela Noemi Gestoso.

Career

He studied for his bachelor's degree in archaeology and geography at the

Hebrew University of 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 ...

graduating in 1968 and then went on to pursue his masters at

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

while fulfilling his national service obligation concurrently in the Israeli airforce. His Hittite studies were to continue at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

, Germany, under the auspices of Heinrich Otten, resulting in his doctor-ship and yielding an influential thesis on "The Hittite KI.LAM Festival" in 1978. He joined the Department of Archaeology and Near East Cultures at Tel Aviv, at times simultaneously teaching in the Department of Jewish History and other educational establishments. He reached full professorship in 1996 and remained in this position until retiring due to poor health in 2008. The focus of his academic interest was in what he termed the ''Pax Hethitica'', a period of the 13th century BC - a golden age of international diplomatic relations between the great powers and with their

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

ine vassals. He was the first researcher to theorize that it was the internal rivalries and the schism which rendered the Hittite empire vulnerable to the

Bronze Age collapse The Late Bronze Age collapse was a time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150. The collapse affected a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean (North Africa and Southeast Europe) and the Near Ea ...

and the coup de grace delivered by the

Sea Peoples The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).. Quote: "First coined in 1881 by the Fren ...

and others. His publications numbered over a hundred papers in academic journals, to which he continued to contribute well into retirement. For several years he was a member of the editorial board of the scholarly journal

Antiguo Oriente ''Antiguo Oriente'' is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Center of Studies of Ancient Near Eastern History (CEHAO) (Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, Buenos Aires). It is one of the few scholarly journals in the ...

. In 2010, Itamar Singer was awarded the

EMET Prize The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture is an Israeli prize awarded annually for excellence in academic and professional achievements that have far-reaching influence and make a significant contribution to society. Prizes are awarded in the fol ...

Selected publications

* Singer, Itamar. ''The Hittite KI.LAM Festival'', 2 Vols, Harrassowitz, 1983, 1984. * Singer, Itamar and Izre'el, Shlomo. ''The General's Letter from Ugarit: A Linguistic and Historical Reevaluation of RS 20.33'', Tel Aviv University, 1990. * Singer, Itamar. ''Muwatalli's Prayer'', ASOR, 1996. * Singer, Itamar. ''Hittite Prayers'', Society of Biblical Literature, 2002. * Singer, Itamar. ''The Hittites and their Culture'' (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 2009. * Singer, Itamar. ''The Calm before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the End of the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant'', Society of Biblical Literature, 2010.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Singer, Itamar 1946 births 2012 deaths People from Dej Romanian emigrants to Israel Romanian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Historians of antiquity Hittitologists Israeli historians Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni