Julius (Jules) Oppert (9 July 1825 – 21 August 1905) was a
French-
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
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 ...
, born in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
parents.
Career
After studying at
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
,
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, he graduated at
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
in 1847, and the next year went to France, where he was a teacher of German at Laval and at Reims. His leisure was given to
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...
, in which he had made great progress in Germany.
In 1851 he joined the French archaeological mission to
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
and
Media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
under
Fulgence Fresnel
Fulgence Fresnel ( or ; ; (15 April 1795 – 30 November 1855) was a French Orientalist. He was brother to the noted physicist Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827). Fresnel was an Orientalist scholar who led one of the first archaeological teams t ...
.
[Larsen, M.T., ''The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land,'' Routledge, 2014, pp 307-08 and p. 315] On his return in 1854, he was naturalized as a French citizen in recognition of his services. He occupied himself with analyzing the results of the expedition, with special attention to the
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
inscriptions he had collected. His account of the Fresnel mission and the results of his consequent study were published as ''Expédition Scientifique en Mésopotamie'' (1859–1863), with the second volume entitled ''Déchiffrement des inscriptions cunéiformes''. The work was especially notable as most of the mission's excavations were lost in the
Al Qurnah disaster.
In 1855 he published ''Écriture Anarienne'', advancing the theory that the language spoken originally in Assyria was
Turanian {{Short description, List of groups of people
Turanian is a term that has been used in reference to diverse groups of people. It has had currency in Turanism, Pan-Turkism, and historic Turkish nationalism.
Many of the uses of the word are obsolete. ...
(related to
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
and
Mongolian), rather than
Aryan
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
or
Semitic in origin, and that its speakers had invented the cuneiform writing system. Although the classification of the "Casdo-Scythian" inscriptions as Turanian would later be rejected by scholars, research would confirm Oppert in his identification of the distinctness of the
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer. It is one of the oldest attested languages, dating back to at least 3000 BC. It is accepted to be a local language isolate and to have been spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, in the area that is modern-day ...
(as he renamed it in 1869) and the origin of its script.
In 1856 he published ''Chronologie des Assyriens et des Babyloniens''.
In 1857 he was appointed professor of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and comparative
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
in the school of languages connected with the
National Library of France
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* Nation or country
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, and in this capacity he produced his ''Grammaire Sanscrite'' (1859). But his attention was chiefly given to
Assyrian
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
and cognate subjects.
In 1865 he published a history of Assyria and
Chaldaea
Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...
(''Histoire des Empires de Chaldée et d'Assyrie'') in the context of new archaeological findings. His Assyrian grammar, ''Éléments de la grammaire assyrienne'', was published in 1868. In 1869 Oppert was appointed professor of Assyrian philology and archaeology at the College de France.
In 1876 Oppert began to focus on the antiquities of
ancient Media and its language, writing ''Le Peuple et la langue des Médes'' (1879).
In 1881 he was admitted to the
Academy of Inscriptions
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
and in 1890, he was elected to its presidency.
He died in Paris on 21 August 1905.
Bibliography
Oppert was a voluminous writer upon Assyrian mythology and
jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...
, and other subjects connected with the ancient civilizations of the East. Among his other works may be mentioned:
*''L'Immortalité de l'âme chez les Chaldéens'', (1875)
*''Salomon et ses successeurs'' (1877)
*''Doctrines juridiques de l'Assyrie et de la Chaldée'' (1877, with
Joachim Menant
Joachim Menant (16 April 1820 – 30 August 1899) was a French magistrate and orientalist.
He was born in Cherbourg. He studied law and became vice-president of the tribunal civil of Rouen in 1878, and a member of the court of appeal three ye ...
).
A list of his articles may be found in Muss-Arnolt, "The Works of Jules Oppert", in Delitzsch and Haupt, ''Beiträge zur Assyriologie'', ii.523-556, Leipzig, 1894.
[Isidore Singer & Louis Gray]
Jules."
''Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906.
See also
*
Felix Thomas
*
Fugence Fresnel
*
Orientalism in early modern France
Orientalism in early modern France refers to the interaction of pre-modern France with the Orient, and especially the cultural, scientific, artistic and intellectual impact of these interactions, ranging from the academic field of Oriental studies ...
*
Orientalism
In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
*
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...
References
External links
"Jules Julius Oppert," Jewish Virtual Library, from ''Encyclopaedia Judaica.''
*
*
*''Jewish Encyclopedia''
"Oppert, Jules"by Isidore Singer & Louis Gray (1906).
Julius Opperton
data.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oppert, Julius
1825 births
1905 deaths
Heidelberg University alumni
University of Kiel alumni
19th-century archaeologists
Archaeologists from Hamburg
Jewish archaeologists
French Assyriologists
German Assyriologists
19th-century German Jews
Jewish orientalists
Collège de France faculty
Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
French emigrants to Germany
19th-century German writers
19th-century German male writers
German emigrants to France
Officiers of the Légion d'honneur