Hermann Volrath Hilprecht
Hermann Volrath Hilprecht (July 28, 1859 – March 19, 1925) was a German-American Assyriologist and archaeologist.
Biography
Hilprecht was born in 1859 at Hohenerxleben (now a part of
As second Assyriologist in charge, he participated in the first campaign of excavations at
During the fourth and last campaign he was coordinating director of the expedition, sending out John Henry Haynes accompanied by his wife Cassandria as field director from 1898-1900 (later in 1899 efforts were increased by sending out two young architects H. V. Geere and C. S. Fisher). Hilprecht himself overtook the responsibility of the whole excavation for the last part of this campaign from March 1 until May 11, 1900.
Afterwards he undertook the editing of the publications programme of the "Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania"(=BE). This publication series incorporated also quantities of bought cuneiform tablets, acquired in Baghdad from the antiquities dealers which tried to undermine the efforts of continuing the US excavations.
With announcing the discovery of the Temple Library of Nippur after finishing the fourth campaign, some other team members including the former expedition director John Punnett Peters built a strong opposition against Hilprecht who claimed "the cream" of nearly every important discovery as his work. Some American orientalists joined in and the so-called "Peters-Hilprecht-Controversy" was born. This fierce controversy fought in newspapers and even lectures prevented most of the research of the acquired material for the next years.
After his resignation in 1911 of which (besides the "Peters-Hilprecht-Controversy") the main reason was the breakup of his bureau late in 1911. The numbered boxes were opened, confused and burned (including the files of the archaeological context). After this the publication series were changed to the "Publications of the Babylonian Section" (=PBS).[3] Afterwards he returned to the United States, where he became a citizen.[4]
He died in Philadelphia in 1925. After his death his second wife, according to H. V. Hilprechts last will, handed over his collection of Babylonian antiquities to the
Works
He is known among Assyriologists by his Freibrief Nebukadnezars I (Leipzig, 1883). In the spring of 1887, he delivered, in the chapel of the University of Pennsylvania, a course of lectures on "The Family and Civil Life of the Egyptians," "The Most Flourishing Period of Egyptian Literature," and "Egypt in the Time of Israel's Sojourn." His other literary works consist of contributions to Luthardt's Theologisches Literaturblatt (Leipzig), and to other periodicals.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
- ^ Leonard, John William (1908). Who's who in Pennsylvania: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries. L.R. Hamersly & Co. p. 368.
- ^ "Hilprecht, Hermann Volrath," The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Columbia University Press.
Other sources
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