Elena Cassin

Last updated
Elena Cassin
Born1909
Cuneo, Italy
DiedJune 2011
Paris, France
NationalityItalian then French
Alma mater Sapienza University of Rome
Scientific career
Fields Assyriology
Institutions French National Centre for Scientific Research

Elena Cassin, (1909 - June 2011), was an Italian-born French Assyriologist.

Contents

Biography

Elena Cassin, daughter of the banker and politician Marco Cassin, [1] studied the history of religions at the University of Rome and obtained her doctorate in 1933. [2] She then went to Paris and attended Charles Fossey's course on ancient Babylon and Marcel Mauss' course on sociology. There she met her future husband, Jacques Vernant, brother of Jean-Pierre Vernant. She and the Vernant brothers participated in the French Resistance in the south of France. [3] After the war Elena Cassin joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research as a specialist of Assyriology and of History of the Religions of the Ancient Near East.

She worked mainly on the legal and economic history of ancient Mesopotamia. Between 1965 and 1967, together with Jean Bottéro and Jean Vercoutter, she was the editor of the three volumes of the Fischer Weltgeschichte  [ de ] (Fischer World History named after publishing house S. Fischer Verlag) devoted to the Ancient East. [4] She herself dealt with Mesopotamia in the second half of the second millennium and thus with the Mitanni and Nuzi [2] and she also translated Sumerian into French. [5]

She participated with other colleagues committed to the left (Maxime Rodinson, Maurice Godelier, André-Georges Haudricourt, Charles Malamoud, Jean-Paul Brisson, Jean Yoyotte, Jean Bottero) in a Marxist think tank organised by Jean-Pierre Vernant. This group took on an institutional form with the creation, in 1964, of the Centre des recherches comparées sur les sociétés anciennes, which later became the Centre Louis Gernet , focusing more on the study of ancient Greece. [6]

Elena Cassin died at the age of 102.

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Godelier</span> French anthropologist (born 1934)

Maurice Godelier is a French anthropologist who works as a Director of Studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. He is one of the most influential French anthropologists and is best known as one of the earliest advocates of Marxism's incorporation into anthropology. He is also known for his field work among the Baruya in Papua New Guinea from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Pierre Vernant</span> French historian and anthropologist

Jean-Pierre Vernant was a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, tragedy, and society which would itself be influential among classical scholars. He was an honorary professor at the Collège de France.

André-Georges Haudricourt was a French botanist, anthropologist and linguist.

Jean Bottéro was a French historian born in Vallauris. He was a major Assyriologist and a renowned expert on the Ancient Near East. He died in Gif-sur-Yvette.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Vercoutter</span> French Egyptologist

Jean Vercoutter was a French Egyptologist. One of the pioneers of archaeological research into Sudan from 1953, he was Director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale from 1977 to 1981.

Stéphane Gsell was a French historian and archaeologist. He was a specialist in ancient Africa and Roman Algeria. His main work is L'Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord (1913-1929).

Claude Mossé was a French historian specializing in the history of Ancient Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Yoyotte</span> French egyptologist (1927–2009)

Jean Yoyotte was a French Egyptologist, Professor of Egyptology at the Collège de France and director of research at the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcelle Werbrouck</span> Belgian egyptologist (1889–1959)

Marcelle Werbrouck was the first woman Belgian Egyptologist. Her subjects of research were often related the study of prominent goddesses and women of ancient Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yves-Marie Bercé</span> French historian (born 1936)

Yves-Marie Bercé, is a French historian known for his work on popular revolts of the modern era. He is a member of the Institut de France.

Cécile Michel is a French epigrapher and archaeologist.

Jean Andreau is a French historian, former student of the École normale supérieure (1960) and former member of the École française de Rome. As of 2016, he is research director at the EHESS.

Jean-Paul Brisson was a French honorary professor of Latin language and civilisation at the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense. He devoted himself particularly to the social problems of antiquity, North Africa during Antiquity and classical poets.

André Pelletier is a French historian and archaeologist, a professor and specialist of ancient Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mireille Corbier</span> French historian of Classical history

Mireille Corbier is a French historian of Classical history. Currently Research Director Emerita at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), she has published a number of books and articles, and since 1992 has been editor-in-chief of L'Année épigraphique.

Bernadette Menu is a French archaeologist and Egyptologist, whose research work on ancient Egypt is widely known. She is mother of the writer Jean-Christophe Menu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corinne Bonnet</span>

Corinne Bonnet is Professor of Greek History at the University of Toulouse, France. She is known for her work on ancient Mediterranean history and religion. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the ERC Advanced Grant project Mapping Ancient Polytheisms.

Pierre Amiet was a French archeologist and conservator. He specialized in the Ancient Near East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pricot de Sainte-Marie steles</span>

The Pricot de Sainte-Marie steles are more than 2,000 Punic funerary steles found in Carthage near the ancient forum by French diplomat Jean-Baptiste Evariste Charles Pricot de Sainte-Marie in the 1870s. The find was dramatic both in the scale—the largest single discovery of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions—and also due to the finds almost being lost in the sinking of the French ironclad Magenta at Toulon.

References

  1. "Marco Cassin", Wikipedia (in Italian), 2022-05-30, retrieved 2023-03-31
  2. 1 2 Glassner, Jean-Jacques (2010). "Elena Cassin (1909-2011)". Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. 104 (1): 1. doi:10.3917/assy.104.0001. ISSN   0373-6032.
  3. Semi, Emanuela Trevisan (2012-07-01). "Obituary". Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 11 (2): 275. doi: 10.1080/14725886.2012.686572 . ISSN   1472-5886. S2CID   216115679.
  4. Lion, Brigitte (2015). "Elena Cassin (1909-2011)". Archiv für Orientforschung. 53: 494–496. ISSN   0066-6440. JSTOR   44810889.
  5. BnF (ed.). Cassin . Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  6. "Vernant Jean-Pierre". www.ex-pcf.com. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  7. Parrot, André (1938). "E.-M. Cassin. — L'adoption à Nuzi". Syria. Archéologie, Art et histoire. 19 (3): 290–291.
  8. Bottéro, Jean (1973). "Elena Cassin, La splendeur divine. Introduction à l'étude de la mentalité mésopotamienne". Annales. 28 (1): 68–72. doi:10.1017/S0395264900160780. S2CID   147400575.