Robert Keith Englund

Last updated

Robert K. Englund
Born1952
Bellingham, Washington
DiedMay 24, 2020
Alma mater
Known for
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Assyriology, Archaeology
Institutions

Robert K. Englund (March 29, 1952 - May 24, 2020) was an American Archaeologist and Assyriologist.

Contents

Biography

Robert Keith Englund was born in Bellingham, Washington; attended high school in Yakima, WA; and enrolled in mathematics at the University of Washington in 1970. [1] He quit in 1972 to travel the world (supporting himself through jobs such as carpentry), then enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley (1974) where he completed a BA in Near Eastern Studies in 1977. After a year of graduate work at the University of Chicago, he transferred to the University of Munich, where he completed his PhD dissertation "Verwaltung und Organisation der Ur III-Fischerei (The Administration and Organization of Ur III Fisheries)" [2] under advisor Dietz-Otto Edzard. The thesis analyzed accounting in the Ur III period Third Dynasty of Ur in the third millennium BC to provide economics-based insight into the organization of state-dependent workers and supervisors in fisheries. After post-doctoral research and teaching at the Free University of Berlin, he began a faculty position at UCLA in 1996. He retired in 2018 to Guemes Island in Washington State [3] with his wife Klaudia Maria Englund and was active in the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). [4] According to the UCLA department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures news feed, professor Englund died May 24, 2020, after a long struggle with cancer. He was sixty-eight years old. [5]

Research

Englund was a specialist on the texts of the early Uruk period (c. 3300 - 2900 BC). His work includes analyses of more than 2500 Uruk period texts (primarily in ATU [6] 3 (with H.J. Nissen 1993), 5 (1995), 6 (with H.J. Nissen 2005), 7 (with H.J. Nissen 2001), MSVO 1 (with J.P. Grégoire 1991), 3 (with P. Damerow, forthcoming), and 4 (1996)). Englund participated in the 1988 season of archaeological work at Jemdet Nasr directed by Roger Matthews. Englund also published the 27 proto-Elamite tablets from Tepe Yahya in Iran's Fars province with Peter Damerow (1989) [7] and led research in the origins and development of early writing in Iran throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Continuing the work of Swedish mathematician Jöran Friberg, Englund and Damerow deciphered the numerical systems of the proto-Elamite writing system and showed the dependency of proto-Elamite on the texts from the Late Uruk period. His 2004 study, “The State of Decipherment of Proto-Elamite,” led to the renewed efforts at deciphering this early Iranian writing system, making use of graphotactics in the study of early writing systems, but hampered by the lack of reliable copies hindering this same progress. Englund supported later work aimed at producing high definition images of all of the proto-Elamite tablets through his work on the CDLI (below). His analysis of the economic and administrative history of the Ur III empire (c. 2100 - 2000 BC) are foundational, and the period was his scholarly passion.His writings are often punctuated by social commentary. [8]

Englund was a principal investigator of the project Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), Los Angeles/Oxford/Berlin, with a concentration on Proto-Cuneiform texts from late 4th millennium BC Mesopotamia. He served as editor to the online Cuneiform Digital Library Journal and Bulletin (CDLJ&B). [9]

Englund began the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) in 1998. [10] Scaling to an international team of Assyriologists, museum curators, historians of science, and with adequate funding beginning in 2000, the CDLI's mission is to create an online library of hundreds of thousands of recovered cuneiform tablets and other artifacts, scanned by CDLI staff and partners, from the fourth millennium BC to the pre-Christian period [11] [ circular reference ]. The CDLI has preserved historical texts from destruction, including from looting, war, and terrorism. [12] The large datasets have allowed the use of big-data machine learning analysis. [13]

Teaching

Englund taught in the Humanities Division Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Giving regular lectures on the history and civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Englund also taught Sumerian and Akkadian and numerous seminars on diverse topics. "Frühe Schrift und Techniken der Wirtschaftsverwaltung im alten Vorderen Orient" [14] and its translation to English "Archaic Bookkeeping," [15] are widely used as textbooks in undergraduate and graduate programs in universities across the world. With UCLA Computer Science graduate students Sai Deep Tetali and Prashant Rajput, Englund developed free educational apps “cdli tablet” [16] for the iOS [17] and Android [18] phone and tablet platforms. "cdli tablet" combines "text and images of ancient Mesopotamia that span 3500 years of human activity and describe the roots of trade, mathematics, and astronomy in ancient times, that follow the application of lex talionis by Hammurapi, and that bring to life the exploits of Gilgamesh and Enkidu." [17]

Honors and awards

Selection of Publications

Related Research Articles

Eridu was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain, also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in southern Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq near the modern city of Basra. Eridu is traditionally believed to be the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia based on the Sumerian King List. Located 12 kilometers southwest of the ancient site of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew around temples, almost in sight of one another. The city gods of Eridu were Enki and his consort Damkina. Enki, later known as Ea, was considered to have founded the city. His temple was called E-Abzu, as Enki was believed to live in Abzu, an aquifer from which all life was believed to stem. According to Sumerian temple hymns another name for the temple of Ea/Enki was called Esira (Esirra).

"... The temple is constructed with gold and lapis lazuli, Its foundation on the nether-sea (apsu) is filled in. By the river of Sippar (Euphrates) it stands. O Apsu pure place of propriety, Esira, may thy king stand within thee. ..."

Uruk, today known as Warka, was a city in the ancient Near East situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates. The site lies 93 kilometers northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers southeast of ancient Nippur and 24 kilometers southeast of ancient Larsa. It is 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuneiform</span> Writing system of the ancient Near East

Cuneiform proper is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform scripts in general are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form their signs. Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system and was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uruk period</span> Archaeological culture

The Uruk period existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization. The late Uruk period saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age; it has also been described as the "Protoliterate period".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anshan (Persia)</span> Ancient city in Iran

Anshan modern Tall-e Malyan, also Tall-i Malyan, was an Elamite and ancient Persian city. It was located in the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran, approximately 46 kilometres (29 mi) north of Shiraz and 43 kilometres (27 mi) west of Persepolis in the Beyza/Ramjerd plain, in the province of Fars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proto-Elamite (period)</span> Historical period of Iranian civilization (c. 3200–2700 BCE)

The Proto-Elamite period, also known as Susa III, is a chronological era in the ancient history of the area of Elam, dating from c. 3100 BC to 2700 BC. In archaeological terms this corresponds to the late Banesh period. Proto-Elamite sites are recognized as the oldest civilization in the territory of present-day Iran. The Proto-Elamite script is an Early Bronze Age writing system briefly in use before the introduction of Elamite cuneiform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proto-Elamite script</span>

The Proto-Elamite script is an Early Bronze Age writing system briefly in use before the introduction of Elamite cuneiform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jemdet Nasr</span> Archaeological site in Iraq

Jemdet Nasr is a tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate (Iraq) that is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period, and was one of the oldest Sumerian cities. The site was first excavated in 1926 by Stephen Langdon, who found Proto-Cuneiform clay tablets in a large mudbrick building thought to be the ancient administrative centre of the site. A second season took place in 1928, but this season was very poorly recorded. Subsequent excavations in the 1980s under British archaeologist Roger Matthews were, among other things, undertaken to relocate the building excavated by Langdon. These excavations have shown that the site was also occupied during the Ubaid, Uruk and Early Dynastic I periods. Based on texts found there mentioning an ensi of NI.RU that is thought to be its ancient name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amar-Sin</span> "`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000002-QINU`"

Amar-Sin, initially misread as Bur-Sin was the third ruler of the Ur III Dynasty. He succeeded his father Shulgi. His name translates to 'bull calf of the moon-god'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linear Elamite</span> Writing system from Elam

Linear Elamite was a writing system used in Elam during the Bronze Age between c. 2300–1850 BCE, and known mainly from a few extant monumental inscriptions. It was used contemporaneously with Elamite cuneiform and records the Elamite language. The French archaeologist François Desset and his colleagues have argued that it is the oldest known purely phonographic writing system, although others, such as the linguist Michael Mäder, have argued that it is partly logographic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denise Schmandt-Besserat</span> Professor of Art and Archaeology

Denise Schmandt-Besserat is a French-American archaeologist and retired professor of art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. She spent much of her professional career as a professor at the University of Texas. She is best known for her work on the history and invention of writing. While her research is highly cited, it has been controversial among scholars. The controversies, as detailed below, concern the interpretation of early tokens, particularly the complex ones; however, the idea that writing emerged out of the counting, cataloging, management, and transactions of agricultural produce has been largely accepted.

Number systems have progressed from the use of fingers and tally marks, perhaps more than 40,000 years ago, to the use of sets of glyphs able to represent any conceivable number efficiently. The earliest known unambiguous notations for numbers emerged in Mesopotamia about 5000 or 6000 years ago.

Tapeh Yahya is an archaeological site in Kermān Province, Iran, some 220 kilometres (140 mi) south of Kerman city, 90 kilometres (56 mi) south of Baft city and 90 km south-west of Jiroft. The easternmost occupation of the Proto-Elamite culture was found there.

Tell Uqair is a tell or settlement mound northeast of Babylon and about 50 miles (80 km) south of Baghdad in modern Babil Governorate, Iraq.

Tell Billa is an archaeological site near Bashiqa in Nineveh Province (Iraq) 20 kilometers northeast of Mosul. Beginning in Middle Assyrian times the ancient city, not far from Assur, was named Shibaniba. Its earlier name is not known. In 2022 it was proposed that Tell Billa was the site of the Ur III period Hurrian city Šimānum.

The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) is an international digital library project aimed at putting text and images of an estimated 500,000 recovered cuneiform tablets created from between roughly 3350 BC and the end of the pre-Christian era online. Directors of the project are Robert Keith Englund from University of California, Los Angeles and Jürgen Renn of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Co-principal investigators are Jacob Dahl at Oxford University, Bertrand Lafront at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Nanterre and Émilie Pagé-Perron, University of Toronto. Preceding leadership comprised co-director Peter Damerow (1939–2011) from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary leader Stephen J. Tinney who was co-principal investigator. In 2004, Englund received the Richard W. Lyman Award from the National Humanities Center for his work on the initiative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurigalzu I</span> King of Babylon in the early 1300s BC

Kurigalzu I, usually inscribed ku-ri-gal-zu but also sometimes with the m or d determinative, the 17th king of the Kassite or 3rd dynasty that ruled over Babylon, was responsible for one of the most extensive and widespread building programs for which evidence has survived in Babylonia. The autobiography of Kurigalzu is one of the inscriptions which record that he was the son of Kadašman-Ḫarbe. Galzu, whose possible native pronunciation was gal-du or gal-šu, was the name by which the Kassites called themselves and Kurigalzu may mean Shepherd of the Kassites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kushim (Uruk period)</span> Sumerian person, c. 3400–3000 BC

Kushim is supposedly the earliest known recorded name of a person in writing. The name "Kushim" is found on several Uruk period clay tablets used to record transactions of barley. It is uncertain if the name refers to an individual, a generic title of an officeholder, or an institution.

The proto-cuneiform numerals are one of the most complex systems of enumeration in any early writing system. Their decipherment took place over several phases in the 20th century, including major advances in Adam Falkenstein’s 1936 signlist, followed by specific studies by Jöran Friberg and A. A. Vajman, and ultimately the identification and decipherment of fifteen distinct subsystems of enumeration in the collaborative efforts of Peter Damerow and Robert Keith Englund in the 1980s as part of the Archaische Texte aus Uruk project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proto-cuneiform</span> Early proto-writing system

The proto-cuneiform script was a system of proto-writing that emerged in Mesopotamia, eventually developing into the early cuneiform script used in the region's Early Dynastic I period. It arose from the token-based system that had already been in use across the region in preceding millennia. While it is known definitively that later cuneiform was used to write the Sumerian language, it is still uncertain what the underlying language of proto-cuneiform texts were.

References

  1. ↑ "Robert K. Englund". Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative .
  2. ↑ Englund, Robert K. (1990). Organisation und Verwaltung der Ur III-Fischerei. D. Reimer. ISBN   9783496003892.
  3. ↑ Carter, Anna Rose (June 10, 2018). "Retiring professors leave behind legacy of passion for Near Eastern archaeology". Daily Bruin .
  4. ↑ "| TeamQuantum Photonics Laboratory | RLE at MIT". qp.mit.edu. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Tributes: Bob Englund". June 5, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Archaische Texte aus Uruk (Irak)". October 17, 2007.
  7. ↑ "Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran, 1967-1975, Volume II: The Proto-Elamite Texts from Tepe Yahya — Peter Damerow, Robert K. Englund".
  8. ↑ Englund, R. K. (2009). "The Smell of the Cage 1" (PDF). S2CID   6714012.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ↑ "Publications". Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative .
  10. ↑ "Web library assembling ancient written documents". usatoday30.usatoday.com. May 17, 2002. Archived from the original on August 28, 2020.
  11. ↑ Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
  12. ↑ Estrin, Daniel (February 13, 2015). "Archäologie: Streit über Schrifttafeln in Jerusalemer Ausstellung". Die Welt.
  13. ↑ "Machine assisted translation of cuneiform texts". Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative . April 3, 2017.
  14. ↑ Nissen, Hans J.; Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K. (2004). Informationsverarbeitung vor 5000 Jahren: Frühe Schrift und Techniken der Wirtschaftsverwaltung im alten Vorderen Orient ; Informationsspeicherung und -verarbeitung vor 5000 Jahren ; [Begleitpublikation zur Ausstellung "Frühe Schrift und Techniken der Wirtschaftsverwaltung im Alten Vorderen Orient" des Seminars für Vorderasiatische Altertumskunde der Freien Universität Berlin in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Forschungsbereich Entwicklung und Sozialisation des Max-Planck-Instituts für Bildungsforschung und dem Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Staatlichen Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, die im Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Berlin-Charlottenburg, vom 16. Mai bis 29. Juli 1990 stattfand]. ISBN   3881204008.
  15. ↑ Nissen, Hans J.; Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K. (1993). Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-58659-5.
  16. ↑ "Cdli tablet". Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative .
  17. 1 2 "cdli tablet". apps.apple.com.
  18. ↑ ""cdli tablet" joins the Android family". Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative . October 18, 2017.
  19. ↑ Englund, Robert K. "ORGANISATION UND VERWALTUNG DER UR lli-FISCHEREI" (PDF).
  20. ↑ Englund, Robert K. "Texts from the Late Uruk Period" (PDF).
  21. ↑ Bauer, Josef; Englund, Robert K.; Krebernik, Manfred (1998). "Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdynastische Zeit". Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. 160/1. doi:10.5167/uzh-151545.
  22. ↑ Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K. "The Proto-Elamite Texts from Tepe Yahya" (PDF).
  23. ↑ Nissen, Hans J.; Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K.; Englund, Robert K. (1993). Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   9780226586595.
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