Ephraim Avigdor Speiser

{{Infobox academic

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Ephraim Avigdor Speiser

| honorific_suffix =

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| image = File:Ephraimavigdorspeiser.jpeg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1902|01|24|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Skalat, Galicia

| death_date = {{death date and age|1965|06|15|1902|01|24|mf=y}}

| death_place = Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

| death_cause =

| region =

| nationality = American

| period =

| occupation = Harrison Research Fellow in Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania

| boards =

| known_for = discovery of the ancient site of Tepe Gawra

| spouse = Sue Gimbel Dannenbaum

| children =

| signature =

| signature_alt =

| signature_size =

| era =

| language =

| discipline = Assyriologist

| sub_discipline = Archaeology, Biblical commentator

| movement =

| religion =

| denomination =

| education =

| alma_mater = Dropsie College (Ph.D.)

| thesis_title =

| thesis_url =

| thesis_year =

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students =

| notable_students = Moshe Greenberg and Anne Draffkorn Kilmer

| main_interests =

| workplaces = University of Pennsylvania

| notable_works = Genesis (AYB)

| notable_ideas =

| influences =

| influenced =

| awards =

| website =

| footnotes =

}}

Ephraim Avigdor Speiser (January 24, 1902 – June 15, 1965) was a Polish-born American Assyriologist and translator of the Torah.{{Cite magazine |title=Expedition Magazine {{!}} Ephraim Avigdor Speiser |url=https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ephraim-avigdor-speiser/ |access-date=2024-12-16 |magazine=Expedition Magazine |language=en}} He discovered the ancient site of Tepe Gawra in 1927 and supervised its excavation between 1931 and 1938.

Speiser was married to Sue Gimbel Dannenbaum, granddaughter of Charles Gimbel of the Gimbel Brothers. They had two children together, Jean and Joel.{{Cite web|url=https://archives.upenn.edu/collections/finding-aid/upt50s742|title=Ephraim Avigdor Speiser Papers {{!}} University Archives and Records Center|website=archives.upenn.edu|access-date=2019-02-22}}

Early life

Speiser was born in Skalat, Galicia (then in Austrian Poland, now Ukraine) on January 24, 1902. He went to school in Lemberg (later called Lwow, now Lviv), attending the Imperial Gymnasium of Lemberg and later graduating from the College of Lemberg in 1918.{{Cite web|url=https://archives.upenn.edu/collections/finding-aid/upt50s742|title=Ephraim Avigdor Speiser Papers|website=University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-10}} Two years later, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States and eventually became a US citizen in 1926.

In the United States, Speiser received his M.A. in Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1923, studying under J.A. Montgomery and Max Margolis.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968 |title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }} He continued his studies under Max Margolis and earned his Ph.D. from Dropsie College in Philadelphia in 1924.{{Cite book|title=[Records of the] Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania|last=University of Pennsylvania. Archives and Records Center|date=1984|publisher=Chadwyck-Healey Inc|oclc=865982949}}

Career

From 1924 to 1926, Speiser was a Harrison Research Fellow in Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968|title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }} In 1926, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study the remains of the ancient Mitanni and Hurrians in northern Iraq.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968|title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }} The members of the Mittani-Hurrian tribes still spoke Hittite; Speiser was one of few in the United States who could speak the language.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968|title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }}

In 1927, while in northern Iraq, Speiser discovered the Tepe Gawra (or “Great Mound”), one of the earliest known examples of civilization. During this time, he was director of the Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental Research and taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968|title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }}

From 1930-32 and 1936–37, Speiser served as field director of the Joint Excavation of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the University Museum, undertaking excavations in Tepe Gawra and Tell Billa, also known as Shibaniba. In 1936, Speiser also took over the position as field director for the excavation of the Sumerian site of Khafajeh after the University Museum took it over from the Oriental Institute in Chicago.{{Cite web|url=https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ephraim-avigdor-speiser/|title=Ephraim Avigdor Speiser {{!}} Expedition Magazine|website=www.penn.museum|access-date=2019-04-10}}{{Cite web|url=http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?fq=repository_facet:%22Penn%20Museum%20Archives%22&id=EAD_upenn_museum_PUMu1023|title=Khafajah and Kara Tepe, Iraq expedition records, 1936-1938|website=dla.library.upenn.edu|access-date=2019-04-10}}

In 1928 he was appointed assistant professor of Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania, and full professor in 1931. Only a few years later, he was appointed as Chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies, a position he used to develop the study of Assyriology at the University of Pennsylvania.{{Cite book|title=The Pennsylvania tradition of semitics : a century of Near Eastern and biblical studies at the University of Pennsylvania|author1-last=Gordon |author1-first=Cyrus H. |author1-link=Cyrus H. Gordon |date=1986 |publisher=Scholars Press|oclc=655018988}}

During World War II, Speiser left academia to become chief of the Office of Strategic Services' Near East Section of the Research and Analysis Branch in Washington, D.C. This position earned him a Certificate of Merit. He was one of many American students and scholars of Orientalism who entered and served in the intelligence services during World War II.{{Cite web|url=https://archives.upenn.edu/collections/finding-aid/upt50s742|title=Ephraim Avigdor Speiser Papers|website=University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-10}}

Following the war, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania as Chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies from 1947 until his death in 1965. While there, he was appointed A.M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures in 1954.{{Cite book|title=The Pennsylvania tradition of semitics : a century of Near Eastern and biblical studies at the University of Pennsylvania|author1-last=Gordon |author1-first=Cyrus H. |author1-link=Cyrus H. Gordon |date=1986|publisher=Scholars Press|oclc=655018988}}

Beginning in 1955, Speiser joined the translation committee of the Jewish Publication Society of America’s Bible translation project that produced an English version of the Torah.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968|title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }}

Speiser also held positions as president of the American Oriental Society, Vice President of the American Association for Middle East Studies, Vice President of the Linguistic Society of America, a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Ephraim+A.+Speiser&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} He was also given an honorary doctorate in Hebrew Letters by the Hebrew Union College and was appointed to its Archeological School’s board of overseers.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968 |title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }}

In 1964, a year prior to his death, Speiser was named a university professor at the University of Pennsylvania, indicating his multidisciplinary work and achievements.{{Cite journal |author1-last=Greenberg |author1-first=Moshe |author1-link=Moshe Greenberg |date=1968|title=In Memory of E. A. Speiser|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=88|issue=1|pages=1–2|issn=0003-0279|jstor=597888 }} On June 15, 1965, Speiser died in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Selected works

{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |title=Mesopotamian Origins: the Basic Population of the Near East|url=https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.33943 |year=1930 |publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press |location= Philadelphia }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title= New Kirkuk Documents relating to Family Laws |year= 1930|location= New Haven}}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title=Excavations at Tepe Gawra |volume=1 |year= 1935|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |author2-last=Pfeiffer |author2-first=Robert H. |author2-link=Robert H. Pfeiffer |title=One Hundred New Selected Nuzi Texts |year= 1936 }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title= Studies in the History of Science |year=1941 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title=Introduction to Hurrian |year= 1941|publisher=Dows Nies. |location=New Haven }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title=The United States and the Near East |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283827 |year= 1947|publisher= Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge (MA) }}
{{cite encyclopedia |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |editor=James B. Pritchard |encyclopedia=Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament |title=Akkadian Myths and Epics |year=1950 |publisher=Princeton University Press }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title=Genesis: Introduction, Translation and Notes (The Anchor Bible) |year=1964 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title=At the Dawn of Civilization |url=https://archive.org/details/atdawnofciviliza01spei |url-access=registration |year=1964 |publisher=Rutgers University Press }}
{{cite book |author1-last=Speiser |author1-first=Ephraim Avigdor |author1-mask=3 |title=Oriental and Biblical Studies: Collected Writings of E. A. Speiser |editor1-last=Finkelstein |editor1-first=J. J. |editor1-link=J. J. Finkelstein |editor2-last=Greenberg |editor2-first=Moshe |editor2-link=Moshe Greenberg |year= 1967 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press }}