Elements for a history of Assyriology

So why did you choose to work on the history of Assyriology this year? No doubt out of a desire for a change, after two years spent studying Babylonia under Hammu-rabi's successors. More than that, out of a desire not to focus too exclusively on the Palaeo-Babylonian world, to which my lectures have been devoted for the past four years. Docet omnia: the motto of the Collège de France is generally understood to mean that all disciplines must be taughthere . But each of our Chairs can also apply this motto to itself, dealing with subjects as varied as possible, within the limits of our competence of course. My choice for this year is a continuation of the historiographical studies I've been carrying out for the past twenty years. It was also inspired by three recent commemorations: the 150th anniversary of theÉcole Pratique des Hautes Études, founded in 1868; the 90th anniversary of the discovery of Ugarit in 1929; and the more discreet 85th anniversary of the discovery of Mari in 1933.

Historians of Assyriology usually recount the first archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and the ups and downs of deciphering cuneiform script, often copying from one another: I've tried to use the writings of the actorsthemselves as much as possible, as well as the presentation made by contemporaries of the discoveries in progress, so as to avoid the bias of a teleological presentation. I have focused on the birth and development of Assyriology in France, the history of the discipline having been more developed in England, Germany and the United States. In addition, I did not limit myself to the question of decipherments: I wanted to study the gradual emancipation of Assyriology within Orientalism, as a field of teaching and research focusing on the pre-Classical Near East. We therefore studied the way in which tablet collections were built up, the birth of specialized publications (journals, series, etc.), the emergence of specific training courses, etc. We met famous scholars such as Renan, Thureau-Dangin and Dhorme. Others less so, like Oppert, Scheil or Fossey. And some forgotten ones, like Amiaud, Ménant and Ledrain. I've excluded from my overview scholars who are still living, andstopped in 1975, for two reasons. That's when I really started in Assyriology, 1974/75 having been the year of my master's degree, before I passed the agrégation in history in 1975/76 and became Paul Garelli's assistant. It was also the year when the two most important French Assyriologists of their generation died, René Labat on April 3, 1974 and Jean Nougayrol on January 23, 1975. It seemed to me that the choice of this date made it possible to distinguish the work of the historian from the narration of his memories by a witness [1].

References

[1] The manuscript of the book resulting from this teaching has already been submitted to the publisher; it was scheduled for publication in 2022 in the Docet omnia series, co-published by the Collège de France and Belles-Lettres.

Elements for a history of Assyriology

References

Program

The birth of Assyriology : fieldwork and the start of decipherments

The deciphering of " the Assyrian " in museums and cabinets

The Tello excavations and the discovery of Sumerian

The teaching of Assyriology, from its beginnings to 1905

The Babel und Bibel controversy

1905 : the Oppert estate

Excavations, tablet collections and publications

1929 : the discovery of Ugarit

1933 : the discovery of Mari

The post-war revival

Assyriology in France from 1945 to 1975

See also