December 29, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for October 2010 is now available.

December 23, 2010

The Epigraphic Survey's Chicago House Bulletin, Vol. XXI, September 2010, is now available for download in the Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf).

December 22, 2010

The 2009-2010 Oriental Institute Annual Report is now available. Links to its respective entries have been added to the homepages for numerous Institute archaeological and philological projects and departments.

December 7, 2010

The Oriental Institute offers holiday shoppers several unique suggestions for seasonal gifts or stocking stuffers.

December 7, 2010

Four additional YouTube videos, showing the evolution of written script over time, have been added to our museum's current Special Exhibit page, Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East.

December 5, 2010

After several decades out of print, Oriental Institute Publication 69, Persepolis II: Contents of the Treasury and Other Discoveries, has been digitally reprinted. An Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf) version is also available for download.

November 30, 2010

An Overview of the Topic and a General Bibliography for the Oriental Institute's 2011 Symposium, Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond, organized by Natalie Naomi May, is now available on our website.

November 24, 2010

Holiday Sale at the Oriental Institute, Nov. 30 - Dec. 8th, 2010. Everything's on sale: Members 20% off; Non-Members 15%

November 24, 2010

The Tell Edfu Project, under the direction of Dr. Nadine Moeller, has created a homepage for the project on the Oriental Institute's website, with a brief description of the project's work at the town site of Tell Edfu, several images from their 2009 field season, and a link to the project's independent website.

November 18, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for September 2010 is now available.

November 9, 2010

Before the Epigraphic Survey crew left Chicago for its next field season, they updated their homepage with notes and photographs from their eighty-sixth season which ended in April 2010.

November 3, 2010

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Post-Doctoral Scholar

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago invites applications for the Oriental Institute's Annual Post-Doctoral Scholar Conference program for the 2011-2012 academic year. This is a twelve-month, non-renewable appointment. The Post-Doctoral Scholar will organize and conduct a two-day conference at the Oriental Institute on key comparatively oriented theoretical or methodological issues in the field of ancient studies (archaeological, text-based, and/or art historical avenues of research). We encourage cross-disciplinary proposals that deal with the ancient Near East (including Egypt) or that compare the Near East with other cultural areas. Applicants should take into consideration the research interests represented at the Oriental Institute. The conference will take place in early to mid March 2012. After the conference, the Post-Doctoral Scholar will work with publication staff to assemble and edit the proceedings for publication in the "Oriental Institute Seminars" series. The incumbent is also encouraged to pursue his or her own research while in residence and to interact with the Oriental Institute community.

Information on past Oriental Institute Annual symposia can be viewed at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/symposia/

Qualifications: Ph.D. in a discipline relating to ancient studies must be complete at the time of appointment. Applicants should send:

  1. 5-page proposal outlining nature and structure of the conference (including names and paper topics of six to eight key participants who have agreed to make presentations, should the conference be funded)
  2. curriculum vitae
  3. 3 letters of reference (these may be sent under separate cover)

Electronic submissions are welcome. Deadline for completed applications is Friday, January 7, 2011. Start date is September 1, 2011. Please send applications to:

Post-Doctoral Scholar Program
attn. Mariana Perlinac, Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 East 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637

Or via e-mail to: oi-administration@uchicago.edu

The University of Chicago is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

November 2, 2010

Dating to 1994, an article by Prof. Norman Golb, The M. H. De Young Memorial Museum (San Francisco) Exhibition Of The Dead Sea Scrolls (February 26 - May 29, 1994) - A Response is now available for download in the Adobe PDF format.

October 29, 2010

An Image Gallery containing more than fifteen photographs of objects from the Oriental Institute Museum's current special exhibit, Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East, is now available on our website.

October 26, 2010

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum

The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute is an internationally recognized research center for studying the archaeological and textual record of the ancient Near East. A primary unit within the Institute is its Museum, which houses over 300,000 registered objects from across the Near East. We seek applicants for the position of Chief Curator, who reports to the Director of the Oriental Institute and is responsible for the successful management of all museum operations, notably exhibits and collections management. The ideal candidate combines museum experience with a commitment to research and publication. The Chief Curator interacts regularly with the Institute's research faculty, who serve as its governing board. Candidates must have academic qualifications in a Near Eastern field of specialty, ideally in one of the areas covered by the Oriental Institute's collections (Egypt, Nubia, Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, Anatolia, Iran). Candidates must also have demonstrated leadership and project management skills enabling them to conduct and supervise curatorial tasks, exhibit development and grant writing. Based on the selected applicant's qualifications, a secondary academic appointment as Research Associate in the Oriental Institute will be considered. To apply for this position, please go to http://jobs.uchicago.edu, create a profile and apply for requisition #085902. Review of applications will begin on December 10, 2010. Email inquiries can be directed to oi-administration@uchicago.edu with the subject heading "Chief Curator Search".

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer.

October 05, 2010

Two recent Dissertation proposals have been accepted by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, and are now available for download in the Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf):

September 28, 2010

A new exhibition at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago will show visitors how scribes in the ancient Middle East invented writing, thus transforming prehistoric cultures into civilizations.

Writing is one of humankind's greatest achievements. Writing took a variety of forms, many of which are displayed in the exhibition, "Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond" that runs from September 28 to March 6 at the museum, 1155 East 58th Street.

September 28, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for August 2010 is now available.

September 27, 2010

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

September 27, 2010

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces publication of:

Writing, the ability to make language visible and permanent, is one of humanities' greatest inventions. This book presents current perspectives on the origins and development of writing in Mesopotamia and Egypt, providing an overview of each writing system and its uses. Essays on writing in China and Mesoamerica complete coverage of the four "pristine" writing systems -- inventions of writing in which there was no previous exposure to texts. The authors explore what writing is, and is not, and sections of the text are devoted to Anatolian hieroglyphs of Anatolia, and to the development of the alphabet in the Sinai Peninsula in the second millennium BC and its spread to Phoenicia where it spawned the Greek and Latin alphabets. This richly illustrated volume, issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oriental Institute, provides a current perspective on, and appreciation of, an invention that changed the course of history.

This publication is the Exhibition Catalog for the Oriental Institute Museum Special Exhibit of the same name, which runs from September 28, 2010 through March 6, 2011.

September 22, 2010

The 2010 Summer and Fall issues of the Oriental Institute's News & Notes are now available for download in the Adobe Acrobat Format (pdf).

September 9, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for July 2010 is now available.

September 8, 2010

In an effort to merge all of the Oriental Institute's records, documents, photographs, and field records into a single integrated computer database (IDB), the Institute has purchased the KE Software EMu (Electronic Museum) database system. Software installation and training will start in November 2010, with data migration to follow over the winter, and the new integrated database should be up and running in the spring of 2011.

Access to the public component of our Integrated Database will start soon after the system is up and running in spring 2011, via a link from the Oriental Institute website.

The first two data sets to be migrated into the new Integrated Database are our Museum Registration database and our Research Archives (Library) Catalog. Additional data sets will be migrated into the IDB over the next 3 to 10 years, including Conservation Records, Map Collections, Museum Photographic Database, and the Oriental Institute Museum Archives.

August 27, 2010

Supplemental data supporting John S. Nolan's 2010 Mud Sealings And Fourth Dynasty Administration At Giza: A Dissertation Presented to The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago, June 2010, is now available on the oriental Institute website.

August 17, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for June 2010 is now available.

August 13, 2010

As part of our University Of Chicago (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations) Dissertations On-Line, the following dissertation is now available for downloading as an Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf).

August 9, 2010

A new article by Prof. Norman Golb, The Mystery of National Geographic's "Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery Solved?", is now available for download in the Adobe PDF format.

August 3, 2010

Two recent lectures at the Oriental Institute are now available for viewing as downloadable video presentations: Exploring the Roots of Mesopotamian Civilization: Excavations at Tell Zeidan, Syria; Meluhha: the Indus Civilization and Its Contacts with Mesopotamia.

July 29, 2010

As part of its ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS ON-LINE, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces an additional letter, P, for the Chicago Demotic Dictionary, edited by Janet H. Johnson. This document is available as an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

July 20, 2010

As part of its ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS ON-LINE, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces an additional letter, M, for the Chicago Demotic Dictionary, edited by Janet H. Johnson. This document is available as an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

July 20, 2010

The Oriental Institute's Nubia Expedition archaeological field work in 2008 is detailed in a Progress Report in Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf).

June 30, 2010

A French language version of Prof. Norman Golb's 2008 article, A New Wrinkle in the Qumran "Yahad" Theory, is now available for download in the Adobe PDF format.

June 30, 2010

A brief description and several images from the Oriental Institute Museum's upcoming Special Exhibit, "Visible Speech: The Origins Of Writing In The Ancient Middle East," to run from September 27, 2010 through March 6, 2011, is now available.

June 25, 2010

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Online, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces publication of:

Originally coined to signify a style of pottery in southern Iraq, and by extension an associated people and a chronological period, the term "Ubaid" is now often used loosely to denote a vast Near Eastern interaction zone, characterized by similarities in material culture, particularly ceramic styles, which existed during the sixth and fifth millennia B.C. This zone extended over 2,000 km from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Hormuz, including parts of Anatolia and perhaps even the Caucasus. The volume contains twenty-three papers that explore what the "Ubaid" is, how it is identified, and how the Ubaid in one location compares to another in a distant location.

The papers are the result of The Ubaid Expansion: Cultural Meaning, Identity and the Lead-up to Urbanism, an International Workshop held at Grey College, University of Durham, 20-22 April 2006.

June 24, 2010

A new article by Norman Golb, expanding on previous articles: "Further Evidence Concerning Judah b. Solomon And The 'Tower Of Las Metamis' Mentioned In MS de Rossi 1105"

June 24, 2010

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative and with the generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

The narrative of the classic Breasted travels through Egypt, accompanied by a stereoscopic camera, is presented with all 100 view cards and the twenty maps and plans of the original publication. This is the final Egyptological publication to be issued by the Oriental Institute with the generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber.

June 11, 2010

The Oriental Institute Museum has received a Sustaining Cultural Hertitage grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The specific grant is for 'Preserving Ancient Middle Eastern Metalwork: Rehousing and Conservation Survey of the Oriental Institute's Collection'. Under this grant, the Oriental Institute will be able to rehouse its collection of over 10,000 metal artifacts from the ancient Near East.

The rehousing project is multifaceted and will include record photography and condition surveys of each artifact as they are rehoused in new, state-of-the-art museum cabinets. The project will also support the material identification of metals within the collection in order to provide accurate information on metal composition to researchers studying the collection.

June 2, 2010

The Oriental Institute Museum Store, the Suq, is having its Annual Inventory Sale from June 1-9, 2010. Come One, Come All!! Discounts on every item, for members and Non-Members. Sale credit for On-Line orders will be given at time of shipping.

May 28, 2010

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

Internet publication of this volume was made possible through the cooperation of the Oriental Institute and the AMAR project: http://libmedia.cc.stonybrook.edu/amar/

May 26, 2010

Announcing the on-line publication of: Breasted's 1919-1920 Expedition to the Near East.

These 1,875 photographs chronicle Illinois native James Henry Breasted's daring travels through Egypt and Mesopotamia in the unstable aftermath of World War I. Breasted, a leading Egyptologist, was the founder of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, and this journey was the first Oriental Institute project. The goals of his ambitious expedition were to acquire artifacts for the new Institute and to select sites for later excavation.

Our Museum's companion exhibit, Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East 1919-20, is open to the public from January 12 through August 29, 2010.

This photographic exhibit is the third major installment of the Oriental Institute's on-line Photographic Archives. It joins PERSEPOLIS AND ANCIENT IRAN: CATALOG OF EXPEDITION PHOTOGRAPHS (967 Photographs from the Oriental Institute's expedition to Iran in the 1930s) and THE 1905-1907 BREASTED EXPEDITIONS TO EGYPT AND THE SUDAN: A PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDY (1055 Photographs from Breasted's travels in Nubia during the years 1905-1907.

May 24, 2010

Viewers can now vote for the Institute's current Special Museum Exhibit, Pioneers To The Past, in the "Best Museum Exhibit" category for the Chicago Reader magazine's annual "Best Of Chicago" issue, which will be published in mid-summer. We appreciate your votes!!!

May 10, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for April 2010 is now available.

May 4, 2010

We have added three new links in the footer portion of all of our web pages. Now you can "Visit us on Facebook;" "Follow us on Twitter;" and "Join our RSS Calendar feed," as well as subscribe to our "E-Newletter." Just scroll to the bottom of any web page and you'll be just a mouse click away.

April 30, 2010

A review of the current Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum, by Prof. Norman Golb, is now available in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

April 23, 2010

As part of its ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS ON-LINE, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the electronic publication, in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format, of all Institute News & Notes newsletters from the current Spring 2010 issue back through 2002. Select lead articles in News & Notes published between 1990 - 2001 are still available in HTML format.

April 7, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for March 2010 is now available.

April 2, 2010

Listen to our new audio tours, "The Bible in the Middle East." Join Oriental Institute faculty and staff for a tour through our museum galleries to learn more about the ancient historical context of the Bible.

March 31, 2010

As part of its ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS ON-LINE, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces an additional letter, Sh, for the Chicago Demotic Dictionary, edited by Janet H. Johnson. This document is available as an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

March 31, 2010

A new brochure, The Oriental Institute Chicago Hittite Dictionary Project, describing the project's on-going work on the Chicago Hittite Dictionary and its e-CHD component, is now available for electronic download in the Adobe PDF format.

March 24, 2010

The Oriental Institute is launching its Adopt-a-Dig program, which creates a new partnership of discovery between you, our supporters, and the field researchers whose projects are rewriting the history of the rise of civilization. With six active digs in Egypt, Israel, Syria, and Turkey, you now have the opportunity to partner with field projects that closely match your own interests.

March 9, 2010

The Oriental Institute Museum Archives Photographic Database is now available for public access. As of February 2010, there are more than 70,000 entries from our photo catalogue in the database, 35,000 of which have an image scanned and attached.

Click on the link that says 'Oriental Institute Museum Photographic Database.' At the login page, click the 'Guest Account' radio button and then click 'Login.' Use the left and right hand buttons on the screen to scroll through the database, or use the magnifying glass to search.

March 5, 2010

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative and with the generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

March 5, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for February 2010 is now available.

March 1, 2010

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative and with the generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

February 18, 2010

The Oriental Institute Publications Office announces a new print publication:

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

February 16, 2010

On December 10, 2009, the Oriental Institute community gathered to remember the life of Rita Tallent Picken, a true friend and generous supporter of the OI. Rita showed her love for the OI not only through her involvement with docent program for 30 years but also through her sponsorship of The Robert F. Picken Family Nubia Gallery and the recent special exhibit on Meresamun.

In December, Kitty Picken and the Oriental Institute announced the endowment of The Rita T. Picken Professorship in Ancient Near Eastern Art, which will be supported by a $3.5 million gift in memory of her late mother, Rita T. Picken. The professorship will enhance the work of the Oriental Institute by adding a faculty member whose expertise in ancient art will complement the Institute's strengths in languages and archaeology. The endowment of this professorship is a fitting tribute to Rita's love of art history and will be historic, given that it is only the second endowed chair in the Oriental Institute's 90-year history.

Additional information on this gift is available at: http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1825

February 16, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for January 2010 is now available.

February 8, 2010

Information about scheduling and participants for the upcoming 2010 Oriental Institute Symposium, Slaves and Households in the Near East, March 5-6, 2010., is now available. Abstracts will be posted shortly.

January 11, 2010

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

  • OIMP 30. Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919-1920. Edited by Geoff Emberling. Published in 2010.

    Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919-1920, the catalogue of the Oriental Institute special exhibit of the same name, highlights the interconnected stories of an important figure in intellectual history - James Henry Breasted - and the beginnings of American scientific archaeology in the Near East at a crucial turning point in world history. At the end of World War I, Breasted and a small team of scholars set sail for the Near East on what would be an eleven-month odyssey across the region. The fascinating mix of politics, scholarship, and history (both ancient and modern) as seen through a focus on the larger-than-life persona of James Henry Breasted lies at the heart of Pioneers to the Past. Breasted's letters and photographs from his trip provide a window into the engagement of modern scholarship with the ancient world, in a highly charged setting of power politics in the early twentieth century. The essays in this catalogue explain the historical, legal, and political context in a way that greatly enriches our understanding of Breasted's journey and its aftermath.

January 11, 2010

As part of its Electronic Publications Initiative, the Oriental Institute Publications Office announces the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) publication of:

January 8, 2010

Revised and expanded article by Norman Golb: Observations On The Bipolar Theory Of So-Called "Qumran Spellings"

January 8, 2010

The 2008-2009 Oriental Institute Annual Report is now available. Links to its respective entries have been added to the homepages for numerous Institute archaeological and philological projects and departments.

January 5, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for December 2009 is now available.

January 5, 2010

New Research Archives Acquisitions List for November 2009 is now available.