Background
Hermann Volrath Hilprecht was born on July 28, 1859 in Hohenerxleben, Germany. He was the son of Robert and Emilie (Wielepp) Hilprecht.
Hermann Volrath Hilprecht was born on July 28, 1859 in Hohenerxleben, Germany. He was the son of Robert and Emilie (Wielepp) Hilprecht.
Hilprecht graduated from the Gymnasium at Bernburg in 1880 and for five years, 1880-1885, studied theology, philology, and law at the University of Leipzig.
In 1885 Hilprecht became "repentant" of Old Testament theology at the University of Erlangen and in 1886 he emigrated to Philadelphia as oriental editor of the Sunday School Times. He soon became professor of Assyriology in the University of Pennsylvania and in the next year, 1887, he became curator of the Babylonian section of the university museum, both of which positions he held until his resignation in 1911.
In 1888-1889 he was a member of the first expedition of the university which, under the leadership of John P. Peters, excavated at Nippur, and in 1895, upon Peters' removal from Philadelphia, Hilprecht became scientific director of this excavation. The fieldwork at that time was under the direction of John Henry Haynes. Hilprecht's fame as an Assyriologist was established by the publication in 1893 of the first part of his Old Babylonian Inscriptions, Chiefly from Nippur, the second part of which appeared in 1896. The inscriptions treated in this study were considerably older than the historical inscriptions previously published and were naturally in a much more archaic script. The beauty and accuracy of Hilprecht's copies and his skill as a translator were at once recognized. Since, according to the law, all antiquities excavated within Turkish territories belonged to the government, those found at Nippur were taken to Constantinople.
In 1893 Hilprecht was asked to reorganize the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople and until 1909 he was practically in charge of the museum. Meantime he projected four series of publications of the materials from Nippur, of which he was to be the editor. Of these, fourteen volumes of texts appeared. Hilprecht himself wrote two of these as well as two volumes for Series D, "Researches and Treatises. "
In 1900 he went to Babylonia for a second time. Haynes had discovered an archive of several thousand tablets there and, as scientific director, Hilprecht wished to be on the spot. Three years later his Exploration in Bible Lands during the Nineteenth Century was published--a book which soon precipitated the "Hilprecht Controversy" and ultimately led to his retirement. On page 532 of this work he spoke of an unopened clay letter addressed "To Lushtamar" as if it were found in the "Temple Library" at Nippur, whereas the label on the tablet, which was exhibited in the museum, showed that it had been bought with a collection and probably did not come from Nippur at all. When confronted with the fact, instead of acknowledging a careless mistake, Hilprecht accounted for the discrepancy by a story that seemed improbable and for some years he sought to maintain his position.
Finally in 1911 he resigned his posts at the University of Pennsylvania, spent a year in travel, then settled for several years in Hesse-Nassau in Germany. After the war he returned to Philadelphia and became a naturalized American citizen.
In 1886 Hilprecht was married to Miss S. C. Haufe. She died in 1902 and on April 24, 1903, he was married to Sallie (Crozer) Robinson, the daughter of Samuel Aldrich Crozer of Philadelphia.