Background
Gelb, Ignace Jay was born on October 14, 1907 in Tarnow, Poland. Came to the United States, 1929, naturalized, 1939. Son of Salo and Regina (Issler) Gelb.
(Chicago 1973 2nd. Oriental Institute of University of Chi...)
Chicago 1973 2nd. Oriental Institute of University of Chicago Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations No. 22. Sm.4to., 128pp., double page map, original orange printed wraps. VG plus, slight bit of soiling on rear cover.
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anthropologist archaeologist historian linguist
Gelb, Ignace Jay was born on October 14, 1907 in Tarnow, Poland. Came to the United States, 1929, naturalized, 1939. Son of Salo and Regina (Issler) Gelb.
Born in Tarnów, Austria-Hungary (now Poland), he earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Rome in 1929, then went to the University of Chicago where he was a professor of Assyriology until his death. Although writing systems have been studied for centuries by linguists, Gelb is widely regarded as the first scientific practitioner of the study of scripts, and coined the term grammatology to refer to the study of writing systems
In A Study of Writing (1952), he suggested that scripts evolve in a single direction, from logographic scripts to syllabaries to alphabets. This historical typology has been criticized as overly simplistic, forcing the data to fit the model and ignoring exceptional cases. Yet, despite more recent refinements of the typology by Peter T. Daniels and others, Gelb"s rigorous study of the properties of different kinds of writing system was pioneering and innovative.
Gelb had contributed significantly to the decipherment of the Anatolian hieroglyphs (formerly often referred to as "Hittite hieroglyphs"), having published 3 volumes of studies on the subject.
In the course of his career, he published over 20 books, that have been translated into many languages, and over 250 scientific articles Gelb believed that the Maya hieroglyphs did not qualify as true writing capable of representing language, which has now been disproven following the decipherment of the Maya script.
Gelb"s work in Assyriology focused on publishing editions of Akkadian texts and a grammar and dictionary of Old Akkadian. He became editor of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary in 1947 and continued work on the project until his death.
His other important works include works on Mesopotamian land tenure and sales, metrology, and other aspects of economic and social history.
Gelb, supported by Assyriologist Aage Westenholz, differentiated three stages of Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the "Neo-Sumerian Renaissance" that followed lieutenant Additionally, from 1965 to 1966 he was president of the American Oriental Society.
(Chicago 1973 2nd. Oriental Institute of University of Chi...)
(x + 235 pp. 8vo.)
Served with United States Army, 1943-1945. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences, British Academy. Member American Philosophical Society, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy), American Oriental Society (branch president 1959-1960, national president 1965-1966) American Schools Oriental Research and Linguistic Society of America, International Linguistic Association, American Name Society (president 1963-1964), Archeological Institute American, Society Hittiete (Paris), Institute Association Studies (honorary), Society Asiatique (honorary), Near East Club Chicago (president 1942-1943), Quadrangle Club.
Married Hester Mokstad, May 13, 1938. Children: Walter, Alexander, John Vincent.