[SACC-L] NY Time obit #2 (fwd)

Wed Apr 11 14:28:50 UTC 2001

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> Cyrus Gordon, Scholar of Ancient Languages, Dies at 92
> By ERIC PACE
> Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon, a scholar of Near East culture and a leading expert on
> ancient languages, died on March 30 at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was
> 92.
> Dr. Gordon's series of books on the ancient language known as Ugaritic was
> widely thought to have been his greatest scholarly achievement.
> Ugaritic was used in coastal Syria, mainly in the 14th century B.C., and its
> literature reflects the many contacts that its ancient speakers must have
> had with speakers of Hebrew at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. It was
> discovered by the modern world in 1929, when Ugaritic inscriptions were
> unearthed by French excavations at the site of the ancient city of Ugarit,
> capital of the kingdom of the same name, in the west of modern Syria. Dr.
> Gordon published the first of his books on the language in 1940.
> Dr. Gordon also gained attention in 1962 when he said he had determined that
> ancient Crete's Minoan tongue was Northwest Semitic or, broadly speaking,
> Phoenician. He said in an interview then that this conclusion was a
> distilling of his earlier theory that the Cretan tongue might have been
> Akkadian, a Semitic language spoken in ancient Mesopotamia.
> The kingdom of ancient Crete attained its economic and cultural peak around
> 1600 B.C. It then broke down, but prospered anew after being settled by
> Dorian Greeks.
> Dr. Gordon's conclusion about its ancient language was based on his study of
> an ancient Minoan script that scholars call Linear Script A. In the 1962
> interview, he said his analysis of Minoan texts furnished new corroboration
> of his longstanding theory that the Greek and Hebrew cultures stemmed in
> common from a Semitic heritage that spanned the eastern Mediterranean from
> Greece to Palestine in the Minoan era.
> That view conflicted with the conventional opinion of classical and Near
> Eastern scholars - that the Greek and Hebrew cultures, though in contact in
> ancient times, had separate roots - and Dr. Gordon's opinion never gained
> broad acceptance among academics.
> Dr. Gordon also contended that Hebrew inscriptions many centuries old had
> been found at two sites in the southeastern United States. Those
> inscriptions, he further maintained, indicated that Jews had arrived here
> before Columbus. Frank Moore Cross, a retired professor of Hebrew and other
> Semitic languages at Harvard, said in an interview recently that Dr. Gordon
> was "in many ways a great scholar" but that this belief "simply did not make
> sense."
> Cyrus Herzl Gordon was born in Philadelphia. After earning bachelor's and
> master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, he received a
> doctorate in Semitics there.
> Dr. Gordon was professor of Near Eastern studies at Brandeis University from
> 1956 to 1973 and chairman of its department of Mediterranean studies from
> 1958 to 1973. He was a professor of Hebrew studies at New York University
> from 1973 to 1989, when he retired from that post. For some years, he was
> also director of N.Y.U.'s Center for Ebla Research. (Ebla was an ancient
> city in the north of Syria.)
> His numerous writings include his autobiography, "A Scholar's Odyssey"
> (Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), for which he won an award from the
> Jewish Book Council.
> Dr. Gordon married Joan Elizabeth Kendall in 1946. She died in 1985.
> He is survived by his wife of 14 years, the former Constance Victoria
> Wallace; three daughters, Deborah Friedrich of Chicago, Sarah Krakauer of
> Williamsburg, Va., and Rachel Gordon Bernstein of Greenburgh, N.Y.; two
> sons, Noah, of Mansfield, Mass., and Dan, of Wellesley, Mass.; two brothers,
> Maurice, of Wellesley, and Norman, of Claymont, Del.; and 10 grandchildren.
>
>
> Ann Popplestone
>
> CCC TLC
> 216-987-3584
>
>
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> <P><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Cyrus Gordon, Scholar of Ancient Languages, Dies at 92</FONT></B>
> <BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">By ERIC PACE</FONT></B>
> <BR><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon, a scholar of Near East culture and a leading expert on ancient languages, died on March 30 at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was 92.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Dr. Gordon's series of books on the ancient language known as Ugaritic was widely thought to have been his greatest scholarly achievement.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Ugaritic was used in coastal Syria, mainly in the 14th century B.C., and its literature reflects the many contacts that its ancient speakers must have had with speakers of Hebrew at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. It was discovered by the modern world in 1929, when Ugaritic inscriptions were unearthed by French excavations at the site of the ancient city of Ugarit, capital of the kingdom of the same name, in the west of modern Syria. Dr. Gordon published the first of his books on the language in 1940.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Dr. Gordon also gained attention in 1962 when he said he had determined that ancient Crete's Minoan tongue was Northwest Semitic or, broadly speaking, Phoenician. He said in an interview then that this conclusion was a distilling of his earlier theory that the Cretan tongue might have been Akkadian, a Semitic language spoken in ancient Mesopotamia.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">The kingdom of ancient Crete attained its economic and cultural peak around 1600 B.C. It then broke down, but prospered anew after being settled by Dorian Greeks.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Dr. Gordon's conclusion about its ancient language was based on his study of an ancient Minoan script that scholars call Linear Script A. In the 1962 interview, he said his analysis of Minoan texts furnished new corroboration of his longstanding theory that the Greek and Hebrew cultures stemmed in common from a Semitic heritage that spanned the eastern Mediterranean from Greece to Palestine in the Minoan era.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">That view conflicted with the conventional opinion of classical and Near Eastern scholars - that the Greek and Hebrew cultures, though in contact in ancient times, had separate roots - and Dr. Gordon's opinion never gained broad acceptance among academics.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Dr. Gordon also contended that Hebrew inscriptions many centuries old had been found at two sites in the southeastern United States. Those inscriptions, he further maintained, indicated that Jews had arrived here before Columbus. Frank Moore Cross, a retired professor of Hebrew and other Semitic languages at Harvard, said in an interview recently that Dr. Gordon was "in many ways a great scholar" but that this belief "simply did not make sense." </FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Cyrus Herzl Gordon was born in Philadelphia. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, he received a doctorate in Semitics there.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Dr. Gordon was professor of Near Eastern studies at Brandeis University from 1956 to 1973 and chairman of its department of Mediterranean studies from 1958 to 1973. He was a professor of Hebrew studies at New York University from 1973 to 1989, when he retired from that post. For some years, he was also director of N.Y.U.'s Center for Ebla Research. (Ebla was an ancient city in the north of Syria.)</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">His numerous writings include his autobiography, "A Scholar's Odyssey" (Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), for which he won an award from the Jewish Book Council.</FONT></P>
>
> <P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Dr. Gordon married Joan Elizabeth Kendall in 1946. She died in 1985.</FONT>
> <BR><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">He is survived by his wife of 14 years, the former Constance Victoria Wallace; three daughters, Deborah Friedrich of Chicago, Sarah Krakauer of Williamsburg, Va., and Rachel Gordon Bernstein of Greenburgh, N.Y.; two sons, Noah, of Mansfield, Mass., and Dan, of Wellesley, Mass.; two brothers, Maurice, of Wellesley, and Norman, of Claymont, Del.; and 10 grandchildren.</FONT></P>
> <BR>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Ann Popplestone</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">CCC TLC</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">216-987-3584</FONT>
> </P>
>
>
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