U. of C. Assyrian scholar

January 4, 2006

BY LORI RACKL Staff Reporter

Erica Reiner, a University of Chicago scholar, gained international acclaim as an authority on the world's oldest written languages.

Ms. Reiner died in her Hyde Park home on Saturday. She was 81 years old.

She spent more than two decades as the main editor of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, an encyclopedic work depicting the culture of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and the Akkadian language that prevailed in the region for 2,500 years.

"It is difficult to overstate the significance of Erica Reiner's contributions to the understanding of the ancient Near East," said Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute at University of Chicago, where Ms. Reiner taught for 40 years.

She began working on the Assyrian dictionary in 1952, when she arrived at the U. of C. as a research assistant after studying in Budapest and Paris. The first of 23 volumes was published in 1956, using texts from clay tablets recovered by archeologists in Iraq, Iran, Syria and nearby areas. The ancient texts span a period from 2400 B.C. to 100 A.D., when Akkadian was widely used in the Near East.

Ms. Reiner took charge of the dictionary in 1973 and continued that role until her retirement in 1996.

"It is impossible to envision the field of Assyriology, or more broadly of ancient Near Eastern studies, without the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary," said Professor Martha Roth, the publication's current editor-in-charge. "And it is impossible to envision the dictionary without Erica."

The dictionary, Stein said, is more than a mere list of words and their translations.

"The effective editing of a work of this scope requires a person whose knowledge encompasses philology [historical linguistics], linguistics, poetry, history, literature, law, religion, astronomy and the history of science," Stein said. "Erica was one of the handful of people in the world who had that daunting list of qualifications."

Stein said Ms. Reiner's passion for her work was legendary, and she continued to play a key role in writing, reviewing and editing entries even after she retired.

Throughout her lengthy academic career, Ms. Reiner also wrote numerous articles and several books, one of which traced the origins of Greek science and medicine in Babylonia. She was one of the few people in the world proficient in the ancient language of Elamite.

Ms. Reiner is survived by her sister, Eva Cherna, of Montreal.

Mass will be offered at 11 a.m. Jan. 13 at St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, 5472 S. Kimbark.

lrackl@suntimes.com