Prof. Anson Rainey, one of the leading scholars of the ancient near east in recent decades has passed away. Anson was an extraordinarily gifted linguist, historian and historical geographer, who made substantial contributions in a wide range of fields of ancient near eastern studies. Perhaps the most important being his studies on the Amarna correspondance and the masterful atlas of the bible “The Sacred Bridge“.
He will be missed!
The funeral will be held tomorrow, at 12 noon, at the cemetery in Barkan.
Yehi Zichro Baruch!
Here is a picture of Anson at the meeting in his honor held at BIU last year:
Aren
Not totally unexpected, but extremely sad nonetheless. Tremendous loss to Biblical Archeology, & academia in general.
He was also huge baseball fan.
Louise
I recall overhearing him discuss the Dallas Cowboys football team (if I remember correctly) enthusiastically back at the 2007 San Diego conferences, which was an unusual thing after reading so many of his technical archeological writings!
He was born in Dallas. His long and rich cv can be accessed at this link: http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/archaeology/directory/dir_anson_rainey.html
He was a facinating man and a great teacher.
He will be sorely missed by all that knew him.