Fritz Hommel was born at Ansbach, July 31, 1854. Professor of Semitic Languages in the University of Munich. Professor Hommel is a distinguished member of that band of German students who have made orientalism their life-work. His particular studies have had to do chiefly with the Semitic race. His history of Babylonia and Assyria is one of the most recent and certainly among the most comprehensive and authoritative works on the subject that have yet been written. As Professor Hommel is yet a comparatively young man, he very naturally belongs to the advanced school of Assyriologists, and his work may be looked to with confidence for an expression of the furthest present advance of research. In particular, Professor Hommel is distinguished as an ardent champion of the Babylonian or Chaldean origin of the Phœnician alphabet in opposition to the theory of de Rougé, which ascribed to it an Egyptian origin. Most of Hommel’s publications are to be had only in the original German.
Howorth, H. H., The Early History of Babylonia (in Engl. Hist. Rev., vol. 13, pp. 1, 209, vol. 14, p. 625, vol. 16, p. 1); On the Earliest Inscriptions from Chaldea (in Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archeol., vol. 21, p. 289, London, 1899).
Jastrow, M., The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Boston, 1898; Nabopolassar and the Temple to the Sun-god at Sippar (in Amer. Jour, of Sem. Lang.; Chicago, 1899, vol. 15, p. 65).—Jensen, P., Kish (in Ztschr. für Assyriologie; Berlin, 1901, vol. 15): Assyrisch-babylon, Mythen und Epen (in Keilschrftl. Bibl.; Berlin, 1900, vol. 6): Die Cosmologie der Babylonier. Strassburg, 1890.—Johnson, C., The Fall of the Assyrian Empire (in studies in honour of B. L. Gildersleeve; Baltimore, 1902, p. 113): The Fall of Nineveh (in Amer. Orient. Soc. Journ.; New Haven, 1901, vol. 22, pt. 1, p. 20).—Justinius, Justin’s History of the World. London, 1875.—Jeremias, A., Hölle und Paradies bei den Babyloniern. Leipsic, 1900.
Kaulen, F., Assyrien und Babylonien, nach den neuesten Entdeckungen. Freiburg, 1891, 4th ed.—Kennedy, J., Early Commerce of Babylonia with India, etc. London, 1898.—King, L. W., Babylonian Religion and Mythology, London, 1899; Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, etc. London, 1898-1900, 3 vols.
Leonard William King was born in London, December 8, 1869, and educated at Rugby and King’s College, Cambridge. As assistant in the department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquity of the British Museum, he has made very extensive studies in the literature of Babylonia and Assyria. He has collected and arranged many series of cuneiform inscriptions, besides adding much to the literature on both Babylonia and Assyria. His writings are for the most part rather technical.
Kinns, S., Graven in the Rock. London, 1891.—Knudtzon, J. A., Assyr. Gebete an den Sonnengott. Leipsic, 1893, 2 vols.—Kohler, J., and Peisser, F. E., Aus dem babylonischen Rechtleben. Leipsic, 1890.—Koldewey, R., in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie. Dec., 1887.—Krall, J., Grundriss der altorientalischen Geschichte. Wien, 1899.—Krüger, J., Geschichte der Assyrier und Iranier, vom XIII, bis zum V. Jahrh. v. C. Frankfurt, 1856.
Langlois, V., Le Dunuk-Dasch, tombeau de Sardanapale à Tarsovo (in Rev. Archéol.; Paris, 1853, vol. 10).—Laurent, A., La Magie et la Divination de l’Orient. Paris, 1894.—Layard, A. H., Nineveh and its Remains. London, 1849, 2 vols.; Nineveh and Babylon. London, 1853; Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia. London, 1887; Monuments of Nineveh. London, 1849-1854.
Sir Austin Henry Layard was born in Paris, of English parentage, March 5, 1817. He spent the years of his early youth in Florence. On returning to England he began the study of law. In 1839 he took an extended tour, chiefly within the Turkish Empire. Here he learned Persian and Arabic. In 1842 he spent some months in exploring the antiquities of southwestern Persia. It was during this expedition that he became interested in the excavations being made at the supposed site of Nineveh by M. Botta. In 1845 he returned to Mosul and began his series of researches. The material that he gathered in this expedition greatly enriched the oriental department of the British Museum; and by means of the cuneiform inscriptions found the ancient oriental history was completely reconstructed. In 1852 he made a second series of excavations in Assyria, adding largely to his former discoveries. The same year he was elected to Parliament. In 1854 he visited Crimea, witnessing some battles there. He was chosen lord rector of Aberdeen University in 1855, and in 1866 became a trustee of the British Museum. Shortly after this he was elected foreign member of the Institute of France. In 1869, Ambassador to Spain; in 1878, to Constantinople. He died July 5, 1894. The name of this famous Englishman will always be indelibly associated with the origin of the science of Assyriology. To Layard it was chiefly due that the once famous but long almost forgotten city of Nineveh was exhumed and its buried treasures given to the world. The story of these exhumations is a part of the history of Assyria-Babylonia, and has already been told.
Lehmann, C., Altbabylon, Maass und Gewicht. Berlin, 1889; Beiträge zur alten Geschichte. Leipsic, 1901; Shamasshumukin, König von Babylonia, 668-669 v. C. Leipsic, 1892; Zwei Hauptprobleme der altorientalischen Chronologie und ihre Lösung. Leipsic, 1898.—Lenormant, F., Les dieux de Babylone et de l’Assyrie. Paris, 1877; Lettres assyriologiques, 2nd series; Études accadiennes. Paris, 1879-1880; Chaldean Magic: Origin and Development. London, 1877; Premières civilisations. Paris; in collab. with Chevalier, E., A Manual of the Ancient History of the East. London, 1869-1870, 2 vols.; in collab. with Babelon, E., Histoire ancienne de l’Orient. Paris, 1881-1886.
François Lenormant was born in Paris 17th January, 1837; died there 10th December, 1883. His education was private. Early in life he showed a special aptitude and liking for the study of the oriental languages. He travelled extensively in Egypt, Turkey, and Greece, and became prominent for his researches in the Accadian languages. In 1874 he was appointed Professor of Archæology at the Bibliothèque, Paris. The son of an archæologist of distinguished merit, Lenormant grew up in an atmosphere of scholarship, and early evinced a keen taste for all that pertained to archæology. He entered the field of Assyriology in its infancy, and soon became known as a leader among the masters in that field, and his early death was regarded everywhere as one of the severest blows which oriental archæology could have received. Lenormant was regarded by his fellow-workers as having a peculiar genius for his task, and his taste for literary work was no less keen than his scholarship. The fact that his great work on Oriental History was at once translated into English vouches for its popular interest. Unfortunately he did not live to complete his still more important work on the same subject, to which the last years of his life were devoted.