Historical records matching Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, Ph.D.
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About Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, Ph.D.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephraim_Avigdor_Speiser
Ephraim Avigdor Speiser (January 24, 1902 – June 15, 1965) was a Jewish Polish-born American Assyriologist. He discovered the ancient site of Tepe Gawra in 1927 and supervised its excavation between 1931 and 1938.
Pre-war career
He was born in Skalat, Galicia, (then in Austrian Poland, now Ukraine) and went to school in Lwow. In 1920, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States, eventually becoming a US citizen in 1926. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received his M.A. in 1923, before earning his Ph.D. from Dropsie College in Philadelphia in 1924. From 1924 to 1926 he was Harrison Research Fellow in Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1926, Speiser won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study remains of the ancient Mitanni and Hurrians in northern Mesopotamia. While there in 1927 he discovered the Tepe Gawra (or "Great Mound"), one of the world's earliest cradles of civilization. In 1928 he was appointed assistant professor of Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania, and full professor in 1931. He was field director of the Joint Excavation of the ASOR and the University Museum, 1930–1932, 1936–1937, undertaking excavations in Tepe Gawra and Tell Billa. He also translated the Hurrian legal texts found at Nuzi.
During World War II, Speiser left academia to become chief of the Office of Strategic Services' Near East Section of the Research and Analysis Branch in Washington. He established a long tradition of American students and scholars of Orientalistik entering and serving in the intelligence services.
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/faids/upt/upt50/speiser_ea.html
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Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, Ph.D.'s Timeline
| 1902 |
January 24, 1902
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Skalat, Pidvolochys'kyi district, Ternopil's'ka oblast, Ukraine
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| 1965 |
June 15, 1965
Age 63
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Elkins Park, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States
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