James Henry Breasted—The Oriental Institute; Volume
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oi.uchicago.edu THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SURVEY VOLUME XII oi.uchicago.edu LIST OF VOLUMES THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SURVEY I. TRENDS IN UNIVERSITY GROWTH II. THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNIVER SITY III. THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY IV. INSTRUCTIONAL PROBLEMS IN THE UNIVERSITY V. ADMISSION AND RETENTION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS VI. THE ALUMNI OF THE COLLEGES VII. THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES VIII. THE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERVICES IX. UNIVERSITY PLANT FACILITIES X. SOME UNIVERSITY STUDENT PROBLEMS XI. CLASS SIZE AND UNIT COSTS XII. THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE oi.uchicago.edu THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE oi.uchicago.edu THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY NEW YORK THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON THE MARUZEN-K.ABUSHIK.I-KAISHA TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI THE COMMERCIAL PRESS, LIMITED SHANGHAI oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu PLATE I From a painting by Nina de Garis Davits AN EGYPTIAN NOBLE AND HIS FAMILY HUNTING IN THE MARSHES. WALL. SCENE IN A TOMB NEAR LUXOR, FIFTEENTH CENTURY B.C. oi.uchicago.edu The University of Chicago Survey r Volume XII THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE JAMES HENRY BREASTED Director THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO • ILLINOIS oi.uchicago.edu COPYRIGHT I933 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED APRIL 1933 SECOND IMPRESSION AUGUST I933 COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A. oi.uchicago.edu FOREWORD In 1923 the General Education Board of New York City granted funds to the University of Chicago for the making of a survey of the institution; later the gift was supplemented by a second grant. On recommendation of Acting President Woodward in February, 1929, Floyd W. Reeves was appointed as professor of education and Director of the University Survey. Work on the survey was begun October 1, 1929, and has been carried on continuously since that date. The entire scope of the survey embraces some forty or fifty proj ects, which are being grouped for purposes of publication into a series of volumes. This report on The Oriental Institute is Volume XII of the series. The titles in the series are announced on page ii of this publication. A comprehensive survey of a large research enterprise is a new undertaking in educational administration. So far as the writer is aware, no model exists by which such a survey may be planned. In the present instance it was fortunately possible to arrange with Dr. Breasted to undertake the making of this survey of the Oriental Institute. The reader who is acquainted with the field of oriental research will recognize at once the uniqueness of Dr. Breasted's qualifications for the making of such a survey. In planning the study the Director of the University Survey made a few suggestions regarding the general scope of topics to be covered, but these were only suggestions, and Dr. Breasted, the author of the volume, has been left entirely free to work out the plan for this part of the Uni versity survey as it seemed best to him. This is a document for which no apologies are needed. Students of educational literature who are familiar with published survey reports will find it distinctly different from anything that they have previously encountered under the title of a survey. At the same vii oi.uchicago.edu Vlll FOREWORD time it must be remembered that this is a pioneer attempt at sur veying this type of research organization. It is to be hoped that this extremely interesting document may induce other large re search enterprises to make corresponding analyses of their ac tivities. FLOYD W. REEVES, Director University Survey February 7, 1933 oi.uchicago.edu PREFACE In issuing this sketch, intended to explain the purpose and char acter of the Oriental Institute, I would like to indicate to my fellow- orientalists that this volume is part of a comprehensive survey of the University of Chicago in twelve volumes. The requirements of that survey have therefore dictated the character and the content of the volume. The typical reader to whom the book is addressed has necessarily been the student of education—that is to say, as far as oriental science is concerned, essentially the average intelligent lay man. The book therefore contains much which is superfluous for the professional orientalist and to which he need give no attention. While the discussions, the accounts of the various expeditions, and the surveys of the Oriental Institute's research projects are not in tended to be scientific reports, they nevertheless contain a body of new facts with which the modern orientalist will wish to be ac quainted. The most important general fact involved in these new observa tions is without doubt the scope, character, and purpose of the Oriental Institute itself. The responsibility of making the Institute intelligible as a scientific agency has been the most difficult as well as the most important objective of these chapters. The Institute is essentially an organized endeavor to recover the lost story of the rise of man by salvaging the surviving evidence on a more compre hensive scale than has hitherto been possible and then by analysis and synthesis building up an account of human development on a broader basis of evidence than has heretofore been available. Such an effort was in the first instance financial. However in dispensable and important the financial basis has been, nearly all the facts regarding this aspect of the foundation and development of the Institute have nevertheless been omitted as of secondary importance. It has been the author's purpose to acknowledge in the text such portions of the book as are drawn from reports of the field direc- IX oi.uchicago.edu X PREFACE tors and other members of the Institute staffs; but he would here express his thanks for their invaluable co-operation which has made the volume possible. The author would also acknowledge with gratitude his substan tial indebtedness to Dr. Allen and the staff of the Instituted edi torial office in the final editorial revision of the text of the volume. JAMES HENRY BREASTED THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE CHICAGO January 19, 1933 oi.uchicago.edu TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii PART L THE BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE CHAPTER I. THE TASK OF THE ORIENTALIST AND ITS PLACE IN SCIENCE AND HISTORY i The Position of the Near East in the Rise of Man ... 3 The Wide Range of the Evidence and the Earlier Efforts To Deal with It . 11 The Personnel of the New Organization Needed ... 25 II. THE BACKGROUND OF THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE ... 27 III. THE EXPANSION OF THE.ORIENTAL INSTITUTE: THE FIELD EXPEDITIONS 65 IV. THE EXPANSION OF THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE: THE AMERI CAN HEADQUARTERS 103 Museum and Administration 103 The New Oriental Institute Building 108 Teaching and Research 126 PART II. THE FIELD EXPEDITIONS: EGYPT V. THE PREHISTORIC SURVEY . 129 VI. THE SAKKARAH (MEMPHIS) EXPEDITION 145 VII. THE COFFIN TEXTS 149 VIII. THE ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY 169 IX. THE EPIGRAPHIC EXPEDITION 187 X. EGYPTIAN PAINTING AND THE ABYDOS EXPEDITION . 224 Egyptian Painting 224 The Abydos Expedition (in Association with the Egypt Exploration Society) 228 xi oi.uchicago.edu Xll CONTENTS PART III. THE FIELD EXPEDITIONS: WESTERN ASIA CHAPTER PAGE XL THE MEGIDDO (ARMAGEDDON) EXPEDITION 234 XII. THE ANATOLIAN-HITTITE EXPEDITION 265 XIII. THE SYRIAN-HITTITE EXPEDITION 301 XIV. THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION 310 XV. THE IRAQ EXPEDITION: BABYLONIAN SECTION .... 337 XVI. THE IRAQ EXPEDITION: ASSYRIAN SECTION 362 PART IV. ACTIVITIES OF THE HOME STAFF: RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION XVII. THE ASSYRIAN DICTIONARY 378 XVIIL CORRELATION PROJECTS AND MISCELLANEOUS RESEARCHES 401 Organizations of Materials and Sources 401 Egyptological Studies 408 Assyriological and Allied Studies 414 Hittite Studies 416 Syro-Palestinian and Biblical Studies 418 Arabic and Moslem Studies 421 XIX. PUBLICATION 427 INDEX INDEX 443 oi.uchicago.edu LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS COLOR PLATES P LAT E PAG E I. AN EGYPTIAN NOBLE AND HIS FAMILY HUNTING IN THE MARSHES Frontispiece II. KING SETI I BURNING INCENSE TO OSIRIS AND UPWAWET facing 230 TEXT FIGURES FIGURE PAGE i. THE BODY OF A PREHISTORIC EGYPTIAN 16 2. STUMP OF A SO-CALLED MYRRH-SYCAMORE PLANTED NEARLY 1500 B.C 17 3. EVOLUTION OF THE PLOW FROM THE HOE 19 4. EGYPTIAN PEASANTS PLOWING 19 5. STALL-FEEDING OF SEMI-DOMESTICATED ANIMALS—ANTELOPES AND HYENAS—ALONG WITH CATTLE 20 6. DOMESTICATED HORSES IN BABYLONIA NEARLY 3000 B.C. 23 7. BIVOUAC IN THE FOURTH CATARACT REGION 30 8. PHOTOGRAPHING A ROCK INSCRIPTION OF AN ANCIENT VICE ROY OF NUBIA, INI, AT ABU SIMBEL 31 9. METHOD OF SHADING AND ILLUMINATING AN INSCRIPTION FROM A REFLECTOR ERECTED AT ONE SIDE . 32 10. DAHABIYEH OF THE NUBIAN EPIGRAPHIC EXPEDITION ... 34 II. AIRPLANE VIEW LOOKING NORTH ACROSS THE VAST CONSTRUC TION CAUSEWAY OF THE DEMOLISHED PYRAMID OF ABU ROASH, EGYPT 38 12. PAPYRUS MILBANK, AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD . 41 13. PART OF OUR ARAB ESCORT IN LOWER BABYLONIA ... 42 14. THE RAILWAY STATION AT ANCIENT BABYLON 43 15. GORGEOUS INCRUSTATION OF GLAZED PLAQUES AT THE EN TRANCE OF THE TOMB MOSQUE OF CALI AT NEJEF .... 44 16. TEMPLE TOWER OF BIRS NIMRUD, UPPER BABYLONIA ... 45 xiii oi.uchicago.edu XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PACK 17. TEMPLE TOWER OF CAKERKUF, UPPER BABYLONIA .... 46 18. GENERAL VIEW OF ASSUR, THE EARLIEST ASSYRIAN CAPITAL . 47 19. PALACE PLATFORM OF SENNACHERIB AND ASSURBANIPAL AT NINEVEH (SEVENTH CENTURY B.C.) 48 20. OUR SEVEN CARS NEAR THE EUPHRATES CROSSING AT FALLUJAH (UPPER BABYLONIA) ON THE FIRST LAP FROM BAGHDAD TO THE MEDITERRANEAN 51 21. SANCTUARY CONTAINING THE WALL PAINTINGS IN THE GREAT ROMAN FORTRESS AT SALIHIYAH ON THE UPPER EUPHRATES .