UK Fellow, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, elected in 2006
Professor Andrew George FBA
Ancient Near Eastern Language and Literature, specifically Assyriology
About this Fellow
Andrew George studied Assyriology at the University of Birmingham (1973-79) and for a while kept a public house in Darlaston. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on 'Babylonian Topographical Texts' under the supervision of W. G. Lambert (1985). Since 1983 he has taught Akkadian and Sumerian language and literature at SOAS, University of London, where he is now Professor of Babylonian. His specialisms are Babylonian literature, religion and intellectual culture. He has been elected Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society (2012). He is a former Visiting Professor at the University of Heidelberg (2000), Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2004-5) and Research Associate at Rikkyo University, Tokyo (2009). He was founding chairman of the London Centre for the Ancient Near East (1995-2000) and for seventeen years co-editor of the archaeological journal Iraq (1994-2011). His best-known books are a critical edition of the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic for OUP (2003) and a prize-winning translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh for Penguin Classics (2000). Most recently he has published six volumes of new texts from cuneiform tablets now in Norway.
Appointments
Current post
- Professor of Babylonian, SOAS, University of London
Past Appointments
- Lecturer in Ancient Near East Studies, Soas, University Of London, 1985 - 1994
- Reader in Assyriology, Soas, University Of London, 1994 - 2000
- , Soas, University Of London, 1985
- Professor of Babylonian, University of London, Soas, University Of London, 2000
Publications
Babylonian Topographical Texts 1992
House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia 1993
The Epic of Gilgamesh: a new translation 1999
The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: introduction, critical edition, and cuneiform texts 2003
Babylonian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection 2009
Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schøyen Colection 2011
Babylonian Divinatory Texts Chiefly in the Schøyen Collection 2013
Other Africa, Asia and the Middle East Fellows
Professor Michael Cook
The history of the Islamic world; the formation & development of traditional Islamic thought, & its implications in the modern world; Islamic thought, & its implications in the modern world; Islamic history in comparative perspective.
Professor Hugh Kennedy
The History and Archaeology of the early Islamic Middle-East, North Africa and Spain c.600-1000 AD
Professor Jean-Pierre Mahé
Languages & civilisations of the Christian Near East (Armenian, Caucasian, Albanian, Coptic, Georgian); epigraphy. palaeography; Armenian history;
Professor Charles Tripp
Politics in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq & Egypt; Islamic political thought; the relationship between art & power in the Middle East.
