Anson Rainey

Anson Frank Rainey (January 11, 1930 – February 19, 2011) was professor emeritus of ancient Near Eastern cultures and Semitic linguistics at Tel Aviv University.

He is known in particular for contributions to the study of the Amarna tablets, the noted administrative letters from the period of Pharaoh Akhenaten's rule during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt.

[citation needed] From 1948 to 1949 he worked as assistant commandant at the Brown Military Academy of the Ozarks, in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, while attending university.

[citation needed] However, Rainey's main activity for the academic year 1962–63 was research and study under a grant from the Warburg Fund at the Hebrew University.

The department was reorganized under the title, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, in which he served as coordinator for Mesopotamian studies until October 1975.

He was promoted to the rank of full professor of ancient Near Eastern cultures and Semitic linguistics effective July 1, 1981.

He continued his connection with the American Institute of Holy Land Studies – now the Jerusalem University College – teaching Historical Geography and, for six years, from 1964 to 1969, conducting their intensive program of geographical field trips.

[citation needed] From 1982 to 1985 he began teaching part-time at Bar Ilan University in the Department of Eretz-Israel Studies.

In August and September 1999 he spent the sabbatical time working at the British Museum collating el-‘Amârna tablets.

During the spring 2002 semester, he was invited to teach as a visiting professor of historical geography and Ancient Hebrew at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea.

From 2003 to 2004 he spent ten months collating the el-‘Amârna tablets at the Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin and at other venues in Europe.

During the 53rd Rencontre of the International Association of Assyriologists in Moscow in July 2007, he collated the last three el-‘Amârna tablets, at the Pushkin Museum.

[citation needed] Anson Rainey died, aged 81, from pancreatic cancer in Tel Hashomer, Israel.