Emeritus Faculty

Ignace J. Gelb (1907–1985) was a pioneering Assyriologist whose work shaped the study of Mesopotamian languages, writing systems, and social history. Born in Tarnów, then part of Austria-Hungary and now in Poland, Gelb earned his PhD from the University of Rome in 1929 at the age of twenty-one. That same year, James Henry Breasted recruited him to the Oriental Institute and the University of Chicago, where he spent nearly his entire academic career.

Gelb joined the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project soon after arriving in Chicago and played a decisive role in its postwar revival. He served as Editor-in-Charge from 1947 to 1954 and remained a member of the editorial board thereafter. His scholarship ranged widely, from Hittite hieroglyphs and Old Akkadian texts to the social and economic history of third-millennium Mesopotamia. His influential book A Study of Writing (1952) helped establish the field of grammatology by tracing the historical development of writing systems.

A prolific author and the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, Gelb left a lasting mark on Assyriology and on the intellectual foundations of the CAD.