Miguel Civil facts for kids
Miguel Civil (born Miquel Civil i Desveus; May 7, 1926 – January 13, 2019) was an American expert on Sumer and ancient Mesopotamia. He was a top scholar at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute. His colleague, Christopher Woods, said that when Miguel Civil passed away, he knew the Sumerian language better than anyone since it was last spoken about 4,000 years ago.
Early Life and Studies
Miguel Civil was born in 1926 in Sabadell, a city in Barcelona, Spain. He studied Sumerology in Paris. Sumerology is the study of the ancient civilization of Sumer. From 1958 to 1963, he worked as a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1964, he joined the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. He became a professor who taught about Sumerian culture and language. He worked there until 2001. He also helped lead studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. He was an epigraphist, meaning he studied ancient writings, for the Nippur Expedition to Iraq. This was a project to dig up and study ancient sites in Iraq.
He was also part of the team that created the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. This is a very large dictionary of an ancient language. He also edited a series of books called Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon, which focused on Sumerian words. Many people thought he was the best expert on how the cuneiform script was used to write the Sumerian language. Cuneiform is an ancient writing system that uses wedge-shaped marks.
His Important Work
Miguel Civil spent his career trying to understand the Sumerian language better. He also studied the many ancient texts written in Sumerian. He published many works about Sumerian stories, poems, and word lists. His work helped us learn more about the Sumerian writing system, their language, literature, and culture. He studied everything from how Sumerian sounds were made to how they farmed.
He also wrote about texts from Ebla, another ancient city. Some of his most important books include:
- The Farmer's Instructions: A Sumerian Agricultural Manual (1994): This book was about an ancient guide for farmers.
- The Early Dynastic Practical Vocabulary A (Archaic HAR-ra A) (2008): This work focused on very old lists of words.
- The Lexical texts in the Schøyen Collection (2010): This book was about more ancient word lists found in a famous collection.
Death
Miguel Civil passed away in Chicago, Illinois, when he was 92 years old.
See also
In Spanish: Miguel Civil para niños
