Emeritus Associate Professor of Assyriology; Emeritus Associate Curator of the Babylonian Tablet Collection

Phone: 898-4128
Office: 230 Museum
E-mail:

Barry Eichler is an Emeritus Associate Professor of Assyriology and Emeritus Associate Curator of the Babylonian Tablet Collection of the University Museum. He has been a Penn faculty member for over 40 years, and has taught courses in Jewish law at the Penn Law School. He has been a visiting professor at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University and a fellow at Yale University, and the Hebrew University. He has been awarded fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, University Research Foundation, the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and the National Education Act. He is the author of Indenture at Nuzi (Yale Near Eastern Researches, and has edited several volumes. His forthcoming book is the publication of the Sumerian myth, Inanna and Mount Ebih. Eichler's major research and teaching interests focus on cultural inter-relationships between biblical and ancient Near Eastern civilizations, with primary interest in the field of ancient law. He regularly teaches courses in Akkadian texts and Mesopotamian literature, and offers, when possible, courses in biblical and ancient Near Eastern law, rabbinic legal midrash, and Jewish law and ethics. His other major area of interest is Sumerian literature and lexicography which is related directly to the NEH funded Sumerian Dictionary Project.

Courses

NELC 101: Introduction to the Ancient Near East
NELC 145: Ancient Iraq: Mesopotamian Culture and Its Legacy
NELC 152: Jewish Law & Ethics
NELC 342: Introduction to Mesopotamian Literature
NELC 440: 1st Year Akkadian I
NELC 441: 1ST Year Akkadian II
NELC 542: Akkadian Letters
NELC 741: Akkadian Legal Texts