Milestones: Anson F. Rainey (1930–2011)

Anson F. Rainey, Israel’s leading historical geographer of the land of the Bible and a master of cuneiform languages such as Akkadian and Ugaritic, as well as ancient Egyptian (hieroglyphic and hieratic), to say nothing of Hebrew and Arabic, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on February 19. He was 81. Anson also participated in a dozen different archaeological excavations, from volunteer to area supervisor and was often a member of the core staff. One obituary accurately described him as “one of the last of the titans.” His scholarly output was prodigious. His résumé includes 12 books, 112 scholarly articles, 48 […]