author
Albert Tobias Clay
1866–1925
A pioneering Assyriologist, he helped bring the ancient world of Babylonia and Assyria into clearer view for modern readers. His work at Yale and his studies of cuneiform texts made him an important early interpreter of the ancient Near East.
1 Audiobook
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
by Morris Jastrow, Albert Tobias Clay
About the author
Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, in 1866, Albert Tobias Clay became an American scholar of Assyriology, Semitic languages, and ancient Near Eastern history. He studied at Franklin and Marshall College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary, and he was ordained to the Lutheran ministry before moving fully into academic work.
Clay taught at the University of Pennsylvania and later at Yale University, where he served as professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature. He also became the founding curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection, helping build one of the major American collections of cuneiform tablets and other materials from the ancient Near East.
He is remembered for editing and publishing important Babylonian texts and for writing books that explored the history, literature, and religion of the ancient world, including work on the Gilgamesh tradition. He died in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1925, but his scholarship remained influential in the study of Mesopotamia and the early civilizations of the Near East.