author
Stephen Langdon
1876–1937
An American-born scholar who became one of Oxford’s leading Assyriologists, he helped open up the world of ancient Mesopotamia for modern readers. His work ranged from Sumerian religion and literature to cuneiform texts and archaeology.
2 Audiobooks
The Epic of Gilgamish A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform
by Stephen Langdon
Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms
by Stephen Langdon
About the author
Born in Michigan in 1876, Stephen Herbert Langdon studied at the University of Michigan and later at Union Theological Seminary before turning toward Assyriology. He went on to build his career in Britain and became a prominent scholar of the languages, religion, and literature of ancient Mesopotamia.
Langdon taught at the University of Oxford, where he served as Professor of Assyriology, and he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He was especially known for his studies of Sumerian and Babylonian religion, as well as for editing and interpreting cuneiform texts that helped scholars better understand the ancient Near East.
He died in 1937, leaving behind a substantial body of work that continued to influence Assyriology after his death. Readers interested in the early study of Mesopotamian myth, ritual, and literature will find in his writing the work of a scholar deeply engaged with some of the oldest surviving texts in human history.