Giovanni Pettinato (30 April 1934, in Troina – 19 May 2011, in Rome) was an Assyriologist and paleographer of writings from the ancient Near East, specializing in the Eblaite language,[1] His major contributions to the field include the deciphering of the Eblaite script, discovered by Paolo Matthiae in 1974–75.[2][3][4][5]

Portrait of Giovanni Pettinatto

Pettinato graduated from Heidelberg in 1968, where he had studied for ten years. In 1968 he began teaching Assyriology at the University of Rome.[6]

Pettinato died on 19 May 2011 at the age of 76. He was an emeritus of several associations, including the Accademia dei Lincei[7] and authored several publications about the Sumerian and Mesopotamian civilizations.[8]

References edit

  1. ^ Pettinato, Giovanni (1991). Ebla, a new look at history. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-4150-7.
  2. ^ Moorey, 1991, p.150–152.
  3. ^ Freeman, Tzvi. "Is there evidence of Abraham's revolution? - The Big Picture". Chabad.org. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  4. ^ Gabriela Cañas (25 November 1983). "El investigador de la lengua de Ebla cree haber descubierto un mundo de hace 5.000 años" (in Spanish). Elpais.com. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  5. ^ Carlo Forin (31 August 2006). "Auditorium - Tesi e ricerche di arte , archeologia e storia" (in Italian). Auditorium.info. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  6. ^ "Prof. Dr. Giovanni Pettinato" (in German). Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  7. ^ "Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei - Premi e borse di studio - Premi del Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione finora conferiti" (in Italian). Lincei.it. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  8. ^ Anna Barysava (24 May 2011). "Prof. Dr. Giovanni Pettinato". Uni-heidelberg.de. Retrieved 6 June 2011.