DELOUGAZ, PIERRE PINCHAS

DELOUGAZ, PIERRE PINCHAS (1901–1975), educator and archaeologist. Born in Russia, he went as a child with his parents to Palestine. Later he studied in France and the United States. His activities as field archaeologist included excavations at *Nuzi (Iraq), 1928–29; at Khorsabad (Iraq), 1929–30, where he uncovered the famous colossal bull ("father of the elephant"); in 1931 he directed the excavations at Khafaje (Iraq); and in 1952 he directed excavations at Bet Yeraḥ (Israel). In 1944 he was appointed curator of the Oriental Institute Museum at Chicago, and in 1949 became a member of the faculty of the University of Chicago (professor at its Oriental Institute from 1960). His method of teaching and research combined archaeology and literature. He considered art objects as "social documents" to be used as "evidence" in interpretations. In addition to numerous articles he published several books, among them The Temple Oval at Khafajah (1940), Pottery from the Diyala Region (1952), Plano-Convex Bricks… Treatment of Clay Tablets in the Field (1933), Pre-Sargonid Temples in the Diyala Region (1942, with S. Lloyd). On Delougaz' method and the meaning of the term "Proto-literate period," coined by him in 1942, see: R.E. Braidwood, The Near East and the Foundations of Civilization (1952, 1962²), 37, 45; I. Lloyd, Mounds of the Near East (1963), s.v. Delougaz, protoliterate; R.W. Ehrich (ed.), Chronologies in Old World Archaeology (1965), s.v. proto-literate.

[Penuel P. Kahane]