Abstract
Thorkild Jacobsen stands among the great interpreters of Mesopotamian culture. Throughout his life, he was passionately and deeply committed to the study of ancient Mesopotamia: its land, cultures, and languages. Until his death at the age of eighty-eight, he continued to be a vibrant and creative scholar, his engagement and fascination in no way diminished. By virtue of his achievements, vision, and approach, he had surely become the outstanding humanist among contemporary Near Eastern philologists and archaeologists.
Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on June 7, 1904, and died in New Hampshire on May 2, 1993. At the time of