Former University professor dies of stroke complications

James Pritchard, a renowned archaeologist and former University professor of religious thought, died of stroke complications January 1 at the Bryn Mawr Terrence Nursing Home near Philadelphia. He was 87. Pritchard, who once said his "career lies in ruins," was the University Museum's first curator of biblical archaeology from 1950 to 1978. He focused his archaeological work on the daily life of those living in the ancient Near East and was also interested in studying areas frequently mentioned in the Bible. "We don't know what the ancient Israelite ate for breakfast," Pritchard once said. "That is amazing, isn't it?" Born in Louisville, Ky., Pritchard earned his undergraduate degrees at Asbury College and Drew University before coming to Penn for a doctorate in Oriental Studies. He spent more than 40 years of his life dedicated to archaeological pursuits in the Middle East. "When you pick up something that's written, you have contact with the ideas of somebody in a more intimate way -- the language of somebody in the far distant past -- than you do with any other kind of object," he told an interviewer. Museum research scientist Patrick McGovern studied with Pritchard while at Penn. "As a teacher [Pritchard] was very thorough," McGovern said. "He expected you to master all the sources and expressed a very objective point of view." McGovern also excavated with Pritchard at the Sarepta site in Lebanon, where they found the earliest example of Phoenician royal purple dye. He said Pritchard was different from other archaeologists because he published his excavations rather than "permitting his work to be lost forever when he died." "He was really the premier biblical archaeologist," McGovern said. Pritchard's most well-known works are Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament and The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament, both of which chronicle his discoveries during his years in the Middle East. He also authored many other books and journal articles. Museum research associate Bill Anderson, another of Pritchard's students and excavation companions, said he "was privileged to know him." Anderson said he remembered that during such disparate pursuits as discussing publication of Pritchard's work in Sarepta and meeting him for coffee, the archaeologist treated him as both a student and a friend. He recalled one instance during their first year of excavation in Lebanon when Pritchard taught him how to eat an artichoke. "That's the kind of relationship we had," Anderson said. "He could teach anyone? and he was a great person to follow." Pritchard also made lasting contributions to the University Museum by donating many of the items he found on his excavations. In 1993, the University created the James B. Pritchard Chair for Biblical Archaeology and Related Fields in his honor. Bruce Rutledge currently serves in that position.