We just received the sad news that Anson Rainey passed away early this afternoon. He was hospitalized about two weeks ago and had been battling pancreatic cancer. The funeral will be held at the cemetery in Barkan at 12 pm tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 20).

Rainey is familiar to most readers of this blog for his enormous contributions to historical geography and to the study of the Amarna letters, but to many other areas as well. He was responsible for training several generations of students who have become our teachers, or even our teachers’ teachers.

He will be greatly missed. A biography and list of Rainey’s publications can be viewed at his Tel Aviv University webpage. His work, The Sacred Bridge, has been highly recommended before on this blog.

Rainey lecturing at the Solomonic Gate at Gezer in 1968 (David Bivin).

HT: Jack Sasson