KHK Visiting Research Fellow 2009
Full Professor of Ancient Studies, Stellenbosch University, Republic of South Africa

In 1999 Izak Cornelius became Full Professor of Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University. Prior to that he had been Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern Studies since 1984 in the same department. Izak Cornelius has been awarded several fellowships and grants, of which the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships at Heidelberg (1996) and Tubingen (2002/2003, 2005/2006, 2013/2014) deserve special mention. He is co-editor of the Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages.

Izak Cornelius specializes in the study of Ancient Near Eastern cultures, focusing on art and iconography and visible religion. Another major topic of his research is the connection between the Hebrew Bible and the ancient world. During his time in Bochum he was investigating, in an ongoing collaboration with Christian Frevel, the changes in the religious symbol system in the formative phase of pre-Hellenistic Judaism. Additionally Izak Cornelius is currently preparing a catalogue for ancient Palestinian female terracotta plaques.

Education

• D.Litt., Semitic Languages, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, 1985
• Lic. theol., Christian Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, 1984
• B.Th., Christian Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, 1982
• M.A., Semitic Languages, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, 1980
• B.A. (Hons.), Semitic Languages, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, 1979

Käte Hamburger Fellowship

April 2009 – March 2010
Project: Traces of Monothesism in the Material Culture? Changes in the Religious Symbol System in the Formative Phase of Pre-Hellenistic Judaism in the Iron Age III and the Persian Period