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'<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:dirk-obbink.jpg|thumb|right|Dr Dirk Obbink in 2009]] --> '''Dirk D. Obbink''' (born 1957 in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]]) is an American-born [[Papyrology|papyrologist]] and [[Classicist]]. He is the Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature in the Faculty of Classics at [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] and is the head of the [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri]] Project. Obbink is also Fellow and Tutor in the [[University of Oxford]] ([[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]]).<ref name=tau> [http://www.tau.ac.il/institutes/advanced/reports/annual2006.pdf] Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies</ref> ==Biography== Dirk Obbink's ancestors were originally from the [[Netherlands]], later emigrating to the United States. Obbink took a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in English at the [[University of Nebraska]] before going on to take an [[Master of Arts|MA]] in Classical Studies and Papyrology at the same university. In 1986 he gained his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] at [[Stanford University]] with his doctoral thesis ''On the Piety of the Greek Philosophers - Philodem''. After an assistant professorship at [[Columbia University]] in New York in 1995 Obbink was appointed to the post of Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature in the Faculty of Classics at [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]]<ref>[http://www.classicalassociation.org/CLASSICI/Oxford.html] Classicists at British Universities</ref> and was appointed the head of the [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri]] Project. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a large collection of ancient [[manuscript]]s discovered by [[archaeologist]]s at an ancient rubbish dump near [[Oxyrhynchus]] in [[Egypt]]. They include thousands of [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] documents, letters and literary works.<ref>[http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/] Oxford University Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project</ref> In addition, from 2003 to 2006 Obbink was the Ludwig Koenen Collegiate Professor of Papyrology at the [[University of Michigan]]. Since 1998 Obbink has been the Director of the ''Imaging Papyri Project'' at Oxford. This project is working to capture digitised images of Greek and Latin papyri held by the [[Ashmolean Museum]] (the [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri]]), and the [[Bodleian Library]] and the [[Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III|Biblioteca Nazionale]] in [[Naples]] (the carbonized scrolls from the [[Villa of the Papyri]] at [[Herculaneum]]), for the creation of an Oxford bank of digitised images of papyri. The newly digitised versions of the literary texts will be published.<ref>[http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/papyri.asp] Research Projects at Oxford University - Imaging Papyri Project</ref> Obbink and his team of [[Papyrology|papyrologists]] combine traditional [[Philology|philological]] methods with more recent digital imaging techniques. Obbink has made accessible heavily damaged texts from the ancient world, many of which had been regarded as being irretrievably lost. In this way the damaged texts of the [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri]] and the [[Villa of the Papyri]] can now be read for the first time. Through his researches Obbink has substantially increased our knowledge of ancient literature, society and philosophy. He is as familiar with the poetry of [[Sappho]] or [[Simonides]] discovered in the Egyptian Oxyrhynchus papyri as he is with the technical-philosophical writings of the [[Epicurean]] [[Philodemus]], the text of which he recovered from the carbonized papyrus rolls discovered in [[Philodemus#The Villa of the Papyri|The Villa of the Papyri]] at [[Herculaneum]].<ref name=KUL/> In 2001 Obbink received the [[MacArthur Fellows Program|MacArthur Fellowship]] for his work on the [[Papyrus|papyri]] from [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri|Oxyrhynchus]] and [[Herculaneum]]. In May 2007 the [[Katholieke Universiteit Leuven]] awarded him an honorary doctorate.<ref name=tau/><ref name=KUL>[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBenutzer%3AUoeia%2FD%2FD%2FDirk_Obbink] Honorary Doctorates awarded by Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2007)</ref> In March 2010 Obbink appeared in [[Channel 4]]'s series ''Alexandria: The Greatest City'', presented by [[Bettany Hughes]]. In the programme he talked about the ancient [[Library of Alexandria]]. He also featured briefly in the 2015 BBC documentary ''Love and Life on Lesbos with [[Margaret Mountford]],'' in which he showed Mountford a papyrus that was left on his desk by an anonymous collector in 2012 and is now believed to be a manuscript copy, executed in about A.D. 200, of a poem by written by [[Sappho]] in c. 600 B.C. ==Select publications== * Alan K. Bowman (Author, Editor), R.A. Coles (Editor), N. Gonis (Editor), Dirk Obbink (Editor), Peter John Parsons (Editor), ''Oxyrhynchus: A City and Its Texts'' Egypt Exploration Society (2007) ISBN 0-85698-177-X * Christopher A. Faraone (Editor), Dirk Obbink (Editor) ''Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion'' OUP USA (1997) ISBN 0-19-511140-0 * Marcello Gigante and Dirk Obbink ''Philodemus in Italy: The Books from Herculaneum (The Body in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism)'' The University of Michigan Press (2002) ISBN 0-472-08908-0 * Dirk Obbink, ''Philodemus and Poetry: Poetic Theory and Practice in Lucretius, Philodemus, and Horace'' Oxford University Press USA (1995) ISBN 0-19-508815-8 * T. V. Evans (Editor), D. D. Obbink (Editor) ''The Language of the Papyri'' Oxford University Press (2009) ISBN 0-19-923708-5 * A.E. Raubitschek (Author), Dirk Obbink (Editor), Paul A.Vander Waerdt (Editor), ''The School of Hellas: Essays on Greek History, Archaeology and Literature'' Oxford University Press Inc (1991) ISBN 0-19-505691-4 * Dirk Obbink, ''Philodemus On Piety: Part 1, Critical Text with Commentary: Critical Text with Commentary Pt.1'' Clarendon Press (1996) ISBN 0-19-815008-3 * Jean-Jacques Aubert (Contributor), Roger S. Bagnall (Editor), Dirk D. Obbink (Editor) ''Columbia Papyri X (American Studies in Papyrology)'' American Society of Papyrologists (1996) ISBN 0-7885-0275-1 * N. Gonis (Editor), Dirk Obbink (Editor), P. J. Parsons (Editor) ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri 68 (4639-4704) (Graeco-Roman Memoirs)'' Egypt Exploration Society (2003) ISBN 0-85698-142-7 * N. Gonis (Editor), Dirk Obbink (Editor), D. Colomo (Editor) ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri: v. 69 (Graeco-Roman Memoirs)'' Egypt Exploration Society (2005) ISBN 0-85698-143-5 * N. Gonis (Author), Dirk Obbink (Author) ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri: Pt. 73 (Graeco-Roman Memoirs)'' Egypt Exploration Society (2009) ISBN 0-85698-182-6 * John T. Fitzgerald (Author, Editor), Dirk Obbink (Author), Glenn Stanfield Holland (Author), et al. ''Philodemus and the New Testament World (Novum Testamentum Supplements)'' Brill (2003) ISBN 90-04-11460-2 * Anubio, ''Carmen Astrologicum Elegiacum'', ed. Dirk Obbink, Bibliotheca Teubneriana; K. G. Saur, Munich and Leipzig (2006) ISBN 3-598-71228-6 ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/dirkobbink.html Obbink's page on the University of Oxford website] *[http://ascweb.unl.edu/alumni/success/obbink.html Obbink on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln website] *[http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1371516.ece New poems by Sappho], by Obbink *[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/04/0425_050425_papyrus.html Papyrus Reveals New Clues to Ancient World ''[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]'' (2005)] *[http://www.lsa.umich.edu/umich/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=23b7a5786014d110VgnVCM100000a3b1d38dRCRD&vgnextchannel=9fe77787314f3110VgnVCM1000003d01010aRCRD Obbink on the University of Michigan website] *[http://www.tau.ac.il/institutes/advanced/reports/annual2006.pdf Short biography on Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Obbink, Dirk}} [[Category:1957 births]] [[Category:People from Lincoln, Nebraska]] [[Category:American people of Dutch descent]] [[Category:Papyrologists]] [[Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni]] [[Category:Stanford University alumni]] [[Category:MacArthur Fellows]] [[Category:Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford]] [[Category:University of Michigan faculty]] [[Category:Living people]]'