In early life, he paid considerable attention to ancient Oriental history, Assyriology, and Egyptology, in which subjects he was a present private docent at the University of Budapest.
In his later years, Fleay largely abandoned studies in English literature and devoted himself to Egyptology and Assyriology.
As a student of Benno Landsberger and Sidney Smith, his knowledge was grounded in immediate knowledge and experience that went back to the earliest years of Assyriology.
Born in Tarnów, Austria-Hungary (now Poland), he earned his PhD from the University of Rome in 1929, then went to the University of Chicago where he was a professor of Assyriology until his death.
Jacob Klein (Assyriologist) (born 1934), Professor Emeritus of Assyriology and the Bible at Bar-Ilan University and a member of Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The first season at Jemdet Nasr took place in 1926, directed by Stephen Langdon, Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University and director of the excavations at Kish.
Layard noted in his work that Henry Rawlinson, the "Father of Assyriology", disagreed with the identification as the biblical Lachish.
The greatness that was Babylon (1968) is a book by Assyriologist H. W. F. Saggs.
The Might That Was Assyria (1984; ISBN 0-283-98961-0) is written by Assyriologist H. W. F. Saggs.
William Wolfgang Hallo (born 1928) was professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature and curator of the Babylonian collection at Yale University.