Porada was born in Vienna to a wealthy family. She graduated from the
Realreform Gymnasium Luithlen in 1930 and received her Ph.D. from the
University of Vienna in 1935 with a dissertation about
glyptic art of the
Old Akkadian period. Later she moved to Paris to study at the
Louvre. In 1938 she emigrated to the United States where she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the seals of
Ashurnasirpal II. She taught at
Queens College and, beginning in 1958, at Columbia, attaining the rank of full professor in 1964. In 1969, she was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was named Arthur Lehman Professor in 1974 and, upon retiring in 1984, held that title
emeritus. In 1976 she was awarded the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement from the
Archaeological Institute of America. She was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 1978. Columbia University established an Edith Porada professorship of ancient Near Eastern art history and archaeology with a $1 million endowment in 1983. In 1989 Porada was awarded Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters for Columbia for "profound connections between the human experience and the interpretation of the cylinder seals." == Publications ==