semi-regular reminder that ICE was only created in 2003
when you are asked to imagine a world without ICE, you're basically being asked to remember where you were when Lilo & Stitch came out
Come log in for a little lecture on my current work exploring kiลกpu "witchcraft" and gender!
green, perhaps feline, marginal drawing next to the Hebrew text of Parsha Ki Teitzei (Devarim/Deuteronomy 21:10--25:19)
Green guy for parsha Ki Teitzei
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Kennicott 1, fol. 111r
A Coruรฑa, Galicia, Spain; July 24, 1476
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/8c26...
I will remind folks those images of Nazi book burnings aren't burning just any books. They're burning the library of Magnus Hirschfeld; a gay, Jewish doctor who created an institute dedicated to LGBTQ sex education and healthcare. And a man who pioneered gender affirming care surgeries.
A cropped image of a handwritten two-column bound Torah. Between the columns, two gilded creatures with marmot-like bodies and rabbit-esque heads, braid their long necks together so that their feet are touching and their heads are facing each other. The Hebrew word, parsha, fits in a space between their entwined necks, indicating where the parsha Shoftim (Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9) starts on the right column. The gold creatures, outlined in black, are on top of thin red-lined ornamentation, mostly lines running vertically, with some curls at the top and bottom, and more intricate almost-floral patterns around the necks of the creatures.
And I love that the Kennicott Bible has a little guy marking each of the parashiyot, here are some twisty dudes for Shoftim:
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Kennicott 1, fol. 109r
1476 A Coruรฑa, Galicia, Spain
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/8c26...
Elaborate medieval illumination around three columns of text. The middle column contains the first words of the Torah portion Shoftim (Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9): ืฉืึนืคึฐืึดึฃืื ืึฐืฉืึนึฝืึฐืจึดึืื ืชึผึดึฝืชึผึถืึพืึฐืึธึ ืึผึฐืืืึพืฉืึฐืขึธืจึถึืืึธ ืึฒืฉืึถึจืจ ืึฐืึนืึธึงื ืึฑืึนืึถึืืึธ ื ึนืชึตึฅื ืึฐืึธึ ืึดืฉืึฐืึธืึถึืืึธ ืึฐืฉืึธืคึฐืึฅืึผ ืึถืชึพืึธืขึธึื ืึดืฉืึฐืคึผึทืึพืฆึถึฝืึถืง ืึนื The right column contains some commentary, which I haven't attempted to identify, the left column appears to contain Rashi's commentary in the distinct "Rashi script." The first words of the middle and left columns are gold, surrounded by plants and a few animals. There is a light blue tree-like form separating the middle and left columns. In the center column, the gold word, Shoftim, is on a blue field with a orange deer leftward-leaping above, and a pink dragon-like creature with rabbit ears underneath, facing towards the left, chewing on the blue tree-like form between the columns. The pink rabbit-dragon faces a blue dog-like creature, whose right-ward pointing nose rests against the blue tree-thing. Above the initial words is a sort of battle scene. A pink bear-like being swings a club or very long spoon above their head, riding a blue horse towards the right to attack a club wielding humanish looking being, who seems to be only wearing a loin-cloth, riding a goat towards the left. At the bottom of the page, a left-facing orange and blue dragon with a tail ending in a camel-like head, bites the tail of the blue dog which hangs down from the center left of the page
First up, the initial for this week's parsha, Shoftim, in the late 13th century CE Rothschild Pentateuch!
Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS 116, fol. 447
written in 1296, possibly France or Germany
www.getty.edu/art/collecti...
I'm fully in dissertation mode, so as a break from looking at 7th century BCE Akkadian texts and assemblage theory, I've really gotten into learning about the illuminations of medieval Hebrew manuscripts (this is my flavor of Elul studying I guess...). Will share some of my favorites on this thread:
A picture of a mosaic showing a dog knocking over a basket and pulling out the contents.
For today's #MosaicMonday a hilarious #Roman mosaic depicting a boisterous #dog knocking over a basket and pulling out the contents.
Life without #dogs is possible but pointless! ๐
On display at theย Archaeological Museum Irbid/Jordan.
๐บ ๐ท
Donโt forget the call for papers is open for our @socstudyofthepast.bsky.social conference Beyond Methodological Nationalism: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Abstract submissions by the end of July pls! ๐
The @socstudyofthepast.bsky.social now has a YouTube channel, and if you would like to catch up on our event on Friday, โArchaeology and Apartheidโ, you can do so here: m.youtube.com/channel/UCVI...
Text 12, excavation number 11 NT 20. Found in area WB 1/4, level IV in the courtyard's west corner, between 10-20 centimeters above floor 1. The artifact is 23 mm x 23 mm x 14 mm. It was found in one piece (complete), with traces of a seal impression showing a male figure on the left, facing left, and a female figure on the right, facing right. It is a contract about hiring a bed. No date.
Handcopy of text 12 by Miguel Civil
OIC 22, text 12 (the price of renting a bed):
"Since the first of the month of Arahsamnu, Warad-Ilabrat rented a bed belonging to Belshunu for 5.5 grains of silver."
This tiny receipt was excavated at Nippur, located in southern Iraq. It is about 3,750 years old: lodging is a very old industry.
Chatbots โ LLMs โ do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When theyโre โrightโ itโs because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. Thatโs all.
Everyone is throwing out examples of Iraq War-era mass derangement so I might as well throw in Amanda Bynes doing a peace sign on a movie poster being photoshopped out for fear of being seen as an antiwar statement
V interesting thread. Archaeologists, this also involves us. Permission to excavate & appropriate land used similar legal systems. Results of said excavations then used to 'prove' historic claims to land etc, I
I.e archaeology is complicit, so we need to stop pretending we're not.
A couple of months ago, I posted a checklist of things one could do to be useful in these days of rising fascism.
Hereโs Part Two of that listโmore focused on ways to protect you and those in your tightest circles of care.
Part One is embedded and also skeeted below.
We may never know everything about the past, but we do know how to say in Akkadian 'Speak out, revolt' (tisiสพฤ tuqumta)!
That's thanks to one of the earliest Flood myths, Atra-hasis, composed nearly four thousand years ago.
Woohoo! Thanks so much, my pal Holly appreciates it! She DMed a campaign based on the Amarna letters back in college and it was such a blast!
For those of you whose nerdiness is at the intersection of ancient history and Dungeons and Dragons, check out this awesome project my dear friend is working on!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/115...
New long video on a letter from Marduk-ลกapik-zeri to the Assyrian king, which introduces us to the specializations of cuneiform scholarship in the 1st millennium BCE: kalรปtu, ฤลกipลซtu, asรปtu, and barรปtu!
youtu.be/L4kibw0tDHU
Another fun Akkadian word that lives on: sofa
Akkadian แนฃuppu, "thick, compacted (of textiles)" > Aramaic แนฃippฤ/แนฃuppฤ, "carded wool" > Arabic, Turkish "แนฃuffa" > sofa
Photo of a cuneiform tablet viewed from the front, back, sides, and top. A sealing interrupts the text on the back of the tablet, which is in the bottom half of the photo. The sealing can also be seen along the top and the sides.
In 1748 BCE, a man feels so โdiscreditedโ by a woman named Amertum that he declares before 13 witnesses:
โAs long as she talks, I will not bring her into my house.โ
Itโs a flawlessly preserved legal record of a bizarre situation.
Hot take: we can do better than "trans people have always existed!" I say, actually it's CISNESS that is the newfangled, upstart invention. It's not that trans people existed before. It's that the whole cis/trans binary is rubbish. Hear me, a pre modern historian/ Talmud scholar, out...
Folks are shocked that their institutions, after professing commitments to climate justice and DEI, are now caving to Trump and scrubbing all references.
It's brutal.
And it's the smallest taste of what our students felt when their universities called in the cops b/c they protested a genocide.
Photo of a fragment of a clay tablet shaped a bit like a diamond. Although it is only a fragment, the cuneiform text on it is well-preserved. There is a vertical line down the centre which indicates it once had at least two columns. The colour is reddish brown
โDo not bend your neck for that which cuts necks.โ
A Sumerian proverb, as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.
Photo of a cuneiform tablet from the front, top, and back. The tablet is broken diagonally, but the text that survives is well-preserved and divided by rulings
I am often moved by how cuneiform tablets give glimpses into the lives of everyday people.
One of my favourites is of a physician name Rabรข-sha-Marduk who lived in the 1200s BCE. This medical therapy for headaches ("seizing of the temple") is signed by him cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/28...
I also have a little video of a talk I gave four years ago. In this video, I give a more detailed description of what entrails reading (extispicy) was like for the Mesopotamian world:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJD-...
Canโt wait to read this new book making Mesopotamian history human and accessible!
ร propos of nothing: Here is an open-access primer on ancient & medieval Palestine feat. @moudhy.bsky.social @gmandreou.bsky.social @chancebonar.bsky.social @alexianafry.bsky.social @archaeologuest.bsky.social @stephenniem.bsky.social @nabalkattu.bsky.social @luxmea.bsky.social tinyurl.com/3h52peyh
the fascists are looking to rigidly define gender not just to punish trans people like they claim but to lay the groundwork for the oppression of all women. when gender is legally mutable, it is harder to use it to restrict peopleโs rights.
they want to build a cage around you, made from our bones
