Feels so weird that I am an Iranologist and that Iran as a country might no longer exist. I know the culture goes way beyond the nation-state, & that I work on the pre-modern period, but it still is a bit odd to be a specialist of a land that everyone seems to hate & gleefully watch being destroyedβ¦
This is a facsimile of the black obelisk of Shalmaneser III
This is a facsimile of the law code of Hammurabi
In Saskatoon, the Museum of Antiquities at the University of Saskatchewan recently got these incredible facsimiles. Fantastic to bring my Archaeology of Mesopotamia students to visit and discuss these pieces. #Archaeology #USask #SteleOfHammurabi
This reminds me of something Toni Morrison wrote.
"Oyster fishing [in the Gulf] begins only on the day the palm puts out the spadix and closes on the day the raceme is cut. This is because the sea is calm during this season."
Hate to say it (I don't hate it):
The secret is reading Arabic travelogues, this post in particular is brought to you by Ibn al-MujΔwir
Everyone wants to make sea trade exotic and sexy, but no one wants to talk about Gulf eddies and seasonal wind patterns
Don't even get me started on the Abraham bit, get out of here
In the process of cleaning up a footnote on Persian Gulf maritime travel, I ran into the claim that "Ea-nasir went on to travel to India," citing 70 year old material that doesn't even say this.
Why do historians (derogatory) do this?
Julius Caesar in 49: "The die is cast"
Julius Caesar in 2026: "Consult the prediction markets"
Great picks!
Table with Jewish (LXX, Rabbinic), Syriac, Samaritan, and Arabic letter names. The reconstructed forms are *ΚΎΔΜlap; *bΔt; *gΔ«Μmal; *dΔΜlat; *hΔ; *wΔw; *zay(n); *hΜ£Δt; *tΜ£Δt; *yΕd, *yΕt; *kap; *lΔΜmad, *lΔΜbad; *mΔ«m, *mΔm; *nΕ«n; *simkat; *ΚΏayn; *pΔ; *sΜ£ΔdΔ; *qΕp; *rΔΕ‘; *Ε‘Δ«n; *tΔw.
Hey, I reconstructed some #Aramaic letter names! Going back to around 500 BCE, I guess. The similarity to #Greek is usually explained via #Phoenician, but we don't actually have any Phoenician letter names AFAIK.
Thank you for being willing to check in like this, words and knowledge of you being there is important to know. Giving you and the team my best as things continue on their course...
You can also read it online: www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/a...
This is for an Assyriology conference, next year is in Sofia. I can certainly go to Baghdad on my own, but to go with a group of fellow ancient historians and archaeologists is a bit special!
Not much to do other than wait and see. My ticket is through Emirates, so I've got a few places to monitor...
Maybe not
Talk poster reading SIGMA 4 March (Wed) 4:00-5:30 pm (GMT) 2026 SIGMA Seminar Upside-down Cuneiform: The Depiction of Babylonian Mathematics in Games. Erica Meszaros Wentworth Institute of Technology Poster also includes a QR code and some Babylonian imagery.
I'm so excited/honored to give a SIGMA Seminar this Wednesday, March 4! Join me to learn about how Babylonian maths are depicted in games. I promise the math content will be cool and approachable.
I am here today because of UIowa's Classics and Religious Studies programs, which are merging next academic year. If you support study of the ancient world, its languages and cultures, please consider signing this petition:
Monarchs are only as powerful as their institutions allow, their impunity being the consequence of weak constraints of that power. This morning's news is an example of continued failure to act like a Republic by our legislative and judicial branches.
Call your representatives.
Do you have questions about AI and LLMs? Are you in the NYC area? I've asked a friend, colleague, and former student to come give all us humanist types the basics. It will be excellent! @cuny.edu @sentantiq.bsky.social @isawnyu.bsky.social
Last chapter to edit, 4 weeks to go
Budgets are moral documents and even the most apparently boring technical decision (what and how you count) defines which kind of knowledge gets rewarded and which kind gets forgotten.
Photo of the ruins of ancient Assur with a ziggurat rising in the distance and low remains of walls in the foreground. It looks like sunset or sunrise with the soft, orange lighting. Photo by Mahmoud Fakhri
How to make perfume in 1230 BCE in the heartland of ancient Assyria.
First, you need to mix cane with cleansed water from the palace well of the city of AΕ‘Ε‘ur (pronounced Ashur).
Second, you need to pour this mixture into a special vessel before adding...
A lot of snow. A shadowed figure walks away from a lit street. Parked cars are peppered with snow. The snow banks are thick, compacted with weeks' worth of snow and an additional twelve inches added on top. A small dog hardly is able to look above them.
Not the best balk of the neighborhood, but decent
I needed this, too π₯Ή
Could I game this question by saying linear A?
The restaurant Ziggurat
Serendipitous Mesopotamia meets cheese shop
We aren't in Boston anymore
DOCTOR RΓΌmeysa ΓztΓΌrk has earned her PhD!!
Reject live market predictions for news, return to tradition, live(r) market predictions for news.
