“In hindsight, it is odd that we count the years backwards. What are we counting down to, anyway?”

"Divisive 'us and them' narratives are reinforced by media conversations that frame diversity as a challenge. EU’s politics of exclusion are cloaked in defence of 'European values'. Such framing enables prejudiced narratives regarding who 'true' Europeans are and whose belonging must be challenged."

The first named Mayan mathematician, just discovered! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Here's a Lam-Alif-cum-Ankh to grace your day. gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b... You'll get a kick out of this one @majnouna.com

I keep seeing these posts getting thousands of likes and they’re all AI-generated, hundreds of these fake images and videos pumped out by the same account

I was harassed in the restrooms of a museum in London two weeks ago for… having short hair and loose clothing. I was with my toddler, who’s still asking about it. And a lot of signs have been swapped, from men/women to male/female. The UK isn’t just going back, it’s inventing a whole new hell.

It's finally out! My chapter, "The diachronic stability of uninflectability in Berber", makes the point that uninflectability can be stable over longer periods: about a third of nouns in most Berber varieties are uninflectable, and a lot of them were already uninflectable 1000 years ago.

‎𐩮𐩥𐩧𐩽𐩶𐩡𐩡𐩩𐩽𐩨𐩩𐩽𐩣𐩰𐩵𐩩‪ ‎𐩥𐩡𐩺𐩤𐩣𐩲𐩬𐩽𐩲𐩻𐩩𐩧𐩽𐩹𐩺𐩻𐩨𐩧𐩬𐩠𐩥‪ ṣwr Ġllt bt Mfdt‪ w-l-yqmʕn ʕṯtr ḏ-yṯbrn-hw Image of Ġllt, daughter of Mfdt and ʕṯtr should overthrow (qmʕ) whom would destroy (ṯbr) it ʕaṯtar 𐩲𐩻𐩩𐩧, cognate of Akkadian Ištar

Iranian foreign ministry says Nato chief exposed Europe's 'willful complicity' in US attacks - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/iranian-foreign-ministry-says-nato-chief-exposed-europes-willful

Never forget that European governments severely misjudged the Iranian people and made themselves complicit in the crime.

Across southern Lebanon, Israel destroyed 11,095 buildings, damaged 17,891 housing units, according to a UNDP assessment. Photojournalist Marwan Bou Haidar documents the scale of destruction in Srifa, Bir el-Salasel, and Tebnine.

NATO chief Mark Rutte points to use of US bases in Europe as he stresses support for US war on Iran.

Summer.

3,500‐year‐old hieratic copy of the ‘Sayings of Khakheperraseneb’, a 12th-dynasty Egyptian scribe who laments the increasing chaos in his country, the breakdown of societal norms and decadence, his lack of original words to describe what he sees, and wishes he had a heart that could endure it all.

2nd c. BC Demotic papyrus The story of Setne, who searches for a spell book written by the god Thoth in the tomb of prince Naneferkaptah. In it, he encounters the spirits of the prince and his wife, who tells him how her husband found the book, and their eventual demise. One of the spells reads

I'll never not be impressed we can read Demotic Egyptian at all. Here the word 'astronomer' (ỉmỉ.wnwt)

Flotilla German activist Anna Ledetzke has recalled the sexual abuse she says she experienced while detained by Israeli authorities during a previous Freedom Flotilla mission. In a recent interview on the YouTube channel Mad in Germany with James Jackson.

𐌕𐌀𐌑·𐌇𐌄𐌓𐌀𐌑·𐌇𐌉𐌀𐌓𐌏𐌑 𐌄𐌌𐌉·𐌕𐌀𐌑·𐌄𐌍·𐌐𐌄𐌃𐌉 𐌏𐌉·𐌒𐌖𐌍𐌉𐌑𐌒𐌏 𐌑·𐌌𐌄·𐌀𐌍𐌄𐌈𐌄 𐌊𐌄·𐌏𐌓𐌕𐌀𐌌𐌏 𐌑·𐌅𐌄𐌓𐌂𐌏𐌍 𐌃𐌄𐌊𐌀𐌕𐌀𐌍

Notebooks of William Dawes, 1790, documenting the grammar and vocab of the language spoken in the area around Sydney, Australia. These books are the major source of information about the Aboriginal language of Sydney. #EYAHandwriting https://ow.ly/iW7n50YRHmE

For the ones willing to listen, Israel’s actions have spoken louder than any of its hasbara statements and have represented its values and norms very clearly.

Akkadian idiom (in Old Babylonian legal tablets): 𒅖𒌅 𒁉𒂊 𒀀𒁲 𒆬𒄀 ištu pê adi ḫurāṣim ‘from chaff to gold’, i.e. everything būšûša u warkassa ša Ḫunnubtum mala ibaššû ištu pê adi ḫurāṣim ša Lamassīma Ḫunnubtum, her property and estate, all that there is from chaff to gold, is Lamassi’s [her daughter]

Nothing the Israelis hate more than a ceasefire. Which is why they never, in fact, cease fire

Really quite like the careful layout and neat hand of this Hittite tablet from Hattusa written ca 1500–1100 BC; it describes instructions and incantations needed to perform two different protective rituals. The scribe, Hanikkuili, indicates the words are authored by ‘Anniwiyanni, mother of Armati’.

Spring.

Sumerian list of professions scribe, carpenter, leatherworker, stonecutter, smith, sealcutter, weaver, harp player, cultic actor singer, architect, ?-architect, barber, farmer, potter, felter, pašeš and gudug priests šimmu priest, maltster, physician, veterinary, ?-doctor, ?-doctor, cloth fuller

Handwritings of great scholars: 1. Sanskrit-devanāgarī: David Pingree (ed.), Yavanajātaka 2. Arabic & Greek: Manfred Ullmann, Wörterbuch zu den griechisch-arabischen Übersetzungen des 9. Jahrhunderts 3. Tangut: К. Б. Кепинг, Тангутский язык: морфология

The latest monthly status of key greenhouse gases shown side-by-side. These gases trap heat in our atmosphere and drive wide-ranging impacts across the Earth system. For more data/info: gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/

This is one of the oldest manuscripts of the "Canon of Medicine." Originally composed around 1025 CE by Ibn Sina at the Buyid court in Hamadan (modern Iran), it combined Greco-Roman sources with Islamic medical science and remained a key text in European medical curricula until the 19th century.

𐎰𐎠𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁𐏐𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎬𐎢𐎺𐎶𐏐𐎣𐎠𐏐𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹𐏐𐏃𐎹𐏐𐎠𐎱𐎼𐎶𐏐𐎠𐏃𐎹𐏐𐎶𐎼𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐏃𐎹𐏐𐎭𐎼𐎢𐎩𐎴𐏐𐎠𐏃𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐏃𐎹𐎺𐎠𐏐𐏀𐎢𐎼𐎣𐎼𐏐𐎠𐏃𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎠𐎺𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎶𐎠𐏐𐎭𐎢𐏁𐎫𐎠𐏐𐎲𐎡𐎹𐎠𐏐𐎢𐎳𐎼𐏁𐎫𐎠𐎮𐎡𐏁𐏐𐎱𐎼𐎿𐎠𐏐 Darius the King says: You who shall be king hereafter, the man who shall be deceitful or who shall be an evil-doer, to them do not be a friend, punish them well. (DB4.67–69)

"Irans Red Crescent Society said nearly 800 people have been killed so far, 170 of them are said to be children"

honey-bee Sumerian, nim lal 𒉏 𒋭; Akkadian, nūbtu 𒉡𒌒𒌓 my good act of the day: helped a tired bee take flight again

Beautiful diagrams from a circa 17th-century copy of Muslim polymath Ismail al-Jazarī’s *Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices*, originally published in 1206: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/arabic-machine-manuscript

Kyiv supports killing schoolchildren.

“Zionists do not negotiate, they want the land”

The world will never be safe as long as Israel exists.

it is far, far from the most important thing, but it is still an important thing. An article that came out earlier this month theconversation.com/gazas-cultur...

The tablet of Enḫegal records the transfer of several fields owned by Enḫegal (𒂗𒃶𒅅) king of Lagaš, and one Sidu (𒋛𒆕), to Lugal-kigala (𒈗𒆠𒃲𒆷) a priest, for an amount of grain, copper, goats and pigs for each field. The name Lugalšude (𒈗𒆃𒉈), likely the scribe, was scratched at a later date on one edge

Open Letter of Scholars in Support of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. twailr.com/open-letter-...

#Nippur day off means a walk round the site, including inspection of the ziggurat of Enlil. Erosion is worsening with climate change and we hope to gain funding to restore and conserve it soon. 🏺

📢 February's Document of the Month is live on our project website. 📚 Read Bogdan C. Smarandache's fascinating piece 'Travelling in Troubled Times: A Latin Letter of Safe Passage for a Muslim Merchant Issued during the Frankish-Fatimid Wars' at bit.ly/DotMFeb26 #medievalmonday #manuscriptmonday

7th-c. BCE Neo-Assyrian tablet from the reign of Sennacherib, held in the British Museum www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o... ...ša KUR.pi-liš-ta-a-[a]... ...of the land Philistia... Israel will never erase Palestine from history.

Bluesky has a copy of Eslam's passport but won't let her on the site. What is the motivation for that? Help her family btw: chuffed.org/project/1282...

Anyone who's read (or, these days, watched) Dune will remember the scene when Stilgar first meets the Duke. Think I just found where Frank Herbert took it from - an alleged Nuer practice: www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

Two millennia ago, today’s Beirut  was ringed by stone walls and tombs. Parts of the Roman walls survived war and earthquakes, only to be disassembled to make way for a parking lot, sparking outrage among Lebanese archaeologists.

This is a truly sick list. Every single person represented on it actively and enthusiastically chose to participate in genocide.

Barhebraeus in the 13th century on Uyghur script being adapted for Mongolian:

An example of Judeo-Arabic, transcription of the letter geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents... There’s further commentary here and a revision to the original translation, where Peraḥyā’s wife is instead identified as Sitt al-Dār, who was born in India princetongenizalab.github.io/goitein-indi...

Huda Ammori: "This is a.. victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain & in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people, striking down a decision that will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history"