I find that this issue usually just comes down to observing that research would be easier if there were less translation work to do, which is tautologically true, but that statement could equally have been made before AI existed, and just because the use cases of LLMs are currently the centre (1/4)

You could publish this as poetry

οὐδεὶς γὰρ οὕτω ἀνόητος ἐστὶ ὅστις πόλεμον πρὸ εἰρήνης αἱρέεται: ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῇ οἱ παῖδες τοὺς πατέρας θάπτουσι, ἐν δὲ τῷ οἱ πατέρες τοὺς παῖδας. “No one is so foolish as to choose war over peace. In peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons” Herodotus 1.87

#TIL "the LORD of Hosts" (𐡉𐡄𐡄 𐡑𐡁𐡀𐡕, [yh]h ṣbʾt) is attested as a divine name on an #Aramaic ostracon from Elephantine. (First line, starting with the second 𐡄.)

Inscription from the Roman Forum, dedicated to Maxentius #EpigraphyTuesday DOMINO NOSTRO CLEMENTISSIMO ET PIISSIMO MAXENTIO INVICTO ET PROVIDENTISS(IMO) SEMPER AVG(VSTO) MANLI(VS) RVSTICANVS V(IR) EM(INENTISSIMVS) PRAEF(ECTVS) PRAET(ORIO) DEVOTVS N(VMINI) M(AIESTATI)Q(VE) E(IVS) (📷own)

Hammurabi's "eye for an eye" law - if a man (awīlum) blinded/broke the bone of someone of equal status he would face the same punishment, but only had to pay 1 mina of silver for doing the same to a "commoner" (muškēnum) or half the purchase-price of a slave (wardum)

A great read that includes good examples of what contributions autodidacts can make when they acquire the training rigorously - it's clear the raging statue-pfp keyboard warriors want no part of that

As the legendary Lübeck Bürgermeister Hinrich Castrop and leader of the Hanseatic League put it in the late 15th century: „it is always easier to hoist the banner of war but a lot more costly taking it down in honour”……

Lexical tablet from Ugarit ca 1400–1100 BCE, it lists words in Akkadian (left column), Hurrian (centre), and (syllabic) Ugaritic (right) king = [šar-ru] | i-we-er-ni | ma-al-ku lord = [be]-lu | e-wi-ri | ba-a-lu-ma enemy = [nak₂]-ru | tu-ur-bi | e-bu curse = [a-ra]-ru | ši-da-ar-ni | ṣi-il-ya-[tu₄]

Stretch yourself, test yourself, master skills. Think more! Read more! Broaden your mind! Do difficult things! Don't be placated by low-quality dreck. Don't just sit there watching Reels or Shorts. Go beyond.

I worked on a translation of Column IV of the Old Persian version of the Behistun Inscription a little while ago! Have just got round to posting it (alongside DNa and XPh): ahcmt2.user.srcf.net/DB_Column_IV...

Let not the rich person say "in my riches, I am glorious" (Letter of Aḥiqar, TAD C1.1, Elephantine) אל יאמר עתירא בעתרי הדיר אנה

Still unclear how I ended up in a nationals-level quiz bowl question at the 2025 Chicago Open, but I’m not complaining. I wonder if anyone got it right. Bonus points to the writer for getting my last name’s pronunciation correct!

Don't make me tap the "don't make me tap the "logical arguments are necessary in every field" sign" sign

I'm working on a study of Bronze Age axes, and I find it a little hard to articulate why. * I don't get paid. * Another journal paper won't make any difference for my employability at this stage. * Almost nobody knows or cares that these axes exist. I think the main reasons I do this is * […]

The Unfinished Story of the Babylonian Version of the Bīsotūn (Behistun) Inscription (DB Bab.) Hackl, Johannes. 2025. The Unfinished Story of the Babylonian Version of the Bīsotūn (Behistun) Inscription (DB Bab.). Iraq. Published online 2025:1-20. doi:10.1017/irq.2025.10033 This article revisits…

Note also Akkadian alāla, though this word is used more often for singing a work-song (hence e.g. the negativity towards Nabonidus for making the people stop singing it in the Verse Account), or for praise. (CAD vol. 1 below actually compares the onomatopoeia directly to the Greek one)

#EpigraphyTuesday Dedication to Serapis, Isis, the Nile and the Theoi Euergetai (Benefactor Gods), Ptolemy III and Berenice II. From #Egypt. #History #Archaeology [To Sarapidi Isis Neilo / And to King Ptolemy / And to Queen Berenice / Benefactor of the Gods / Kallikrates, son of Antipatros]

Some thoughts on perception/outreach: I've found outside attitudes towards cuneiform/ANE history tend to be split between A) "it's a really cool thing to learn to be able to read clay tablets" and B) "this is synonymous with being really old" (1/n)

There I go again, adding a passage on a Luwian text to my manuscript on Northwest Semitic poetics. Will I ever learn.

I went a bit mad in the Vilnius souvenir shops, but you don’t know you need a chocolate map of the ethnographic regions of Lithuania until you see a chocolate map of the ethnographic regions of Lithuania

How learning Akkadian signs has been going today

Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About Democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; Analysed all in his book, The enlightenment driven away, The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again. September 1, 2025

This is incredibly important to keep going, and the potential for outreach is clearly there - in my experience many people outside of the field show a lot of initial interest in cuneiform when encountering it

In light of the recent university department cuts, one may refer to CS Lewis’ sermon “Learning in Wartime” on the importance of the continuous pursuit of knowledge in the face of adversity. (1/4)

Excited to be editing Ancient History and European History for 2026 ACF Nationals, which has now been announced: hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewt...

illos futuentes stultos qui universitates regnant, ut defutuantur.

Writing well in STEM fields is also no less important than writing well in humanities (research needs to be comprehensible!), and we should not advertise STEM as where to go to get away from writing. Also, academics in *all* fields have to do problem-solving, which should be more widely recognised.

The figures of Emperor Charles IV and his wife Elisabeth of Pomerania on a balcony overlooking the southern facade of the Marienkirche, Mühlhausen. Built in the 1360s, they reminded the burghers of the imperial city of their distant overlord - the purveyor of their urban privileges. #medievalsky

One cannot truly appreciate Achaemenid royal ideology until one has experienced the power trip of wearing a very nice flowing robe.

I particularly like the attention paid to late antiquity at Carnuntum. Most of the buildings are meant to be fourth century and there is a lot of focus on the conference of the emperors held there at 308 (arguably more than on Marcus Aurelius’ time there.)

The vase has a quadrilingual inscription, in Old Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite cuneiforms, and in Egyptian hieroglyphs. All three inscriptions have the same meaning "Xerxes : The Great King". The Old Persian cuneiform reads: 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 𐏐 𐏋 𐏐 𐎺𐏀𐎼𐎣 ( Xšayāršā : XŠ : vazraka) "Xerxes : The Great King."

Instead, I think we are ill-served by the empty cynicism of 'go to college to get a job' rather than the notion that education is a form of self-improvement that produces a better, more capable version of yourself.

Epigraphy in shambles (Lermontov’s Hero of our Time)

What was it like to be a prince in the Holy Roman Empire? Well, not quite what it is set out to be, in particular when you are a smaller prince, not in stature, but in land. The margraves of Baden were such princes. ⬇️⬇️

The Anat Athena bilingual is a late fourth century BCE bilingual Greek-Phoenician inscription on a rock-cut stone found in the outskirts of the village of Larnakas tis Lapithou, Cyprus.

“In a world of inconstancy and change history has the power to remedy both the arrogance of the fortunate and the misery of the unfortunate” — Diodorus Siculus (18.59.6)

Two of the extraordinary letters - 1) the halmi, the sealed document granting the steward Nakhthor the right to draw rations on his journey towards Egypt 2) The reality of the satrap's concerns for his wealth and estate, and the brutal consequences

Akkadian expression of the day: Ummān-Manda ("foreign/enemy horde"). Pictured: Hordak, leader of the Evil Horde, from SPOP. He's one cool guy.

I’ve started a new blog! First up is an article about the hagiography of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II — what do all of these sources about the weighing of his deeds have to do with each other? obscurerdepths.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/t...

I’ve written an article for UK Quizbowl about getting into, and improving at, history in quiz! This should hopefully be useful for anyone wanting to learn a new category of the distribution, and maybe pick up new interests along the way. quizbowl.co.uk/articles/imp...