bookandswordblogEver since I stumbled across it, I have been fascinated by "The Richest Man in Babylon" from 1926. Its Mesopotamian parables about personal finance work surprisingly well because they are one part Bible and one part small-town American wisdom. The idea that the Near East is "other" has never been the only point of view in the US! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon #cuneitoot
In the 8th century BCE, an Assyrian civil servant had a problem: some towns had been exempted from ilku-service, but his master still wanted the horse and mules that he had been buying with the money they paid instead of serving in person. "If the state service of the towns has been [re]moved, (then) let them take the (obligation to provide) horses away from me and let them (= the towns) buy them." https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/P224496_project-en.13?srch=s.qH86oL #cuneitoot #histodons
TIL from Karen Radner: The Assyrians had crowdfunded wine-companies where you could invest a few weeks` income, wait four months for the donkey caravan to walk up to the Jebel Sinjar and the rafts of wineskin to come back down the Tigris, and get enough wine to party like the king! #cuneitoot
Juvenalia, or blast from the past: Some Thoughts on Wealth in Greece and Mesopotamia (2007) https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/showthread.php?tid=8973 #economicHistory #economics #histodons #antiquidons #cuneitoot #ancMedToot
Alessia Pilloni has a blog post about Mesopotamian astral science and modern astrology (the kind you find in newspapers was invented in the 20th century to hold the ads apart although it has much earlier ancestors) https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/zodiacblog/2024/10/08/how-far-and-how-close-is-babylonian-horoscopy-to-us/ #cuneitoot #ancMedToot
Things I learned: Ancient Near Eastern city gates are characterized by a series of two to six gateways one behind another. But unlike in a medieval gatehouse, there is usually no sign that any except the first contained a wooden gate (gates usually turned in vertical sockets and needed stone or brick slots in the wall for a bar). https://www.academia.edu/36154657/D_P_Mielke_Hittite_Fortifications_between_Function_and_Symbolism #archaeology #cuneitoot #ancMedToot #hittite #bronzeAge
D. P. Mielke, Hittite Fortifications between Function and Symbolism
Hittite fortifications count among the most impressive archaeological monuments in Anatolia. Compared to more than 100 years of excavations and research, only a small number of sites have brought to light remnants of Hittite fortification structures.
If I were teaching I would be tempted to send a student to edit Wikipedia pages like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murashu_family (this one is based on random books and articles which happen to mention the family, not the most important recent books). I gave it a quick edit but I can't afford the time to rewrite it completely. #wikipedia #cuneitoot #ancMedToot #mesopotamia
Guys! Another kudurru stele with a mushushshu #dragon from ancient Babylonia just dropped #cuneiToot https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/327048
Goodreads describes the novel "Inanna" by Emily H. Wilson as "Sumerians #1." I approve this message! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62844125-inanna #cuneitoot
This terracotta statuette from Babylon is one of very few images of a woman in the 'Elamite robe' or Faltengewand from the Achaemenid period. Photo of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, object VA Bab 00405 by Olaf M. Teßmer CC BY-SA 4.0 https://id.smb.museum/object/2060160/bekleidete-frau-auf-einem-postament-stehend #cuneiToot #ancMedToot #materialCulture
