I am a Ph.D. candidate in Assyriology at Harvard University. I write on Bronze Age cities of Mesopotamia and their civic, economic, and legal institutions. visit me at aandeloucas.com
2,528 followers 457 following 908 posts
view profile on Bluesky 
I maintain this list and celebrate each new addition and funding improvement to allow all to access our discipline. It feels equally important to mark the rollback of past successes. Programs at UVa, Columbia, Cornell, and Rutgers, now no longer exist. RT pls. 1/ livyarrow.org/funded-mas-a...
we are around five years post-"reckoning" in classics, and there has been a flurry of extremely good books just published, or just about to come out, which address the challenges posed at that time
I'm not sure! They both are more focused on Sumerology, not that this precludes them from exploring other coursework.
The students at Harvard who worked on Eblaite came out of Chicago but worked with Italians for their dissertations, namely Marco Bonechi (though he isn't the sole expert over there).
Really good question, they didn't: the latest date I can find of it is from 2019, so I'm not sure if it's still there, but I haven't heard otherwise. A number of objects and structures from his regime can still be visited
An absolute angel 🥹
"Winged genius kneeling in front of the Sacred Tree From Room I of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud. Neo-Assyrian Period, reign of Ashurnasirpal II, 883-859 B.C." That was what the label writes but this scene always reminds me of manual pollinating of datefruits.🫣 📌Musei Vaticani 🏺
And the same for us: annually, we try and get her to Vermont; prior to that, we gave her plenty of space in Washington State parks. Apologies for the self-indulgence, but I think we can all enjoy a bit of levity:
Colorado, dog heaven! We've good opportunities to have her off leash, she just seems to be a prolific sniffer. We've gotten her through some long hikes (>5 miles), but her preferred time just doesn't seem conducive to human pacing: if she isn't ahead, she's behind and loving the sprint to catch up.
I've tried the dog run and it never works out! She sprints the first few blocks and tires out, meanwhile I get antsy while she's busy sniffing every single flower and piece of mulch available to her
Swift Hermes has many epithets like οἰοπόλος (“sheep-tending”), λόγιος (“eloquent”), and ἀκάκητα (“guileless”) For easy shorthand, one can call him an Α.Ο.Λ. Instant Messenger.
We're chowing down and managing our pain, the first night off sedation being the hardest part so far
An amazing morning of practicing cuneiform names in class. As you can tell, my daughter prefers pink Play-Doh, but I do now think Sumerian scribes really should have used more neon clay for their tablets. More color 🎨 is always better.
Maybe better is just narratives (nix 'ancient'): the history of the US, especially its reliance on slavery, is not old at all!
Similarly, both leaders were acutely aware of the power of history and sought to control those ancient narratives.
I was trying to work on my Forgetting book today but ended up writing up some thoughts on threats to the Humanities at Chicago, University of Oregon, & Virginia Tech--in conversation w/Clifford Ando, @paulecohen.bsky.social, & Tyler Austin Harper @theatlantic.com open.substack.com/pub/humanhis...
There will always be a need for cuneiform scripts as long as there are complaints about the quality of copper that we purchased.
That's right, and it continues through today, too. I always show these examples when talking about the reception of cuneiform in Iraq:
Thank you ♥️ very excited to see her romping around and getting lost again in the Boston Common
This was not an easy location and recovery is going to be tough. I hope you and your loved ones have been able to give your cat as much love as we're giving Bowser now ♥️
Her name is Bowser, she's 10 years old and is certifiably a Weird Dog. We never noticed her lump, it was a friendly neighbor who recognized it while we were on a walk; I'll never forget the kindness of that stranger.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I learned of a lump on our dog's leg, which tested positive for mast cell cancer: we were able to get her into surgery today and we find out next week if there's more to do. It'll be a long couple weeks of recovery but I'm very, very thankful to be where we are.
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
Our overhead is low, our classes get filled; we are excellent with receiving external funds and our study corpus continues to grow every single year. Just a slam dunk of a profession that universities should see as a given for any humanities cohort.
We excel at religion, economy, governance, daily life, archaeology, anthropology; we are interdisciplinary, digital specialists; we interact with modern and contemporary history, we teach reception studies. We work so well with other fields that we're just overall a good idea to have around!
There are many of us available for hire, experts in numerous cuneiform scripts and the history and culture surrounding their use. There are so many experts who are excited to teach these things to students who are excited to learn them. This doesn't have to be esoteric or specialist knowledge!
There will be many casualties from UChicago ending ('pausing') PhD admissions in Humantities, but one which I am keenly aware of: this is close to a death sentence for teaching cuneiform in the United States (esp. Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Eblaite, Luwian) and it will affect the whole world.
I know we're beating a dead horse, but it looks like UChicago's Society of Fellows website is shut down:
This would do a tremendous amount to remove the current incentives around some of the most ill-suited use cases for this technology while preserving things that actually are useful (protein folding, ancient language text prediction, etc).
Had a lot of fun by the end of this one
My piece in The Conversation @africa.theconversation.com based on our recent article in @antiquity.ac.uk Read the original article here: doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
This is awesome, but now we need a Late Bronze Age Collapse Scented Candle, right?? :-)
Having gone through public school in Florida myself, it's still shocking to hear...
Bull cart model, bronze, late 3rd-early 2nd millenium BC, recently brought back from the USA, in Antalya Museum, temporarily on loan to the Golden Age of Archaeology exhibition in Ankara 🏺
Serendipitous mention of Mesopotamia in Tiny Bookshop (2025), with a bonus image of @tastinghistory.bsky.social's book, too:
What an absolute bummer: I volunteered for the IYWP throughout those first years of its program and the collegial collaboration and larger community-building opportunities that it served utterly shaped my life and career for the better.
I am very pleased to share the conversation I had with the brilliant @moudhy.bsky.social We talk all about ancient Mesopotamia, ancient texts, and much more. Hope everyone enjoys! open.substack.com/pub/convergi...
In the 1950s scholars wrote about the “vitalist” aspects of ancient Egyptian & Mesopotamian cosmology: the non-human world was animate, personified. Then, in the 70s, they traced the origins of extractive, imperial regimes to these same civilisations. What’s fascinating imo is that both can be true.
Tiny Bookshop really is a treat to play
Happy book release day to Resilience Beyond Rebellion! I couldn’t be more proud (or relieved) to finally see this in the world. Interested in rebel orgs? Conflict termination? Organizational theory? Fun side quests about etymology? A random anecdote about the US navy? Ofc you are! a.co/d/64Tulfh
Just 1 more weekend to get my little book for free! This book has everything: - divine labor militancy - AI and automation* - floods sacrifices - banquets - class struggle funny Easter eggs - serious academic analysis? - gardening https://tinyurl.com/2ahr97an
There is obviously some nuance that needs to be massaged: if cities stage inequality, then states are there to act as potential countermeasures to ensure resource allocation and social institutions are applied to those rich and poor alike. Still struggling to get this in writing for my dissertation!
Study confirms what I teach my World Civ 1 students in the first few weeks of class.
I've been obsessed with this little guy if you ever return to this series!
Two friends 🦛🌸🐗 Here’s a little throwback to my floral artefact series, where I illustrated ancient mediterranean archaeological artefacts with their native flora. These two were the first ones I drew; 🪷 Egyptian faience hippo with Nile lillies 🏺 Etruscan boar (rip) with laurel leaves
We are so back
Foreign languages are the bellwether of the humanities because they're hard and they don't scale. Their difficulty puts off anxiety-ridden students who think struggle is something to be avoided or who believe a high GPA is everything. And technology claims to make the need to know them obsolete.
"The dog understands: 'Take it!' It does not understand: 'Put it down!'" True 3,900 years ago when a young Mesopotamian scribe copied the proverb onto a round school tablet; still true today! #cuneiform #Mesopotamia #dogs Tablet: BM U.17207.77, CDLI P346305; sculpture: Louvre AO 4349, CDLI P386356
Not yet, but amazing promotional material for us across the pond!
@aandeloucas.com has yours come yet? @moudhy.bsky.social
"I had brought my family here because I thought it could fix something... I wanted my dad to see his home again before he couldn’t make the trip—and I wanted to be there with him when he did." New from @tonyhotran.bsky.social Gifted Article: slate.com/life/2025/08...
Apparently this relief depicts Elamite musicians *after* Elam's crushing defeat by the Neo-Assyrian empire. Like the ancient version of this meme: youtu.be/3Azfy3qxSis
Looks like a relative of the hammered dulcimer (note the hand holding what looks to be a mallet).
Barely the size of a small battery, this cylinder seal from ancient Mesopotamia shows the healing goddess Gula on a chair with her trusted dog below. She holds a scalpel in one hand, and above her are the Pleiades (the seven dots). Imagine the skill needed to carve this tiny scene.
It isn't perfect, but Wikipedia is still the closest thing we have to a site that actually fulfills the original promise of the internet as a radical experiment in participatory democracy. We must protect it from AI slop at all costs. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Woohooo, that tablet is currently on display at the royal palace too!🥳🥳🥳
Great news for all the Assyriologists and studiers of Sumerian/Babylonian/Akkadian things: almost 400k people on the internet think what you do is cool and want to know more about what's being translated these days.
It's out, and now free to download for the next 2 weeks! Go give my new book a read (it's short enough to finish in a sitting) and then share it far and wide to your friends who live for the connections between myth, ritual, and economics (all of them)!
There was a time when you could hire a traditional singer to compose an elegy to be inscribed in stone. Some of it, surely formulaic pastiche, but still made for humans by humans. Outsourcing the curation of memory to hallucinating machines? The erasure of meaning.
1. Je tu zpátky víkendový #klínopis, v němž vám představím další zajímavý text ze světa starověkého Předního východu. Dnes půjde o skutečně neobvyklou tabulku: zápis churritské rituální písně. Ano, písně. Seznamte se s Hymnem na bohyni Nikkal.
Over 200 pigment cups for makeup and painting have been discovered at Pompeii. You can see a number of them here: pompeiicommitment.org/en/inventari... Pigments for Make-up and Room Decoration - Pompeii Commitment
I do love the bit of the Enuma Elish describing the birth of Marduk. It's basically lines and lines of 'You think these other gods are cool? Marduk has more eyes than them. Marduk has more ears than them. Marduk can shoot lasers out of his eyes. Even when he was a baby, Marduk was buff as fuck.
Suddenly relevant: www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
How is ancient kingdom of Israel relevant today–can you still be a part of it? Politically, no–that horse left the barn in 722 BCE. Religiously yes–but only as a creative imaginative act: for the Gospels, the true Israel is not the Jews but the mostly gentile Christian Church. What about nationally?
Love this massive replica of the Hittite Peace Treaty, gifted to the UN from Türkiye. Other gifts to the UN include replicas of the Stele of Hammurabi (Iraq), a relief of Ishtar at Palmyra (Syria), and the Cyrus Cylinder (Iran); honorable mention goes to Bahrain for a golden date palm.
🎥 A French TV crew was in Würzburg filming a documentary on #Mesopotamian #music with Dahlia Shehata, Nele Ziegler and the MIAM team! 🎶 More on MIAM: www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/altorientali...
It isn't great! Reportedly several things all at once: ruined wax seal on toilet, tub without caulk, and also a cracked pipe to boot, all from the upstairs unit. Not sure which of these things happened most recently...
I've been in some really tough tenant situations, very thankful at the moment given my current circumstance!
Update: if everything goes right, we'll have the neighbor's drip resolved tomorrow morning and the ceiling will be back up by Monday morning 🙏
What was life like for kings, priestesses, merchants, brickmakers, musicians, and weavers in the ancient Near East? Discover their stories through the voices of real people who lived thousands of years ago. Now in paperback: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
🏆🏆 PILLARS OF BABEL. The GREAT FLOOD is here, and the world is being consumed by its consuming foam and wash. Only the TOWER remains. Climb the tower of BABEL. Face wretched ANGELS. Retain your VOICE. Play it in-browser ➡️ niosis.itch.io/babel
What started as a slight sag just 24 hours ago, an ongoing series
I'm just not going to do work today!
There's a lot more to the ancient world than one meme, give the article a chance and see if you enjoy what you learn
Huge week for Sumerian culture:
Fantastic thread on the fun in Mari's archives, whose history has always been neglected outside of France:
🏺 Distinct memories of travelling in 99-2000 before uni, and always being on the lookout for internet cafés. Now wondering what the ancient equivalent was; were there scribal shops in Kanesh in 1800 BCE where you could pay someone to write a cuneiform tablet, or was it all done by private hire?
He's right about opinions. For every like I'll post 1 Sumerian proverb.
Overall, I'm excited to play as Assyria (with Charlemagne as my leader, of course). I'm not sure to what degree some of the language for this civ will be improved, but the mechanics as a military and science civ are well received and highlight some quintessential aspects of the Neo-Assyrian empire.
Further in the Civilopedia notes, however, there are some alarming suggestions, such as Sumerians coming from the Indian subcontinent, Sargonic rebellion against Sumerian rule, the centuries after 2150 being a dark age, Assur having free trade, etc. These points do nothing but misinform readers.
The civics are the birtutu, kibrat arba'i, and tupsharrutu, which are all nicely conceived and hold some cultural and historical nuggets. I appreciate especially "over the course of 12 years, boys and girls were rigorously trained in cuneiform script;" yes, women learned, too!
The unique quarter is the Ekallu, or palace. It is created by constructing the royal library and citadel together. The notes here are great!
Their unique ability is the 'treasures of Nineveh', which allows Assyria to gain a technology when capturing a settlement. This relates to the Assyrian practice of incorporating the libraries and archives of cities upon conquest. The library of Ashurbanipal is the culmination of this practice.
The unique military unit is the magarru (which should be 'mugerru' in Assyrian; 'magarru' would be Babylonian and not in use by the 1st millennium BCE), a two-wheeled chariot known since the 12th century. These things were horrifying to confront and a major part of the military economy of Assyria.
Assyria's unique civilian unit is the turtanu, a high military official attested from the Middle Assyrian period onward. They were something like a Commander-in-Chief, with additional civic responsibilities. The most famous example was Shamshi-ilu, who campaigned against Urartu in 780 BCE.
The Update 1.2.3 for @civilization.2k.com has unveiled Assyria as a new, playable civilization via their Right to Rule Collection. A small thread on what has been added:
Hey people into history games and learning more about historical game studies (including in education): I wrote an introductory entry on "History Games" for the Encyclopedia of Ludic Terms and few years ago eolt.org/articles/his...
My colleague Jason Strandquist recently gave a keynote titled "10 Myths of Education for the 21st Century." Here they are (posted with permission): 1) Education is a Transaction. My goal is the highest tangible return for the lowest perceived cost. - This misunderstands the purpose of education.
In Shiraz, Iran, they are using late antique Sassanid art in adverts to symbolize resistance to the West. They’ve remixed the relief (c.260-272 CE) of Shapur I at Naqš-e Rustam, receiving the surrender of Philip and capture of Valerian www.tehrantimes.com/news/514978/... Reception history for sure.
"Tell Brak was an ancient city in Syria; it is one of the earliest cities in the world...the culture of Tell Brak was defined by the different civilizations that inhabited it, and was famous for its glyptic style, equids, and glass."
Oh, hey! Looks like they've moved up the anticipated digital publication of my new Element to... Wednesday! Remember, the digital version is free to read for the first two weeks, so jump on it!
I'm sure this is going somewhere
do-it-for-her.jpg
We love educational simulated environments:
This sounds about right, but I haven't looked into it closely. Looks like Florida's Community Redevelopment statute was implemented in '69, with an amendment in '98 that started a pilot program in North Florida's St. John's River:
This change is part of InVision Tampa, which relates to Tampa's Community Redevelopment Agency; I say it is interested in raising tax revenue of the location. This area reportedly produced only about $150,000 per year; the master plan suggests upwards of $2,000,000 via taxes is possible:
The narrative is that the area was prone to crime and drug-related violence. The residents were given right to first refusal, of which only 2.5% accepted out of an anticipated 30%. Folks who will not return moved to similarly poor areas around Ybor City, University of South Florida, and East Tampa.
This area has been historically underserved: my high school was once called Don Thompson High School, a segregated school. Where the condos are now, managed by The Related Group, was once public housing up through 2018. Opposite the river now are parks and locally-owned venues and businesses.
Every summer, I get to teach about my high school and show folks how much landscapes can change within a decade: 200 acres awarded to a Miami condo developer and new projects sponsored by the non-profit Tampa group Friends of the Riverwalk have made an area I know well almost unrecognizable.
'What if, for once, we could bring ourselves to look this history of the nation in the eye? Could we discover something about the beginnings of the path we now find ourselves on again, or even how to get off it and learn to speak a different language of human politics, before it’s too late?"