iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Assyriology has always had deep ties to digital innovation since the invention of the transistor. We can and should lean into fields that secure the longevity of our field and the world that it stewards. There are ways to do this sustainably and ensure jobs are always there for the field.

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3) all digitalization requires maintenance. This means consistent funding to ensure continued access to data. Knowledge costs money!

2) we must insist that AI use for study is free of commercialization. Cuneiform data is for everyone and it must be for the benefit of humankind.

1) quality of data depends on expertise. You want AI to give you the right answers? Fund Assyriology. We know the data, we have the expertise. No one else in the world can do this.

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"I think we should embrace these new possibilities, which also means that today’s students will (have to) grow from users of these resources into the next generation of creators. There are pitfalls, of course." Those pitfalls are:

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I know you said this in brief, just reinforcing the idea of poorly communicated and presumed consent!

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Technology and land use - data centers are large, ugly, and noisy. In some locations, they're being built without much public awareness and even in spite of known dissent.

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Moving day 📦 I've loved my time in Mass. these last 8 years and it hurts to leave the state; so it goes --

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Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com · 27/08/2026

I think it was a full decade or more before I learned that it was a cover, it really does sound and read like a Cash original 😮‍💨

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Folks, it's time to call it: fund more Assyriology chairs if you want more Ea-nasir material

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Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com · 25/08/2026

Catch up on the history of Ea-nasir here:

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Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com · 25/08/2026

We love to see it, folks -- happy to see the narrative of Ea-nasir continue to be shaped over the last few years. Looks like getting good information out into the world helps!

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Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com · 24/08/2026

I provided some historical context with recent criticism against the concept of debt remissions by Seth Richardson -- the one citation this op-ed gives is from a very dated financial theory that our field acknowledged a few decades ago (and hardly any longer):

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Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas

Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Others have commented @rajakorman.bsky.social has punned, but in case you missed @dael.bsky.social @bhgreeley.bsky.social @sarahebond.bsky.social I am here to tell you: THIS OP-ED is completely, totally uninformed. It's appalling the NYT published it. Short 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | An Ancient Sumerian Solution to Our $40 Trillion Deficit

In the ancient world, debt forgiveness was a regular tool to control the economy. Why have we forgotten it?

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Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com · 24/08/2026

Marc has a section about Ur's short term loans that he thinks might relate to debt cancellations (p. 205), but there isn't much to press on the idea. From my study, I couldn't correlate debt cancellations to loan behaviors at Ur or Nippur. Need more data!

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Table of Gods hit its Kickstarter goal of $1 million in just 18 hours - surely a sign that we need more Assyriology in the world!

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‘Profoundly cruel’: Errors upend student loan forgiveness program

Mutatis mutandis, if we are going to look to Sumerian amargi as a way to address American debt by benefitting its state workers, we should see what is happening to the debt of America's public servants: www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

politico.com

Trump’s Education Department is clawing back credit toward loan forgiveness due to errors it said were made during the Biden administration.

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Seth Richardson ran the numbers and found that the only people impacted by debt remissions related to the palace; it was exclusively the state clearing debt from its workers. "The idea that mīšarums were supposed to alleviate debt for economic actors throughout the economy is not in evidence.”

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The remaining 16 provisions related to state actors such as soldiers, farm tenants, and merchants that handled palace goods. By decree alone, debt remission was primarily in favor of impacting state workers, not the general population.

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In this mīšarum of Ammi-ṣaduqa, only 6 out of 22 stipulations impacted the population writ large, through debts rarely attested in known private documentation. This means that the types of debts impacted were either rare or not part of the (private) archives we know of today.

When we talk about debt remission, we are usually talking about Old Babylonian mīšarums, a form of redress used by kings such as Hammurabi or Rim-Sin I. Many kings announced them and they were recognized in legal documents. We have one extant copy from the time of Ammi-ṣaduqa (1646-1626 BCE).

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Amargi is a Sumerian word that first appears around 2400 BCE, relating to a literal return of mother and child within the city of Lagash. It later takes on an abstract meaning of remitting debt. We presume that the earlier separation of mother and child carried similar economic or social challenges.

Paul says “the amargi was a response to a persistent problem that was recognized in the ancient world: Debt compounded until it destabilized society.” This is because “the ancient world understood something about our monetary system we have mostly forgotten: Money is an invented social construct.”

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