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Ash (she/her)

@ashley1205.bsky.social
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All things ancient world :)

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Dr Florence Smith Nicholls @florencesn.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
My thesis “Archaeological Game Design: Video Game Archaeology as Interpretive Play and Play Preservation” is now online and open access! You can access the official version here, however this has some figures redacted: qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle...
Archaeological Game Design: Video Game Archaeology as Interpretive Play and Play Preservation

Abstract: Video game archaeology is a relatively new field. This can involve studying players through the traces they leave in digital game worlds, though only limited work of this kind exists. Furthermore, the potential of these methods to record ephemeral play experiences for preservation purposes has not been widely explored. The first part of the thesis establishes the background literature on games archaeology and play preservation. The second part reports on the development of novel archaeological methodologies for preserving play. This includes three case studies; a go-along study in the massively multiplayer online game Wurm Online, an archaeological survey in Elden Ring, and a collaborative autoethnography in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. The third part of this thesis reports on the results of a player study investigating how participants interpret environmental storytelling. We report on a study in which participants (N=202) played a game about exploring a procedurally generated ruined village and were then surveyed on their interpretations. We draw on methods and theory from archaeology, a field that specialises in the interpretation of material remains, to support a grounded theory analysis of the survey responses, from which we form the theory of an archaeological gameworld mental model. Finally, the fourth part of the thesis synthesises these case studies to argue that archaeological game design brings together both the archaeological recording of player traces, as well as player interpretations of a fictional gameworld that should also be preserved. This work contributes both novel methodologies for play preservation and a new theory for how players interpret gameworlds. This work has narrative design applications, and interdisciplinary contributions to game AI, games studies and HCI.
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Seth L. Sanders @nabalkattu.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Palestine vs Israel: who was there first? To sum up 1000 years of inscriptional evidence the answer is 'yes.' Details in my forthcoming introductory history of ancient Israel, Judah, and Palestine linked below.
Barbarians Trading Places with States: A Timeline of “Israel” and “Palestine,” Amorites, and Arameans

2300 BCE	West Semitic (Amorite) names first appear in Babylon
		Amorites appear as subject of complaint about barbarous tribes
1900 BCE	Amorite tribal leaders including Hana (“nomads”) take over Mari in Syria
1800 BCE	Amorite tribal leaders take over Babylon
1600 BCE		Kingdom of Hana (“Nomad-land”) appears in Syria
1400 BCE 	Kingdom of Amurru (“Amorite-land”) appears in Northern Levant
1300 BCE	First Amorite/West Semitic literature appears in Syria at Ugarit
1206 BCE		Israel (ysrỉꜣr) first mentioned as population group
1175 BCE			Philistines (Pleshet) first mentioned as population group
1100 BCE	Arameans first appear as subject of complaint about barbarous tribes
				Palestine (Palashtu) as Egyptian name for Southern Levant
11th century			Palastin as Luwian name for kingdom in Southern Anatolia
9th century 		Israel (Sir’ila) as Assyrian name for Northern Kingdom
Palestine (Palaštu) as Assyrian name for Southern region of Levant
8th century		Judah (Yahuda) as Assyrian name for southern territory in Levant
		Aram mentioned as kingdom
		Aram mentioned as larger region
700 BCE	Assyria conquers last Aramean kingdoms
Aramaic becoming major spoken language of Assyrian empire
600 BCE	Aramaic is main spoken language of Assyrian empire
200 BCE		Numidia (“Nomad-land”) appears as kingdom in North Africa
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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
It’s real! It’s really real! Preorder at the link in my bio right now, it’s good, I promise!
Patrick wyman holding a copy of Lost Worlds
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BiblioIranica @biblioiranica.info · 20/04/2026
Ancient Persian van Bladel, Kevin. 2026. Ancient Persian: A linguistic history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. When ancient Persian conquerors created a vast empire from the Mediterranean to the Indus, encompassing many peoples speaking many different languages, they triggered demographic…
biblioiranica.info
Ancient Persian
van Bladel, Kevin. 2026. Ancient Persian: A linguistic history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. When ancient Persian conquerors created a vast empire from the Mediterranean to the Indus, encompassing many peoples speaking many different languages, they triggered demographic changes that caused their own language to be transformed. Persian grammar has ever since borne testimony to the social history of the ancient Persian Empire.
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Also, I think Prof. Skjærvø made his textbook available on academia: www.academia.edu/72410563/Old... (the screenshot is from p.31, I believe). I love that even the cuneiform is provided!
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I used Familia Romana and its companion, and then more or less just winged my way through Caesar hoping for the best, but this is just hilarious. You sold me on picking up Wheelock more than any Latin beginner post ever did!
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Matthew Scarborough 𓏎 @mattitiahu.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I love how—because of the nature of the corpus material—the translation exercises from Skjærvø's Old Persian textbook are more stereotypically Wheelock's Latin than even Wheelock's Latin itself.
B–Translate into Old Persian:
1 We are called Persian, (but) we are Median.
2 These Parthians were not Medes. They were not good horsemen.
3 The Assyrians were not great kings. They were liars.
4 The Makranians have always been and still are disloyal.
5 The Sakas wearing pointed hats have been distinguished Aryans from old.
6 Happy subjects are loyal followers.
7 This is a happy family.
8 This empire is big.
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Ancient Jew Review @ancientjewreview.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Our #forum on Virginia Burrus' Earthquakes and Gardens: Saint Hilarion’s Cyprus continues with an essay from Robert Paul Seesengood
ancientjewreview.com
Haunted Reading(s): A Response to Earthquakes and Gardens — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW
Burrus wildly and intentionally reads Jerome and Hilarion forward alongside contemporary art, histories of cartography, and modern sciences of geology and seismology. She cites artifacts and…
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Dr Robin Douglas @robincdouglas.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I have a new article out about the Orphic Hymns! The Hymns are an enigmatic text which has repeatedly caught the interest of both scholars and esotericists over the years. antigonejournal.com/2026/04/orph...
antigonejournal.com
Invoking the Gods: The Baffling Orphic Hymns
ROBIN DOUGLAS What were the Orphic Hymns?
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 10/04/2026
#OnThisDay in AD 1633 the first bananas went on sale in London. They had in fact been introduced to Mediterranean Europe centuries earlier, through Islamic expansion, but did not become widely accessible further north until the advent of Empire. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
Map of Western Asia and the Mediterranean, showing the expansion of Islam out of Arabia over time, coloured based on the various periods of expansion.
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Seth L. Sanders @nabalkattu.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
THIS SHABBES ONLY at Chicago's KAM ISAIAH ISRAEL, "The Pride of the South Side"! "Rebuked and Scorned: Is There Jewish Soul Music? and "The Invention of Hebrew and the History of Ancient Israel and Judah"
Red bearded guy with Frazetta, Sunn, and Current 93 Pazuzu sneaking up on him
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Don't forget back then, when Hamas urged Iran to show restraint. We truly are living in an age where one can no longer tell if a headline is a parody or not, and where my only possible reaction is snort-laugh-cry...
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 17/01/2026
neolithic guys get pissed if you tell them their cultures are organized by the type of pots and jewelry they made. "we called ourselves the blood hunters" "we conquered villages far beyond this horizon" sorry bud you're the western linear pottery culture now
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Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran @sasanianshah.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
A long time ago, I wrote a little history of the medieval Kingdom of Hormuz. My plan one day is to start a project in the pre 1250 history of it. But for now, here is what I have for your reading pleasure. iranologie.com/the-history-...
iranologie.com
The Kingdom of Hormuz
The Kingdom of Hormuz was among the minor states of medieval period that rose as the result of the internal conflicts following the demise of the Abbasid power and the struggle for supremacy betwee…
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Wanted in Rome @wantedinrome.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Caesar is dead! Rome re-enacts the funeral procession of Julius Caesar who was stabbed to death on this day in 44 BC. #IdesOfMarch
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Micah @rincewind.run · 15/03/2026
friend, this is Marcus Junius Brutus CAESAR has declared himself DICTATOR FOR LIFE and MUST BE STOPPED can you rush a donation of ten denarii today to show that you STAND WITH THE REPUBLIC?
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victoria scott @victoriascott.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
I'm sorry ma'am, but your son perished on Kharg Island in a valiant effort to create Wii Bowling meme videos for the White House X account. In the face of danger, he was not cringe; he was based to his last breath. Please have this commemorative Epic Fury challenge coin. Yes that's Punisher, ma'am
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Laura Ansley @lmansley.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Completely obsessed with the Vietnamese mosaics that use broken pottery to make 3D decoration.
Dragon mosaic Rat mosaic with flowers Front of 20th-century Vietnamese imperial palace with mosaics on all the surfaces Flat mosaic birds on flowering branches
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ndweiss @11tulips.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Wot! No one told me this! Like a Who’s Who of Wanderers in the Valley of the Kings! www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
livescience.com
'Cikai Korran came here and saw': Visitors from India graffitied dozens of Egyptian tombs 2,000 years ago
Ancient inscriptions written in Indian languages have been discovered on Egyptian tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 06/03/2026
Happy Friday. Don’t skip school.
kevinrkirk 2d
@ Threads
Why are we bothering with the Strait of Hormuz when we could simply do this? Explain it to me like l'm 5.

(Drawing of chopping of part of land)

suahuatica 2d
MOUNTAIN HARD AND BIG, WATER NO UP. MANY MANY DIG DIG.
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Jacob @iacobuscaesar.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
I want you all to appreciate this Attic kylix from the 470s BC depicting the scene where Jason is supposed to be killing the Colchian dragon that guards the Golden Fleece. Except for some reason, it’s either swallowing or barfing him while Athena checks in.
Image from the interior of an Attic red-figure kylix depicting the naked body of Jason, helpfully labeled, hanging out of the dragon’s mouth.  The Golden Fleece is draped over a tree in the background.  Helmeted Athena stands in front of the dragon, a spear in one hand and an owl in the other.
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Dia VanGunten / Writer @pinkzombierose.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
You’re welcome. Happy day! 😆
Scientists discovered a caterpillar that murders insects and stitches their dismembered body parts onto its back as armor
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Wanted in Rome @wantedinrome.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Marble bust in Rome basilica attributed to Michelangelo after centuries in obscurity.
wantedinrome.com
Michelangelo bust rediscovered in Rome after centuries in obscurity
Experts have formally attributed a marble bust of Christ the Saviour in Rome’s Basilica of Sant’Agnese to Michelangelo, marking a major art world discovery.
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Medieval Illumination @medieval-illuminations.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/03/2026
Constellation #Aries. Cicero’s Aratea with Hyginus’s Astronomica, Reims(?) ca. 820-850. British Library, Harley 647, fol. 2v. #medieval #MedievalArt
Constellation #Aries. Cicero’s Aratea with Hyginus’s Astronomica, Reims(?) ca. 820-850. British Library, Harley 647, fol. 2v.
#medieval #MedievalArt
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Simon Knott @simonknott.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
In the National Museum of Scotland. The Lewis chess pieces, made in Norway c1200 and found on the Isle of Lewis in 1831.
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Not gonna lie, I ugly-laughed. I do think there's a lot of Orientalism in the West's obsession with Sun Tzu. But it's depressing to realize that the One Message a 2,000-year-old Chinese book tries to hammer home has not, in fact, been hammered home.
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Lameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
"Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've plotted on these pages I hold that both claims go back ages."
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Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran @sasanianshah.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
On the third floor of that building you see next to the last explosion on this video is an apartment that belongs to my late dad. It’s rented out to a tenant now, so no close family. But that is the apartment where my dad spent his last few days.
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Absolutely! One can (and should) oppose war/hubris and a murderous regime at the same time. It's a bit sad to see certain left- or right-wing Western circles interested only in using the current suffering in Iran to bash each other. Hoping that something better might come out of this for Iran.
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Silent follower who hasn't commented much - but this sucks so bad, and I cannot imagine what you and other Iranians are feeling now. Best wishes to your family and loved ones, and of course every other innocent civilian who did not ask for this.
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
I'm so happy to see this project be a blast - as a reader, it feels great to see an indie publisher you like flourish. Kudos to you and Oliver for doing this collab with a smaller (relatively speaking) magazine as well; I think I just found another indie publisher that seems to have much potential!
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weird medieval guys @weirdmedieval.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
swordfighting tactics, germany, 16th century
a ink drawing of a man tackling another man swinging a sword by grabbing him around the waist and putting his face in his crotch
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Seth L. Sanders @nabalkattu.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
I'm writing a new history of ancient Israel, Judah, and Palestine: what are you most curious about? What do people most need to know? I'm in a position to do that as author of The Invention of Hebrew, From Adapa to Enoch, Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylon and coeditor of:
Poster for 2021 lecture WHY CUNEIFORM IN
CANAAN MATTERS by Dr Sandra Jacobs
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Association for the Study of Persianate Societies @persianatesociety.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Workshop: Genealogies in Motion: Recording, Visualizing, & Mobilizing Lineage across the Islamicate World. Organizers: The Japan Office of the ASPS, the Dept of Islamic Studies University of Bonn & the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo
ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Tobunken Symposium: Genealogies in Motion: Recording, Visualizing, and Mobilizing Lineage across the Islamicate World – Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia
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Isaac Samuel @rhaplord.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
“Up to 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is kept outside of the continent.” www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/online-res...
africanhistoryextra.com
Online resources for African history: links to African collections held at 33 Western Museums
Up to 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is kept outside of the continent, according to a French government-commissioned 2018 report by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French h...
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Ash (she/her) @ashley1205.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
I've been wanting to know ever since I saw you share this work on Reddit! Definitely not much luck, though :( - from what I've gathered, the author doesn't even list the article among his publications (yet?), and the only article that I could find that cites Huard (2025) doesn't touch on it deeply.
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A.Z. Fell, Esq. @azfell-esq.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
www.bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
'Do you love me?': The Viking messages unearthed on Sweden's rune stones
Runic inscriptions from the Viking Age still turn up in Sweden 1,000 years after they were written – revealing fascinating stories of love, loss and epic battles.
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5 foot Home Depot skeleton @redderbeanpaste.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
i think we all need to step back and realize that peak art was made when neolithic pot in the shape of a pig was fired
a round pottery piece with pig eyes and a snout
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🇵🇸Tim Henke (tɪm 'ɦɛŋ.kə) @timhenke.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Pretty sure this museum is trying to pull a meme, here
Remains of a bronze statue in the shape of the hind quarters of a horse. Behind it on paper the rest of the horse is drawn as well as a rider
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 02/02/2026
📰 Mass grave from Jerash, Jordan provides rare physical evidence of the plague of Justinian, showing how the pandemic affected real people in the Byzantine Empire between the sixth and eighth centuries AD. 🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
Mass grave in Jordan sheds new light on world’s earliest recorded pandemic
Researchers tell ‘human story’ about crisis during plague of Justinian, which killed millions in Byzantine empire
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Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran @sasanianshah.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
I want to write a book called “Not So Sapien: a Complete History of Human Follies”. It will provide a survey of all the mistakes we’ve made throughout history & how we’ve tried to compensate for them by either integrating them into our system or by developing them into enduring structures.
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Angela O'Brien / GrecianGirly @greciangirl.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
#Caturday #ClassicalCats
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Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran @sasanianshah.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Just got interviewed by the Österreichischer Rundfunk about the history of Iran in the 20th century and the background to the Revolution of ‘79. My first time moonlighting as a modernist. Watch out for it on 5 February on ÖRF.
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 24/01/2026
Claudius was proclaimed #Roman emperor #OnThisDay in AD 41. Claudius invaded Britain in AD 43, and subsequent urbanisation had a profound impact on the population's health. New research shows the multi-generational consequences of Roman occupation. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
Several non-adult bones from Roman Britain, with arrows pointing to pathology suggestive of health issues like vitamin C & D deficiency, tuberculosis and more.
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 20/01/2026
📰 Hidden in plain sight, digital imaging reveals nearly 80 inscriptions in Pompeii's theatre district: ancient graffiti professing love, expressing insults and cheering on gladiators. 🏺 #EpigraphyTuesday #ArchaeologyNews via @labrujulaverde.bsky.social www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/01/n...
labrujulaverde.com
Nearly eighty ancient inscriptions with declarations of love, insults, and slogans left by the public in the corridors of the theaters discovered in Pompeii
On a bare wall, seemingly exhausted, excavated two hundred thirty years ago in the heart of the theater district—where millions of visitors pass each year without suspecting the secret the stone…
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ᠮᠥᠩᠬᠡ ᠨᠠᠷᠠᠨ / Münkhnaran Bayarlkhagva @morientalist.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Galleria Borghese in Rome is hosting two works of Zanabazar - the Green Tara and his selfportrait as part of the "From Mongolia to the Global Baroque" exhibit thru Feb 22, 2026. Items loaned from the Chinggis Khan museum. #mongolsky
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Bryn Hammond @brynhammond.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
My Jamuqa does similarly. And wait until the WIP.
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Seth L. Sanders @nabalkattu.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
The Virgin Ideologue: "It was always Israel!"/"It was always Palestine!" The Chad Neo-Assyrian Emperor: "I crushed Israel, Palestine, Judah, Tyre, Sidon, Moab, Que, and Damascus. I saw them driven before me and heard the lamentations of their women."
Some of the Terms Assyrian Kings used for the Levant, From Leo Oppenheim’s translation in Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (1969). Includes texts from the 9th and 8th centuries BCE that use the terms Israel, Palestine, Judah, Damascus etc.
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Sonia Mzali @sonia-mzali.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Et si vous voulez en savoir plus sur Enheduana, cet épisode du podcast "La Nymphe et la Sorcière" auquel j'ai eu le plaisir de participer est fait pour vous ! lanympheetlasorciere.com/2025/02/21/e...
lanympheetlasorciere.com
Enheduanna, prêtresse-poétesse en Mésopotamie
Enheduanna : princesse de l’Empire d’Akkad et grande prêtresse du dieu Nanna, a vécu en Mésopotamie vers 2300 avant JC, poétesse, autrice d’hymnes à la déesse Inana, faisant d&rsq…
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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Exceptionally rare carnyx (Celtic battle trumpet) found in England. 🏺🧪
livescience.com
Rare 2,000-year-old war trumpet, possibly linked to Celtic queen Boudica, discovered in England
Archaeologists have announced their discovery of a metal hoard that contained an extremely rare example of a Celtic battle trumpet.
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