Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 28/04/2026Everything is bad, you log on here and mostly just read about the lawlessness of the United States, aside from never ending war here in the Middle East, and no mood to post anything between grad school, book editing and staying alive but here’s a pic of our cat Zsuzsa with a hat she actually loves. 040
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 15/04/2025American artist Dread Scott made such a silkscreen on canvas in 2007 (I think) “Imagine a world without America” which became the cover of Art Forum in December 2016 before the first election of Trump. 020
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 06/02/20252 years after the massive SE Turkey earthquake today, and on this anniversary we’re happy to finally release this book, “Antakya: Testimonies, Heritage and Future” published by Istos in collaboration with Nehna. Includes my chapter on heritage and contemporary archaeology in Antakya and Samandag. 141
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 23/01/2025The pollution in Bangkok this week… something else. 011
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 18/01/2025They say there’s an unusually cold spell in Bangkok this month, but it’s literally 27-32 C 🙃 Sometimes it’s almost hard to believe I’m living here. 120
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 14/01/2025Crazy Bangkok… I didn’t know I would fall for you 170
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 14/01/2025Those moments when Bangkok reminds you of our beloved Antakya 020
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 12/01/2025She’s literally shocked at everything going on 😳 030
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 31/12/2024Welcome 2025 in the crazy Bangkok China Town 010
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 30/12/2024Few currency collapses, few wars, an earthquake, infinite debts, but we managed to get through these 2 years and still alive at 40. 050
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 20/12/2024A Moodeng festival in Bangkok… what else can one ask for? 010
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 18/12/2024The cat decided to start reading my chats and she’s not pleased with the state of the world. 020
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 17/12/2024I realized what the cat’s favorite toy actually is and I’m like, girl, your game is too advanced. 120
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 14/12/2024Life in the big city in Southeast Asia… After Antakya, Izmir, Bari and Athens, I feel like a village boy coming to the city (in spite of my Bogota, New York, Moscow, Istanbul credentials) 020
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 14/12/2024The Japanese bookstore Kinokunya is big in Bangkok, they have an entire shelf dedicated to Japanese literature ABOUT CATS in translation. This novel about mysterious healing cats might be the first non-academic volume I read in long years. 110
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 12/12/2024I left Athens for this mega-chaos-mall in Southeast Asia and it’s kind of fun. But I guess I still miss so much about the Mediterranean, I guess it’s that (sadistic) sense of missing “home” even when it’s really bad to you. 010
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 07/12/2024The world of contemporary art in Bangkok truly is something else. Last night opening at a museum whose collection is mostly about boobs. Incredible food situation with stations for padthai, noodles, meat skewers and sticky rice, and a famous Korean DJ I never ever heard about. 000
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 05/12/2024Barely getting started with this… Tiny and a first time fair, but other than a couple of famous Chinese names, everything else is new to me (most of the galleries are Korean) 000
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 04/12/2024Palestinian olive oil… a rare sight these days. 000
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 04/12/2024Some hours well spent at “Middle East Street”, in the Nana area of Bangkok (Indian sorta), tucked between Korean and Punjabi streets and a prostitution mall. 100
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 03/12/2024Sitting house in Bangkok with this little lady and wondering what you guys are up to and curious about the rather exhilarating Korea content. I guess political events are always exhilarating at first… Whatever happens next is of a different nature. 030
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 02/12/2024Most of the time I have no idea what I’m doing in this city or why. 010
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 29/11/2024I guess the world had already lost its marbles, long before the 2nd orange man administration. Found randomly on my FB while looking for something else. 030
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 29/11/2024My little treasure… Mr Boo-boo, still in Turkey with his other dad waiting for us to resolve visas and life generally 🫠 while I’m at the other end of the planet 🌏 110
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 28/11/2024Being in Bangkok is like the furthest away I’ve been from the Middle East possibly in a decade? It’s so strange, I can’t really figure it out very well. 100
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 27/11/2024The incredible stuff you see on Hezbollah-friendly accounts in Lebanon today. Imagine having 20% of the country destroyed/displaced, a foreign country holding all the upper hands and still thinking this is some kind of victory for you. 000
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 26/11/2024But it’s not without dangers. The N*zi sc*m are always there lurking, waiting for their chance, not completely unthinkable in one of Europe’s most heavily policed states. 010
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 26/11/2024But she’s still such a beauty, the old and the new and the ancient and the ugly, all together. For many of us it has become the putative parent, replacing cities we have lost, like Beirut, Damascus, Istanbul, etc. 100
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 26/11/2024It would be a pity that all the suffering and tears of the last 20 years of crises would be simply lost in the theme park of Greece, which is still what’s likely to happen, although the theme park is a castle built on sand. 100
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 26/11/2024There are such interesting communities, Palestinians, Lebanese, Afghans, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, making it home in strange unique ways, sharing the same spaces with the Greek working class. Spaces threatened by the insanity of tourism and money. 100
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 26/11/2024But this energy can be derailed so easily. The punitive economic inequality and the completely absurd housing situation is making people flee, first to the northern/southern semi-suburbs but often also out of the country. 110
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 26/11/2024Being in Asia, makes you think of Athens differently. I feel as if it’s one of the few places in Europe that is interesting nowadays, so vibrant and exciting while still provincial and livable, the perfect size and undergoing some tremendous social transformations. 130
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Finally reading Beaton’s much loved biography of modern Greece. It doesn’t disappoint in anyway. This is a hilarious bit how Greeks belong to the “West”: Because they decided it so. The formation of states is always awkward but this one is uproarious. 030
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 25/09/2024The rarity that is seeing cats, or rather felines, in Ancient Greek representation, but here it is this tiny Lekythos from the Matera/Metaponto region, 4th century BCE. 020
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 26/08/2024Wrapping things up after almost a month in Cyprus. There’s always so much left unfinished. 020
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 31/03/2024I still have strong preference for the Byzantine rite Latin church though 000
Arie Amaya-Akkermans @dilmunite.bsky.social · 31/03/2024New discovery: Russian Orthodox Church in Bari 100