Global antiquity! đ âAncient inscriptions written in Indian languages [= Old Tamil] have been discovered on Egyptian tombs in the Valley of the Kings.â The graffiti discussed here is so cool and indicate Indian travellers to Roman Egypt in the 1st-3rd centuries CE www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Maybe, but chicken-sounds arenât âlinguisticâ anyways, so the painter would only need to know which letters make which sounds - which is pretty plausible
Itâs weird! Probably to represent nonhuman sounds(?) they must have had a lot of fun with it
Surely itâs chicken noises? A random mix of chi/qoppa/digamma/epsilon sounds like chickens squabbling: âŚkhekhqwkhekhqwkhqekhe
The program of the Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics 2026 (6-17 July) is now online!
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/education...
Hopefully, there will be some courses of your liking! (Hittite perhaps?)
The application form will be online soon, too, so keep an eye out for it.
Don't want to get my hopes up, but this sounds genuinely exciting. The seventh century is one of the most important era's in Western Eurasian history, witnessing the rise of Islam, the end of Ancient Persia, and the dramatic reduction of Eastern Rome losing its status as Mediterranean Empire.
Fins ara es pensava que l'hittita s'hauria deixat d'escriure per mor de la caiguda de l'imperi hittita devers el 1200 aC. Segons G. Marchesi, qui n'estudia uns fragments monumentals (cosa ja insòlita), a Carquemix va perviure fins al s. VIII aC. En promet un estudi.
www.academia.edu/161282819/A_...
oh well
Just TEN DAYS LEFT to submit your abstracts for @emjlynajsh.bsky.social's and my conference on EM practical texts @sheffieldcems.bsky.social. The conference has hybrid capability, and we have six self-funded student/non-waged ECR travel bursaries of ÂŁ75 each.
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
Looking forward to running a stall all about ancient alphabets at the public Read Between the Lines fair in Oxford next week (Cheney School, Tuesday 11th). Come by to learn all about the history of writing â plus a short play about emojis!
@TheIrisProject @RumbleMuseum
pub.marq.com/40443503-03d...
Thatâs too kind of you â it really is a good book!
@theirisproject.bsky.social
For anybody interested in the subject who canât make it, I highly recommend the recent book by @dannybate.bsky.social, which has inspired a lot of our activities.
Our stall will feature a handful of my homemade wax tablets (the ancient iPad), as well as the opportunity to learn which historical alphabet best suits your name, and how to best create your own alphabet.
Looking forward to running a stall all about ancient alphabets at the public Read Between the Lines fair in Oxford next week (Cheney School, Tuesday 11th). Come by to learn all about the history of writing â plus a short play about emojis!
@TheIrisProject @RumbleMuseum
pub.marq.com/40443503-03d...
New issue of Kadmos Vol. 64, Nos.1-2 (2025) www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/... @dgb-ancientstudies.bsky.social @fsrphil.bsky.social
Unsurprised, but disappointed, to see that Newnham College's JRFs are being defined as explicitly trans-exclusionary: newn.cam.ac.uk/research/res...
If you are a trans academic, or an academic who feels you cannot apply for these fellowships because they are trans-exclusionary, you should consider writing to Newnham College to let them know.
The conference attendees pose at the front of the lecture theatre
*Such* an enjoyable weekend after so much preparation, hosting New Voices on the Polis here in Oxford
So grateful to our excellent speakers, to the inimitable @nakhthor.bsky.social, and to my fellow organisers for making this all possible
And now: an early night and a lie-in, I think
Babe wake up, new letter of the alphabet just dropped
"To Aulus Sergius Italicus, patron. His freedmen made this."
Oops, what we meant to say was: "To Aulus Sergius Italicus, patron. Maxsimus his son AND his freedmen made this."
Amusing case of a later addition to the stone. Maxsimus was NOT gonna be left out of this dedication!
#EpigraphyTuesday
âHolisticâ care not hormones for childrenâs gender treatment on NHS Ben Spencer - Science Editor Camilla Kingdon, a paediatrician, says the subject has been âtoxicâ. No new prescriptions for cross-sex hormones have been issued to children since the controversial Tavistock gender clinic in London was replaced a year ago, NHS leaders have said. The new NHS childrenâs gender service prioritises âholisticâ care for children with gender dysphoria rather than fast-tracking them on to hormones, an accusation that was levelled at the Tavistockâs Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) before it closed in March last year. The service, which is running at Great Ormond Street in London, Alder Hey in Liverpool and Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, has also prescribed no new puberty blockers, which are banned until a clinical trial starts later this year, pending ethical approval. It marks a fundamental switch in approach to the treatment of children with gender dysphoria, with doctors slowing down the route to prescribing hormonal drugs. Between April 2018 and December 2022, a fifth of patients referred to Gids were put on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones or both. A year ago, a review of the Tavistock service by the paediatrician Baroness Cass criticised the âgreater readinessâ to use hormones for gender dysphoria despite âremarkably weak evidenceâ for their use.
Her report said: âSome practitioners abandoned normal clinical approaches to holistic assessment, which has meant that this group of young people have been exceptionalised compared to other young people with similarly complex presentations. They deserve very much better.â Cross-sex hormones induce physical changes to allow patients to develop bodily features that align with a different gender identity. Those born male take oestrogen to develop breasts and redistribute fat and muscle mass; those born female take testosterone to deepen the voice, increase muscle mass and develop facial and body hair. Children prescribed the drugs at the Tavistock are continuing to receive their prescriptions. James Palmer, NHS Englandâs national medical director for specialised services, stressed that the door for the new prescription of cross-sex hormones was still open. âThere may be a circumstance where it is important for care,â he said. âThe services need the option of taking someone into masculinising or feminising hormones, if that really is the most important thing to be done. But the services have not identified an individual yet for whom it would be a really important bit of their care pathway.â If doctors decide there is a case for hormones to be prescribed, the decision must be agreed by a national multidisciplinary team of experts, chaired by Camilla Kingdon, the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She said the new service was about more than hormones. âThis is not just about endocrinology. Itâs about a holistic assessment of a child or young person within the context of their family. âThat means very detailed assessments looking at the childâs wider physical health, mental health, thinking about the child in the context of their school and so on. It involves psychologists, psychiatrists, paediatricians, clinical nurse specialists, speech therapists, occupational therapists.â
![Recruitment has begun to open a fourth gender centre at Addenbrookeâs in Cambridge, with eight planned across the country, each seeing 25 new child patients a month. Kingdon, who also chairs the provider network of new NHS gender clinics, said finding staff has been a struggle. âThatâs due to the politicised and sometimes toxic nature of this topic,â she said. âItâs not necessarily the sort of environment that has people queueing up to work in it.â
Palmer said a particular challenge had been navigating âa hugely divided lobby of stakeholdersâ, adding: âThereâs the very liberal end of the spectrum that think [we should focus purely] on access to a transitional arrangement. At the other end, people say NHS resources should not be spent on this area at all.â
Great Ormond Street and Alder Hey childrenâs gender services opened in June and Bristol started seeing patients in November. So far, 250 children have been seen, with a waiting list of 6,000 that is coming down after peaking in February.
âWhen we started, we had some individuals waiting for more than six years to be seen,â Palmer said. âBy the summer, if our maths is correct, no one will be waiting for more than four years to be seen, but it will take another three or four years to get to ... something much more manageable.â](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cyefpiziml7b24sxpd74axq7/bafkreihnycksxiosjfqptop5xinjmihtvwrcso5pyccoarn73eyylrj2ge)
Recruitment has begun to open a fourth gender centre at Addenbrookeâs in Cambridge, with eight planned across the country, each seeing 25 new child patients a month. Kingdon, who also chairs the provider network of new NHS gender clinics, said finding staff has been a struggle. âThatâs due to the politicised and sometimes toxic nature of this topic,â she said. âItâs not necessarily the sort of environment that has people queueing up to work in it.â Palmer said a particular challenge had been navigating âa hugely divided lobby of stakeholdersâ, adding: âThereâs the very liberal end of the spectrum that think [we should focus purely] on access to a transitional arrangement. At the other end, people say NHS resources should not be spent on this area at all.â Great Ormond Street and Alder Hey childrenâs gender services opened in June and Bristol started seeing patients in November. So far, 250 children have been seen, with a waiting list of 6,000 that is coming down after peaking in February. âWhen we started, we had some individuals waiting for more than six years to be seen,â Palmer said. âBy the summer, if our maths is correct, no one will be waiting for more than four years to be seen, but it will take another three or four years to get to ... something much more manageable.â
This is just the NHS admitting they are denying treatent to trans children
This is of very great concern. Labour has effectively declared war on trans academics and students. By defining transphobia as a âfree speechâ issue it is going to protect transphobes in higher education while preventing trans-inclusion. This is the opposite of âfree speechâ.
What pigments were used in the frescoes of Pompeii? Study published on the subject
www.finestresullarte.info/en/archaeolo...
I like Tolga Ărnekâs 20003 âdocu-dramaâ on the Hittites, with both Jeremy Irons and real spoken Hittite(!). A bit silly at times but very well-researched youtu.be/_9S40sXeJ2k?...
A handwritten letter from George E. Bean to Anne Jeffery, 28 February 1951, reading: âMany thanks for your interesting letter. I havenât photographed the Cnidian inscription yet, but will certainly and you can print it when I do. Of course use it for your thesis; thereâs no question of piracy. Itâs ridiculous not to share knowledge freely; Iâm feeling vexed with L. Robert at the moment for refusing me the use of some inscriptions he found near MuÄla, which we need for our âPeraeaâ.
From the archives: George Bean, writing to a young Anne Jeffery, insisting on free & open academic communication by taking a shot at Louis Robert
oh dear! I hope you recover quickly
