Jon Taylor

Title section of a journal article: The Legend of Ea-Nasir: How a Babylonian Businessman Became an Internet Meme. By Gabriel Moshenska, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK, g.moshenska@ucl.ac.uk https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JCA/article/view/30204 https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.30204

Just published a paper on the complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir meme, the decade-old tumblr in-joke that continues to impact the public understanding of the ancient world. Paywalled but email me if you want a copy. 🏺

Sunny Norwich 😎

A restored victorian garden in Norwich, on a sunny day. A fountain in the background is framed by tree branches

A restored victorian garden in Norwich, on a sunny day. A fountain in the background, with a colourful red and yellow ornamental flower bed in the foreground

Woohooo, that tablet is currently on display at the royal palace too!🥳🥳🥳

If you want to hear the latest news from one of Iraq's most iconic sites, and how excavations work, episode 77 is for you

congratulations! And good luck. Looking forward to hearing news of progress

A canal in the Midlands region of UK. In the foreground is a narrowboat with a colourful art design. In the background is a bridge, and a set of lock gates, with a small lock keeper's house on the far bank

We were just walking, but it does look very relaxing

A little Sunday timeline cleanse

'Quite enigmatic': Rare stone carving of Assyrian king surrounded by gods discovered in Iraq A massive stone carving featuring an Assyrian ruler and several deities has been found in Iraq.

Babe, wake up. New relief of Ashurbanipal just dropped! 🧪🏺

Thanks so much. Glad you found it and like it. Hope you enjoy the other episodes too.

thanks! Very glad to hear you enjoyed it. Small fields like Assyriology especially need good communicators like @moudhy.bsky.social

the one on the right is a copy of part of a list of Akkadian synonyms called Malku=sharru. Words that are difficult for some reason (like being old, or from another language) are explained using a more straightforward word. Very helpful list

it was great to chat with @moudhy.bsky.social about her work. Worth a listen if you'd like to hear about how the stories you enjoy reading come to be made.

maybe. I'll have a little look around

I'm not so familiar with material from Ugarit, but it doesn't look very promising for Mesopotamian. Especially just a single sign. You do get Luwian and Egyptian, so maybe Ugaritic is a possibility? Would 'i make some kind of sense?

this exhibition received more than 100,000 visitors, and both the English and Hungarian versions of the catalogue sold out. Very impressive.

is that a Roman salute?

YouTube video by Mr. Nicky's World History Songs ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA song by Mr. Nicky

did you ever hear this one? www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdbl...

enjoyed talking about The Book, Moudhy's work here, and more. You won't have to wait long. The episode will be out later this month. In the meantime, there are a few other things to keep you entertained, like this on cuneiform www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

a carved head of a griffin, viewed side on. The white head is contrasted with inlaid black and red eyes

an explanation of the many divine symbols on the kudurru, a commemorative stone. Round astral designs represent the sun, moon and Venus. Ashur is shown as a horned crown. Adad is shown as lightning. Ninurta is an eagle.

a large stone threshold slab, carved with a lengthy cuneiform inscription.

key finds include an inscribed doorway slab of King Ashurnasirpal, and a stone monument carved with designs representing the gods

View of northwest Palace from the north. A series of low mounds with outcrops of rough vegetation. In the background stand damaged reconstructed remains

Work in progress the Upper Chambers. Shallow excavations in the mound reveal rooms and mud brick floors.

Newly discovered sanctuary chambers. The remaining walls stand as high as a person

Thin End of the Wedge episode 74 is out: Michael Danti and John MacGinnis talk about Nimrud: post-conflict archaeology in the heartland of Assyria. www.wedgepod.org/episode-list/ The Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program--conservation and reconstruction work, excavation, and capacity building.

Iraq returns 27,000 antiquities to national museum: Official Iraq’s General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage announced on Tuesday the recovery of 27,000 looted relics from within Iraq and abroad, confirming their return to the National Museum of Iraq.

Iraq returns 27,000 antiquities to national museum: Official
www.rudaw.net/english/midd...

are you seeing any repairs?

Couldn't quite bring myself to post that bit of archaeological context on #InternationalWomensDay. My wife's reaction was that she hoped someone twonked him with a sturdy handbag

"their claim. They had no claim because they had rendered no service to the state." Leonard Woolley, excavator of Ur, speaking at a debate (nuance alert) on women's suffrage while a student at Oxford. Big debate in UK c. 1900. Gertrude Bell was also anti-suffrage, no doubt for different reasons

"Mr Woolley disapproved of the existence of women at all but in a few resigned phrases pointed out their superiority to men. Such beings must not, he said, be degraded by politics. Women had no sense of honour nor any appreciation of secrecy. But their capability was not the question so much as..."

nice. where did you get them from?

glasses cases in the exhibition shop, with an image of a striding lion from the glazed brick processional way in Babylon

the shop had some excellent merch. I resisted the Ishtar Gate glasses case, but now regret it

Marge Simpson holding a statuette labelled 'Pazuzu'

poster of the band Gorillaz, with an image of Pazuzu and the text 'choose Pazuzu'

a view of the final section of the exhibition, showing a variety of examples of Mesopotamia in art and pop culture

the exhibition ends with some 'reception'--ancient Mesopotamia in the modern world. Pazuzu looms large, of course

hand holding a sticker reading "well behaved copper ingot merchants rarely make history".

Happy 10th birthday to the Ea-Nasir complaint tablet meme! A glorious decade of memes, mashups, merchandise, erotic fanfic, real-life copper fraud, and pilgrimages to the British Museum. Thread 🧵: