Monthly Archives: April 2018

Meditations on a Homespun Blanket

28 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by in Modern, Not an expert

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An undyed woolen blanket and a plate of vegetable matter and plastic which was removed from it

A homespun wool blanket from handwovenwool.com

I have some camping planned for later this summer, so I bought a woolen blanket from Adam Henzl at https://handwovenwool.com/ It was probably woven in the Achaemenid empire, and the price was similar to a 100% wool blanket from sellers of Heimtextilien in Innsbruck. The wool is soft and well-woven with strong selvages. When I spread it over my lap and worked it, I found it very educational.

As you can see, the wool still contained a significant amount of burrs, grasses, wood chips and windblown debris. Much of this was not easily visible but appeared under my hands and my tweezers.

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Cross-Post: Reddit Breaks Without Javascript

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Not an expert

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Seems functional at first, but none of the links work and that big sidebar at the left won’t go away! reddit in late April 2018 without scripts.

Sometime in mid-April 2018, Reddit joined the crowd of sites which don’t work without Javascript. Its pages do not appear blank, but none of the links work, and the start of each line in the main part of the page is covered by an almost completely empty column at the left which cannot be removed.

A number of blog hosts have joined this trend recently. Here is Confessions of a Community College Dean at https://suburbdad.blogspot.co.at/

Confessions of a Community College Dean without scripts, Note how the body text overlaps the sidebar rather than wrapping at the end of the column. Long paragraphs extend outside the browser window entirely so that only the first 100 or so characters are visible.


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Horse Troops and Troops of the Bow

14 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by in Ancient

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A dome of baked bricks with arches below

The architecture of holy places in the Middle East has changed a bit since the glory days of the Ebabbar, but how about this photo of a mosque in Isfahan?

A tablet from Sippar with the forgettable names BM 57222 and CT 57, 82 contains the following lines:

“(6) 1/2 mina 8 shekels silver to Šamaš-iddin (7) and the horse troops (8) who returned from the city of Egypt (9) 1 mina 50 shekels silver for mountain garments (10) and širannū for troop[s] (11) of the bow …”

Even though it is damaged, it tells us important things. The Ebabbar, the house of Šamaš at Sippar, was sending troops to Egypt in the fourth year of some king. Since the archive ends suddenly early in the second year of of Xexes, and since Cambyses had not yet conquered Egypt in his fourth year, this is probably the fourth year of Darius. It is usually thought that Darius visited Egypt a few years after his Putsch, although I don’t understand the arguments that his visit was in a specific Gregorian year. But in any case, it shows that conscripts could be sent all the way to Egypt, wearing the same clothing they were issued in other texts which do not specify what they were doing. Conscripts sometimes spent their time in service dredging out canals in Elam or improving roads near Nippur, but sometimes they went much farther.

Cross-Post: Science for the People Needs Patrons

08 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Modern, Not an expert

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A treestump on a riverbank with the marks of an adze or teeth below a chainsaw cut

Skillful axeman or a plucky castor fiber? Whoever or whatever felled this tree on the Inn near Hall in Tirol, I think it counts as Canadian content!

Science for the People, the great Canadian radio show and podcast on science, is looking for more patrons to help pay for their costs. Making an episode requires hours of skilled work and expensive equipment or software even if the interviewers volunteer their time. Starting in May:

Once a year, for Patreon supporters donating $5 per month or higher, we’ll send you a card celebrating an important – but lesser known – scientist on their birthday. This lovely birthday card will include custom commissioned artwork and a delightful poem about the scientist’s life and achievements.

Every year we’ll pick a different scientist whose birthday we’re celebrating: this year, if you want to be guaranteed to receive your own scientist birthday card, you’ll need to sign up to donate $5/month on Patreon by no later than May 15.

$10/month patreons will also get a Science Birthday magnet in addition to the birthday card, so they can be reminded of a brilliant scientist every time they open their fridge.

$25/month patreons will also get a sweet, stylish, Science for the People logo tote bag to carry their Science Birthday magnet and card around in to show off to their friends.

And for those heroic listeners who want to expand their science coffee mug collection, we’ll also be sending $50/month patreons a coffee mug with the Science Birthday artwork, in addition to the magnet, the birthday card, and the tote. Take it to work, and anytime someone asks who’s on your mug, edu-tain your coworkers by reading them a poem about a scientist we guarantee they’ve never heard of!

Now, Science for the People is not about the kind of science which I do, so you will find episodes on contraception, forest fires, and the psychology of habit but not old languages or swords. But they do good work. You can find their website, with links for your favourite podcast feed, at http://www.scienceforthepeople.ca/news/shakin-up-our-patreon-rewards and their Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/scienceforthepeople

Bonus Content: Trecento Sources for Concealed Armour

07 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by in Medieval

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Are scale caps and aventails just a fantasy of the artist who painted these ruffians looting a house? Check out Medieval Warfare VIII-1 and find out! Photo courtesy of the British Library.

Another of my writing projects brings us to the 14th century AD, and the burning question “what kind of concealed armour could you buy in the Avignon of the Babylonian Captivity?” If you think that concealed armour is just for Assassin’s Creed and 16th century bravos, you might want to check out Medieval Warfare VIII-1!

But what if you want the original source? Medieval Warfare does not have room for sources in the original, so this week, I have pasted them from my rough draft of the article:

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