Monthly Archives: December 2018

Cross-Post: Plataea 2021 Pre-Registration, 28 June to 5 July 2021

07 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by in Ancient

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A group of men and women in hoplite kit on a sandy beach

An Ethiopian hoplite on the beach at Marathon circa 2011 or 2015. Photo courtesy of Hoplologia Toronto, photographer unknown https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53442cfae4b011260e4040da/t/5bafce47b208fc046cb97e2b/1538249515737/11232033_982241378481876_1738786449720157603_o.jpg?format=1000w

Word of the king: the naked Yaunaya who live in the middle of the sea are plotting an uprising at the city of Plataea. Because they have no king, they expect that it will take three years to organize their wicked plot, saying:

This is initial registration while we recruit and sort out new people and equipment creation. Expect to pay $1000 round trip airfare to Athens and approx. another $750 for a week in Greece which will include side trips to Thermopylae, Artemesium, Delphi and of course Athens. There will be martial arts instruction and some tours included free. We will try to find bus transportation and local hotel or B+B lodging so you have the cheapest fee and so we’re all together. IMPORTANT: We only care that you have a passion for history and/or martial arts. We are race and gender neutral/friendly. We are LGBTQ friendly and have LGBTQ members. If you do not like the idea of women or people of colour in your phalanx, or LGBTQ folks, you should stop right here and do something else in 2021.

The king’s troops from all lands shall go to the city of Plataea and smite the Yaunaya!
. . .

For further information and the signup form see boarstooth.net

The Biggest Assyriological Film Festival in History

02 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by in Ancient, Modern

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A crowd at an academic conference in a lobby with a stone floor, concrete walls, and several tables of books, snacks, and registration papers

The crowd at the 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale cum 12th Melammu-Seminar, 16-20 July 2018 in Innsbruck

Back in July the International Assyriological Association held its annual Rencontre in Innsbruck. I could talk about some of the papers I heard and posters I saw, or the curious characters I meet at these, but I am very tired, so I will just talk about one aspect: the largest festival of films in ancient Near Eastern languages in history.

“But Sean,” you must be saying, “it was only two films as part of a five-day conference. Does that really constitute a film festival?” Hear me out! Two films makes a plural, according to the best cuneiform tradition, and it was indisputably a festive occasion. If a celebration where films are showed before their release into theatres and/or streaming is not a film festival, what is? And while I admit that being the largest festival of films in Ancient Near Eastern languages is a bit like being the world’s most prominent armour historian-ichthyologist, if someone wants to beat our record, they are free to organize a showing of three films in ancient Near Eastern languages, say at the 14th Melammu-Symposium in Los Angeles ({ki}AN.TÚR.HI.A).

Both films are adaptations of famous literary texts. Edubba A- The Film is one of the stories about life in the tablet-house preserved in Sumerian on tablets from the age of Hammurabi. Assyriologists debate whether these reflect life at the time of the oldest surviving copies, or are more like J.K. Rowling telling a public-school story based on other public-school stories … it seems that in the age of Hammurabi there was a rush to record Sumerian texts which had previously been memorized on clay. You can find Edubba A- The Film on the Berner Altorientalisches Forum.

The Poor Man of Nippur is a Babylonian tale of poverty, injustice, and one young citizen’s revenge. The original tablet was copied for Qurdi-Nergal at Huzirina (modern Sultantepe, Turkey) sometime between 701 and 619 BCE. This story uses many of the patterns and tropes seen in the folktales collected in the last few hundred years, such as the “History of the First Larrikin” in a medieval Arabic manuscript, so again trying to work out its exact age is difficult. In the interest of equal representation, I can report that this film acknowledges not one but two goats and an archaeological park in the credits. You can find The Poor Man of Nippur with subtitles in your choice of languages on YouTube and a link to a translation of the Akkadian on the CDLI:wiki.

Enjoy! I will embed the videos below the fold.

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