October 2011 Archives
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October 31, 2011
The Long And The Short Of Ṯ/Š
In the standard Ugaritic alphabet, the orthography of the Ṯ has more relatively common variants than just about any other letter. Vita’s drawing in Tropper, 19, and Tropper’s, 26, own discussion amply illustrate the point. Ellison, 694-737, discuses and illustrates...Read all of "The Long And The Short Of Ṯ/Š"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:15 AM
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October 30, 2011
The Pot To The Right, Righty, Or Cyprus
The inscription on a pithos handle from Kämid el-Löz/Kumidi, KTU 6.67, reads simply ymn. The orthography, particularly the M, has close affinities to the orthography of texts written in the short cuneiform alphabet. As Pardee, 60, warns us, orthography alone...Read all of "The Pot To The Right, Righty, Or Cyprus"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:32 AM
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October 29, 2011
Latest Biblical Studies Carnival Is Up
“The Undead Edition” of the Biblical Studies Carnival is up at The Musings of Thomas Verenna. Tom has done a very good job brings together this month’s posts. Thanks! Many of these posts are abnormally interesting and a good number...Read all of "Latest Biblical Studies Carnival Is Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:04 AM
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October 28, 2011
The Way I Remember It
Ed Brayton begins a recent post, Jonah Lehrer writes about a new study of human memory and storytelling, particularly about how unreliable our memories often are, especially after years of recounting the story. Over time, we tend to embellish and...Read all of "The Way I Remember It"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:11 AM
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October 27, 2011
Crowd, Group, Clique Sourcing
I am looking photographs of tablets KTU 4.61 (RS 11.[914]), KTU 4.89 (RS 11.796) and KTU 4.43:1,5 (RS 9.011) from Ugarit that are good enough for paleographical analysis. They are not on InscriptiFact. Well, part of one of them is...
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Posted by Duane Smith at 8:18 PM
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October 25, 2011
The Preliminary Gezer Report – Now Read
I took a few minutes last night to read the preliminary report on the renewed Gezer excavations that I mentioned yesterday. I found two things abnormally interesting. The first item that struck me was this concerning a “short wall” associated...Read all of "The Preliminary Gezer Report – Now Read"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:35 PM
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October 24, 2011
Gezer Preliminary Report
The preliminary report of the first four seasons of renewed excavations at Tel Gezer is available at Hadahot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel. While it isn’t all that long, I haven’t read it in detail as yet. When...Read all of "Gezer Preliminary Report"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:58 AM
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October 22, 2011
Slow Blogging Ahead
I’m trying to get a paper ready to submit for publication and there is a significant timeliness element associated with the topic. I’ve dropped just about everything else to pull the paper together and blogging may also suffer for a...Read all of "Slow Blogging Ahead"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:01 PM
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October 21, 2011
Not Dead Yet
Well, with only a few hours to go here on the west coast of the US it appears that the world did not end today. There seems to be a rather unbroken continuity in events from yesterday to today. Now...
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:04 PM
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October 20, 2011
They Wrote On Ivory
Following up on my discussions of the cuneiform alphabetic inscription on ivory from Tirnys, I decided to take a look at the thirty one alphabetic inscriptions on ivory from Ugarit published by Dietrich and Loretz published with drawings and photographs...Read all of "They Wrote On Ivory"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:24 PM
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October 18, 2011
Quotation Of The Day
Total and sudden transformations of language seldom happen; conquests and migrations are now very rare: but there are other causes of change, which, though slow in their operation, and invisible in their progress, are as much superiour to human resistance,...Read all of "Quotation Of The Day"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:34 PM
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October 17, 2011
Yield Not To Temptation
I continue to work on polishing up my snake in Genesis 3 paper. One of the things I’ve been doing is looking very closely at a couple of the omens from Šumma Ālu I plan to use in the paper...Read all of "Yield Not To Temptation"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:33 PM
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October 15, 2011
The Tiryns Alphabetic Inscription: One More Time
I’m still fretting about the inscription on the ivory rod from Tiryns published by Cohen, Maran and Vetters that I mentioned the other day. I continue to think it reads from right to left. You may remember that my preliminary...Read all of "The Tiryns Alphabetic Inscription: One More Time"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:04 PM
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October 14, 2011
October 21 Is Coming
Not so long ago Harold Camping was sure the world will end on October 21. No doubt due to a combination of illness and embarrassment about Jesus not returning on May 21, he isn’t saying now. One of his followers,...Read all of "October 21 Is Coming"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:05 PM
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October 12, 2011
An Ugaritic Inscription From Tiryns(?)
Now this is abnormally interesting! I hadn’t seen this. Chaim Cohen, Josheph Maran and Melissa Vetters published the remains of a cuneiform inscription from the lower Citadel of Tiryns. In case you are wondering, Tiryns is a Mycenaean site on...Read all of "An Ugaritic Inscription From Tiryns(?)"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:37 PM
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October 11, 2011
No Deal! No Way!
Yesterday I mentioned the fable of the wild ass and the man in Aḥiqar. Here is Lindenberger’s, 203, translation from the Elephantine Aramaic papyri. [A man said] one [da]y to the wild ass (ערדה), [“Let me ride] on you, and...Read all of "No Deal! No Way!"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:36 PM
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October 10, 2011
Aḥiqar: The Wolf And The Snake
Among the fables I’m looking at is the fable of the wolf and the snake in the story of Aḥiqar. Aḥiqar was one of the most widely known stories in antiquity. Before modern times it was translated and paraphrased into...Read all of "Aḥiqar: The Wolf And The Snake"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:25 AM
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October 9, 2011
The Wren/Mosquito And The Elephant
Another saying on the tablet I cited yesterday turns up (with variants) in Greek fables. First, here’s the Akkadian fable: (KAR 174 rev iii 50-54, Lambert 216, 218) diq-diq-qu (dig-dig-qu?) ina m[u]ḫḫi pēri ki-i ú-š[i-bu] um-ma ta-lim id-[k]a an-a-a-ma ina...Read all of "The Wren/Mosquito And The Elephant"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:38 AM
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October 8, 2011
Quick Thinking
KAR 174 is a large Assyrian tablet containing a rather strange assortment of sayings and anecdotes. Here’s one that makes me smile: (KAR 174: rev. iii 19-20 [VAT 8807]) PEŠ (pi’āzu) la-pa-an šik-ke-e ina ḫur-ri MUŠ (ṣēri) e-ru-ba um-ma MUŠ.LAḪ4...
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:35 AM
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October 7, 2011
SB Gilgamesh Score Online
Everybody may already know this and I may have once even known it myself but I just discovered (or rediscovered) Andrew George’s 2007 score of the Standard Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic online. A number of other things Gilgamesh...Read all of "SB Gilgamesh Score Online"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:06 AM
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October 6, 2011
Visit Old Virtual Amarna
This from the Virtual Amarna Project's homepage: The Official Website of the Amarna Project The ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna (or simply Amarna) was the short-lived capital built by the ‘heretic’ Pharaoh Akhenaten and abandoned shortly after his death...Read all of "Visit Old Virtual Amarna"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:21 PM
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October 4, 2011
Did Akkadian Omens “Speak”?
I’m still playing around with talking snakes and such. I just can’t quite bring the whole issue to closure. In the Hebrew Bible the snake in Genesis 3 speaks and Balaam’s ass speaks in Numbers 22:21-30. In the latter case...Read all of "Did Akkadian Omens “Speak”?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:11 PM
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October 3, 2011
Quotations Of The Day
“(J)ust because we presently lack the tools to resolve a problem, we shouldn’t attempt to bridge the gap with slogans.” – Mark Wilson, Wandering Significance, 658. I think this is true even in those cases were our strong opinion suggests...Read all of "Quotations Of The Day"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:39 PM
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October 2, 2011
The Big Piano And The Little Piano
Well, the college concert season is here at last! Last night Shirley and I attended what is becoming an annual performance by Genevieve Lee at Pomona College. It is also becoming customary for her to perform at the concert grand...Read all of "The Big Piano And The Little Piano"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:34 AM
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October 1, 2011
The Bibliobolg Carnival
The latest Biblical Studies Carnival is up at Scotteriology. It has a number of interesting posts which I missed last month so I imagine that some others did also. But between it and the three segment Biblical Studies Carnival that...Read all of "The Bibliobolg Carnival"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:20 PM
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