February 2012 Archives
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February 29, 2012
A Unique Hoard From Iron Age 1
The Megiddo website reports the discovery of a hoard of gold, silver and bronze jewelry, wrapped in fabric from the Iron 1 period. They have pictures. Archaeologists found the hoard in a vessel. Via Jack Sasson’s list server....Read all of "A Unique Hoard From Iron Age 1"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:18 PM
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February 28, 2012
Don’t Bother Me
I’m working on the damn March Biblical Studies Carnival. I am still open to nominations but let's please all try not to discover anything new or write too many abnormally interesting posts for the net day of two....
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:57 PM
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February 26, 2012
Audience Failure
Last night Shirley and I went to a concert. The music was great but, in one case, the audience failed to hold up our end of the deal. The first piece was Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, op. 84. There is a...Read all of "Audience Failure"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:11 PM
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February 25, 2012
Judicial Distemperament
Guest Blogger Lawrence Rafferty writes a very disturbing post on Jonathan Turley: Res ipsa loquitur ("The thing itself speaks"). Here’s the first paragraph. There is a surprising story out of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania that seems the perfect storm of religious tensions....Read all of "Judicial Distemperament"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:05 PM
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Go To The Bee
Suzanne McCarthy has an abnormally interesting post on an Old Greek addition of the Proverbs 6. By "addition," I take it she means something that isn’t in the MT but this example may well be an addition by any definition....
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:28 PM
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February 24, 2012
Why The Surprise?
In The God Delusion (pages 50-1 in my 2006 copy), Richard Dawkins defines a spectrum of beliefs concerning the existence of God. He illustrates his spectrum with 7 categories. Category 1 is “Strong theist” (it’s not belief, it’s knowledge) while...Read all of "Why The Surprise?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:39 PM
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February 22, 2012
One Week To Carnaval
And you thought it was yesterday. Well, I’m talking about the March Biblical Studies Blog Carnival. While a few of you have nominated posts, I’m still looking for more. Considering my own interests and discounting all the early Mark papyrus...Read all of "One Week To Carnaval"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:33 AM
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February 21, 2012
Cuneiform Writing And Scribal Values
The other day I mentioned a fairly recent paper by Eckart Frahm. Despite what one might have gleaned from my discussion in that post, Frahm’s main focus is on various schemata in writing that go well behind what we generally...Read all of "Cuneiform Writing And Scribal Values"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:52 PM
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February 19, 2012
Marks Upon The Flesh
In an abnormally interesting paper, Eckart Frahm, with proper caution, directs our attention to three passages from the Hebrew Bible that he suggests we consider in the light of several Akkadian texts. The Biblical passages are as follows: Leviticus 19:28:...Read all of "Marks Upon The Flesh"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:40 AM
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February 18, 2012
The Theft At Olympia
The recent armed robbery at the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games has been in the news and discussed on various email lists. Rogueclassicist has a very good summary with lots of links. While some museum robbers seem...Read all of "The Theft At Olympia"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:16 PM
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February 17, 2012
Ramat Rahel's Garden
Science Daily has a story of the recovery of fossilized pollen from layers of plaster in a water system at Ramat Rahel. Here is something to whet your appetite for the whole story. According to Prof. Oded Lipschits, Dr. Yuval...Read all of "Ramat Rahel's Garden"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:28 AM
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February 15, 2012
Half Way To The March Biblical Studies Carnival
Please send me your nominations for the March 1 Biblical Studies Carnival. I’ll be hosting it here. I’ve already collected a number of abnormally interesting posts. I’ve even collected a few that have nothing to do with a rumor prepublication...Read all of "Half Way To The March Biblical Studies Carnival"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:12 AM
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February 14, 2012
“The Birds in the Iliad”
Karin Johansson’s Gothenburg dissertation The Birds in the Iliad: Identities, Interactions and Functions is available online. On preliminary reading, this appears to be an important work. I wish I had had it when I was preparing my forthcoming JANER paper...Read all of "“The Birds in the Iliad”"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:00 AM
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February 13, 2012
Bruhns, Bach, Beethoven, Couperin And A Whole Lot Of Bull
KenE and Stuart photo Christoph Bull that is. Yesterday afternoon Shirley and I had the privilege of attending a Christoph Bull organ recital. Bull's work at the organ is simply the best I have ever heard. Bull not only...Read all of "Bruhns, Bach, Beethoven, Couperin And A Whole Lot Of Bull"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:51 AM
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February 12, 2012
The “Doctrine Of The Terms”
I find much divination abnormally interesting and I have studied in some detail the diffusion of bird divination from Mesopotamia to the Aegean. I haven’t looked all that closely at astrology or the possibility of diffusion of particular astrological concepts...Read all of "The “Doctrine Of The Terms”"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:31 AM
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February 11, 2012
A Scribal Value
Alasdair Livingstone began his chapter on “Expositions of Mystical Mathematics and Philology” with these words, Babylonian scholars were at times concerned with explaining aspects of their culture. The explanations which they put forward frequently involved association of different items drawn...
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:42 PM
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February 10, 2012
A Reflection On Written And Oral History
From Shakespeare’s Richard III, Act III, Scene 1: PRINCE EDWARD I do not like the Tower, of any place. Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord? BUCKINGHAM He did, my gracious lord, begin that place; Which, since, succeeding ages...Read all of "A Reflection On Written And Oral History"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:48 AM
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February 9, 2012
The Colors Of The Season
Camellias and azaleas make up a very high proportion of the middle sized flora in Shirley’s garden. Their blooming season started a few weeks ago and for some of the plants it will continue through much of April. Here’s a...Read all of "The Colors Of The Season"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:27 PM
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February 7, 2012
Pacific Coast Regional SBL Meeting In March
A preliminary program and an online registration system are now available for this year’s (March 25-26) Pacific Coast regional Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Santa Clara. Chris Heard (Remember when he used to blog?) will preside over three Hebrew...Read all of "Pacific Coast Regional SBL Meeting In March"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:42 PM
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February 6, 2012
The Origin Of Divination – Part 2
The other day I wrote about a text that sheds some light on how the ancient Mesopotamians understood the origin of lecanomancy and extispicy. In this post I’ll present another text that speaks to the origins of astromancy, physiognomy and...Read all of "The Origin Of Divination – Part 2"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:52 PM
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February 4, 2012
The Origin Of Divination – Part 1
One of the abnormally interesting questions is the origin of Mesopotamian divination. By this I don’t mean its anthropological or historical origin but rather what did the ancient Mesopotamians think of its origin? Like many such things, the ancient sources...Read all of "The Origin Of Divination – Part 1"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:04 AM
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February 3, 2012
Quotation Of The Day
On Planned Parenthood and the Komen Foundation: A multi-year concerted effort to shut down a nonprofit for ideological reasons, one even pursued in the halls of Congress: not just fine, but applauded. A pushback against said partisan efforts? Tyranny! Villainy!...Read all of "Quotation Of The Day"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:38 PM
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The New Brill Typeface
Targuman Christian Brady tells us of a new Unicode typeface from Brill. It is really quite lovely and has great support for diacritical marks and Greek. Two things stopped me from adopting it as Abnormal Interest's official typeface. First it...Read all of "The New Brill Typeface"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:25 AM
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February 2, 2012
Now The President
Stop it. Just Stop it. Stop citing the Bible and/or Jesus in favor of (or against) anything. It says exactly nothing that might directly inform our modern world about anything and that includes tax policy. Truthfully, it says very little...Read all of "Now The President"
Posted by Duane Smith at 5:46 PM
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Columbia University Tablets Online
Just the other day I posted news of the online availability of digitized images of the tablets and inscriptions from the Musées d’Art et d’Histoire of Geneva. Now comes news that images of the Columbia University Libraries cuneiform collection are...Read all of "Columbia University Tablets Online"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:19 AM
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February 1, 2012
A Biblical Principle, You Say
"It's a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach,” so said Alabama State Sen. Shadrack McGill. But as far as I can tell he didn’t vouchsafe to us exactly what...Read all of "A Biblical Principle, You Say"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:33 PM
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February Biblical Studies Carnival Is Up
Amanda at Cheese-Wearing Theology has posted this mouth’s Biblical Studies Carnival. Go for the graphics – Stay for the links. It is my turn next month so start gathering your inputs now. I will need help!...Read all of "February Biblical Studies Carnival Is Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:27 AM
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