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aandeloucas.com
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Assyriology at Harvard University. I write on Bronze Age cities of Mesopotamia, their institutions, organizations, and political economy. visit me at aandeloucas.com
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OIC 22, text 12 (the price of renting a bed): "Since the first of the month of Arahsamnu, Warad-Ilabrat rented a bed belonging to Belshunu for 5.5 grains of silver." This tiny receipt was excavated at Nippur, located in southern Iraq. It is about 3,750 years old: lodging is a very old industry.

submitted 42 minutes ago • 2 comments

I am incredibly proud to share that I have been awarded a DFF Sapere Aude starting grant for my new research project entitled ”From Catastrophe to Culture: Understanding Epidemics in Ancient Mesopotamia”!

submitted 14 hours ago • 4 comments

Palace (É.GAL) on the Mystic

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Dudes in their teens through 30s: We should totally start a band. Old academic dads: we should totally write a book together. @nabalkattu.bsky.social and I have approval for an Cambridge Elements "The Formation of Canons and the Mediterranean Iron Age"

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

This is a blessing through and through

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

📰 Ancient DNA traces how dogs spread across the Americas alongside early farming societies #ArchaeologyNews via ‪@ox.ac.uk‬ @unioxarchaeology.bsky.social‬ www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-06...

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Having to cut by page number and not word count should be outlawed

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Lost in this 4,500 word article is the opaque recognition that LLMs are the tech sector's solution to human labor cost. This is not an issue of labor (we have it) or value (we pay for it), it's an imposed concern about productivity from an economic point of view (it's expensive!).

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Volume 4, done!

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

You'd think sourcing mattered, but clay was ubiquitous. The material may have been subsidized, here I think of Gilgamesh's Uruk, said to have been part city, part orchard, and part clay pit. It was the labor that was profitable, with employment occurring via ad hoc hiring or regular corvée duties.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

"Kyrnus, revere and fear the gods. For this restrains a man From doing or saying anything sinful. Put a people-eating tyrant to rest however you want— No criticism will come from the gods for that.” open.substack.com/pub/joelchri...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Via cuneiform? Economics. Folks had been using other means of tallying and storing information for some time. Some parts of those older traditions (such as using a seal to mark ownership, authority or responsibility) continue up until today.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI cdli.earth) would not be what it is without the generous support of the @neh-odh.bsky.social and its Digital Humanities Division. #ThanksBrett @brettbobley.bsky.social !

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Thank you to all who attended our May lecture. And a very special thank you to Dr Sébastien Rey and Dr Ebru Torun for delivering such an insightful lecture on The Girsu Project in Iraq You can now watch the lecture on the BISI YouTube channel here: youtu.be/lMnj4FAHZuc?...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

My personal favorite line from "Who Will Plow Her?" is, from the perspective of the goddess Inanna, "fill the holy butter churn for me" [with your yellow milk].

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

Fortunately, Sumerians loved to fuck and had plenty of hymns to gods and kings such as the hit balbale 'Who Will Plow Her?', with lines like: "I'm young! Who's going to plow my wet pussy? * I'm dignified! Who's going to park their ox here?" * The radio edit was "sow my vulva, an irrigated field".

submitted 11 days ago • 24 comments

Avi Hurvitz created a whole new philological method for ancient Hebrew literature. He was an important teacher to me, a model of the incisive and lucid old-time scholar who was also down to earth and generous with his time; I remember lunch with him as powerfully as classes. 🧵

submitted 79 days ago • 2 comments

Middle Bronze Age discourse surrounding ownership rights and trade focuses on major players, such as Ea-nāṣir or the Assyrian trade network. In contrast, materiality from the Late Bronze Age can provide us novel perspectives on those with less power, and their place in economic history:

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Spent the weekend exploring Vermont, making the annual trip to Dog Mountain and celebrating our marriage 💐

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

I love this whole thread, up and down, but I am struck by the phrase "It’s simply not possible to know someone through 26 documents," because think of HOW LONG those 26 documents survived. It's breathtaking.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

People used magic to try and put babies to sleep 4,000 years ago. When studying the world's oldest written texts people often wonder how connected they were to reality--do they represent ancient Mesopotamian life and thought or was this just 3 nerds in a room? These text suggest an answer. 🧵

submitted 18 days ago • 6 comments