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krebsverena.bsky.social
Medieval Historian. North-East Africa & Ethiopia. German Fixed-Term Professor. GIF lover. Getting better at remembering this app exists.
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"Stop procrastinating" in cuneiform: "Why don't you write your tablet and do your homework? If you don't, they will say: "Is *this* the sister of Sheru'a-eṭirat, eldest daughter of the Succession Palace of Ashur-etel-ilani-mukinni, the great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria?"

submitted 11 days ago • 22 comments

Publication day 🤩 I am excited to share the good news with you – our volume "Manuscript Treasures from Afro-Eurasia. Scribes, Patrons, Collectors, and Readers" has been published! It is open access and you can download and share it from DeGruyter's website. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

This is the sort of high caliber, robust reporting that the ongoing, tragic cycle of migrant domestic worker abuse in the Middle East needs. Abdi's must read NY Times probe into the trafficking, exploitation and deaths of Ugandan and Kenyan women in Saudi Arabia. Thank you Abdi! ____ cc: FIFA.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Surreal to think that it's exactly 4 years this week since the book was first published — what a wild ride it's been. Gratifying to see it reach so very many more readers than the 5-10 specialists the publisher expected 😂😬😂. Interested to learn more? ➡️ www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-...

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Today, I’d like to introduce you to a woman named La-tubashinni, who fought for her children in Babylon in October of 560 BCE.

submitted 39 days ago • 10 comments

"People and things have been mixed up for a very long time, rarely conforming to the boundaries imposed on them by modern anthropologists and historians." --Art historian Finbarr Flood as quoted by @krebsverena.bsky.social (Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, & Diplomacy w/Latin Europe, 3).

submitted 46 days ago • 1 comment

Brilliant friend wrote an undoubtedly brilliant book alert! Learn about the origins of customary law — that is, "this is how we've always done XYZ" — in medieval England!

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

Phone just reminded me: 13 years ago today, we were at one of the coolest monasteries I've had the honour to visit—in the middle of a dense forest, at the very eastern edge of the Tigrayan Highlands (at 9.000 feet ASL!), run by a young nun who'd studied engineering in India before taking orders.

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

There's a surprising amount of people who, after a DNA test that revealed unexpected "African" results, want me to explain or even investigate their "hitherto unknown family history". (It's mostly in the 2-3% range, so 🤷🏼‍♀️. Also, DNA test kits in Europe are really a niche thing compared to the US).

submitted 57 days ago • 1 comment

Just came across this highly entertaining paper on...asses on Mastodon? Read the whole thing, riveted, learning a) more than I ever thought on 2020s social media architecture & b) realising much as I miss early pandemic Twitter, 2025 me doesn't. have. the. energy. firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

Two years later, it still feels surreal that I had the (quite literally) once-in-a-lifetime honour of giving a keynote at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds. Turning that talk into an essay—whose proofs arrived today—is just the icing on the absurdity cake.

submitted 60 days ago • 2 comments

I taught block seminars this past semester. Thought they went quite well, that we had fun and thoughtful discussions, but still ... I didn't dare to look at students' evaluations until today (because I was scared, maybe?). Ladies and gentlemen, turns out I wasn't the only one having a great time.

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments