Andrew A.N. Deloucas
@aandeloucas.com
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Assyriology at Harvard University. I write on Bronze Age cities of Mesopotamia and their civic, economic, and legal institutions.
visit me at aandeloucas.com
visit me at aandeloucas.com
Pinned
Andrew A.N. Deloucas
@aandeloucas.com
· Jun 6
aandeloucas - Conversations
Conversations
www.aandeloucas.com
Are you looking to read more about Ea-nāṣir, the Bronze Age, or Mesopotamia?
I archive many of my Bluesky threads here: www.aandeloucas.com/conversations
I archive many of my Bluesky threads here: www.aandeloucas.com/conversations
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
A few years ago, Brian Rose gave me a tour of the Penn Museum. One of my favorite items is this clay brick from ca. 2000 BCE, Ur (Iraq). I show it on the first day of classes because reconstructing the lives of ancient people often means working from the small impressions we all leave on the earth 👣
January 19, 2026 at 8:39 PM
A few years ago, Brian Rose gave me a tour of the Penn Museum. One of my favorite items is this clay brick from ca. 2000 BCE, Ur (Iraq). I show it on the first day of classes because reconstructing the lives of ancient people often means working from the small impressions we all leave on the earth 👣
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
Just published a paper on the complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir meme, the decade-old tumblr in-joke that continues to impact the public understanding of the ancient world. Paywalled but email me if you want a copy. 🏺
January 15, 2026 at 9:59 AM
Just published a paper on the complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir meme, the decade-old tumblr in-joke that continues to impact the public understanding of the ancient world. Paywalled but email me if you want a copy. 🏺
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
Last week on Ancient Office Hours, Dr. @egarcmol.bsky.social, an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, discussed specializing in the Seleucid Empire, challenges of working with limited historical records, and his course on gaming and ancient history.
January 13, 2026 at 10:56 PM
Last week on Ancient Office Hours, Dr. @egarcmol.bsky.social, an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, discussed specializing in the Seleucid Empire, challenges of working with limited historical records, and his course on gaming and ancient history.
This is the exact sort of ER/The Pitt/Academia crossover I'm trying to manifest
January 14, 2026 at 7:22 PM
This is the exact sort of ER/The Pitt/Academia crossover I'm trying to manifest
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
Et si vous voulez en savoir plus sur Enheduana, cet épisode du podcast "La Nymphe et la Sorcière" auquel j'ai eu le plaisir de participer est fait pour vous !
lanympheetlasorciere.com/2025/02/21/e...
lanympheetlasorciere.com/2025/02/21/e...
January 13, 2026 at 6:23 PM
Et si vous voulez en savoir plus sur Enheduana, cet épisode du podcast "La Nymphe et la Sorcière" auquel j'ai eu le plaisir de participer est fait pour vous !
lanympheetlasorciere.com/2025/02/21/e...
lanympheetlasorciere.com/2025/02/21/e...
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
You may have heard of Enheduanna, the princess, priestess, and poet who is also the earliest named author in history.
Well, a tiny broken artefact made of lapis lazuli preserves the name of Ilum-pālil, her hairdresser. It is a fragmentary cylinder seal, excavated from a tomb in the city of Ur.
Well, a tiny broken artefact made of lapis lazuli preserves the name of Ilum-pālil, her hairdresser. It is a fragmentary cylinder seal, excavated from a tomb in the city of Ur.
January 13, 2026 at 2:23 PM
You may have heard of Enheduanna, the princess, priestess, and poet who is also the earliest named author in history.
Well, a tiny broken artefact made of lapis lazuli preserves the name of Ilum-pālil, her hairdresser. It is a fragmentary cylinder seal, excavated from a tomb in the city of Ur.
Well, a tiny broken artefact made of lapis lazuli preserves the name of Ilum-pālil, her hairdresser. It is a fragmentary cylinder seal, excavated from a tomb in the city of Ur.
"Mark died this morning at 6:04 a.m. The sun was rising, his favorite time of day. I sent this on so that you might know he was thinking of you all and that he appreciated knowing you would remember him well."
😭😭😭
😭😭😭
January 13, 2026 at 1:45 AM
"Mark died this morning at 6:04 a.m. The sun was rising, his favorite time of day. I sent this on so that you might know he was thinking of you all and that he appreciated knowing you would remember him well."
😭😭😭
😭😭😭
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
Nice bit of digital humanities here - using AI to transcribe more than 32,000 manuscripts in the space of a few months. But with two years of preparation in training the model and creating standards for automating manuscript transcription
www.inria.fr/en/comma-med...
www.inria.fr/en/comma-med...
CoMMA: thousands of medieval manuscripts finally transcribed
Transcribing thousands of medieval manuscripts by hand would be a monumental undertaking. Fortunately, researchers in computational humanities at the Inria Paris Centre have been able to automate the ...
www.inria.fr
January 9, 2026 at 12:48 PM
Nice bit of digital humanities here - using AI to transcribe more than 32,000 manuscripts in the space of a few months. But with two years of preparation in training the model and creating standards for automating manuscript transcription
www.inria.fr/en/comma-med...
www.inria.fr/en/comma-med...
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
here's a slide with recent publications relating to race and postcoloniality in Classics. this is not exhaustive (and there are several exciting books still on the horizon), but it does represent a significant groundswell in recent years
January 6, 2026 at 4:54 PM
here's a slide with recent publications relating to race and postcoloniality in Classics. this is not exhaustive (and there are several exciting books still on the horizon), but it does represent a significant groundswell in recent years
Serendipitous appearance of Pazuzu in its assumed form of Labubu in Levi Hildebrand (@levihildebrandyt)'s video on consumer trends in 2025:
December 31, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Serendipitous appearance of Pazuzu in its assumed form of Labubu in Levi Hildebrand (@levihildebrandyt)'s video on consumer trends in 2025:
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
To celebrate the construction of his palace, the Assyrian king, Ashurnasirpal II, held a 10 day fest for nearly 70,000 people serving 10k jars of beer like this pomegranate beer, Alappanu. youtu.be/MO0lKDNKxmE?...
How to Brew Ancient Assyrian Beer - Alappanu
YouTube video by Tasting History with Max Miller
youtu.be
December 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
To celebrate the construction of his palace, the Assyrian king, Ashurnasirpal II, held a 10 day fest for nearly 70,000 people serving 10k jars of beer like this pomegranate beer, Alappanu. youtu.be/MO0lKDNKxmE?...
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
Sociology established 50+yrs ago that generalists outperform specialists in fast-changing economies. That goes for ppl as well as firms.
Rapid change means you have no way to know which skills will be most useful a few years hence: best to acquire a generalist skillset, as the liberal arts offers.
Rapid change means you have no way to know which skills will be most useful a few years hence: best to acquire a generalist skillset, as the liberal arts offers.
Really interesting research showing that while ultra-specialization in a single discipline might lead to better results early in one’s career, multi-discipline training and practice pays off big time in the long run. This applies to a range of professions from scientists to athletes and more
Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance
Scientists have long debated the origins of exceptional human achievements. This literature review summarizes recent evidence from multiple domains on the acquisition of world-class performance. We re...
www.science.org
December 21, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Sociology established 50+yrs ago that generalists outperform specialists in fast-changing economies. That goes for ppl as well as firms.
Rapid change means you have no way to know which skills will be most useful a few years hence: best to acquire a generalist skillset, as the liberal arts offers.
Rapid change means you have no way to know which skills will be most useful a few years hence: best to acquire a generalist skillset, as the liberal arts offers.
Finally got these chapters written, only one left to go 🍻🍾🎂🎊💥💥💥
🎊🥳🎉
December 21, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Finally got these chapters written, only one left to go 🍻🍾🎂🎊💥💥💥
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
20. Cuneiform
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
Scribbles… Chicken scratch… Nails? A look at cuneiform writing
When we writers of the Latin script think of a metaphor to describe our writing, we likely think of describing it as “chicken scratch” (ex., “Many of these are unintelligible to the untrained eye. …
viewsproject.wordpress.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:33 PM
20. Cuneiform
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
It'd probably look a lot like this, from Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, lines 536-541:
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
you ever read a book so bad you wanna go back to mesopotamia and uninvent writing
December 21, 2025 at 3:31 AM
It'd probably look a lot like this, from Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, lines 536-541:
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
After the major technical difficulties last time, me and Gabriel Reynolds decided to do another Live Q&A. So, of course, the first thing that happened was that my WiFi died, and then we got audio issues.
After some editing it is now put back online!
www.youtube.com/live/vkiji1e...
After some editing it is now put back online!
www.youtube.com/live/vkiji1e...
Qur'an Manuscripts and Qur'anic Arabic: Live Q & A with Dr. Marijn van Putten!
YouTube video by Exploring the Quran and the Bible
www.youtube.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:59 PM
After the major technical difficulties last time, me and Gabriel Reynolds decided to do another Live Q&A. So, of course, the first thing that happened was that my WiFi died, and then we got audio issues.
After some editing it is now put back online!
www.youtube.com/live/vkiji1e...
After some editing it is now put back online!
www.youtube.com/live/vkiji1e...
Lots of great pieces focused around the economic history of labor and the role of temples as social, economic and religious institutions:
December 19, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Lots of great pieces focused around the economic history of labor and the role of temples as social, economic and religious institutions:
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
Our newest post is a deep historical dive into the Mughals! I especially enjoyed going through all the manuscript paintings to find ones I thought would match the narrative the closest. Thank you to @civilization.2k.com for supporting this video
youtu.be/Kofm2qcTg54
youtu.be/Kofm2qcTg54
The Mughals in Civilization 7: A Deep Dive into Their History & Modern Legacy
YouTube video by Paisley_Trees
youtu.be
December 19, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Our newest post is a deep historical dive into the Mughals! I especially enjoyed going through all the manuscript paintings to find ones I thought would match the narrative the closest. Thank you to @civilization.2k.com for supporting this video
youtu.be/Kofm2qcTg54
youtu.be/Kofm2qcTg54
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
We “are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.” Thanks for this, @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social and Christopher Nygren.
Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books
We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.
www.publicbooks.org
December 17, 2025 at 8:19 PM
We “are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.” Thanks for this, @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social and Christopher Nygren.
Text translation is one of the most resource intensive demands on the field: traveling to collections, staying for extended periods to look at tablets in varying degrees of conditions after years of dedicated study.
It's an immense privilege of time and money that few have. We need more help.
It's an immense privilege of time and money that few have. We need more help.
this is related to what the "Never AI" folks find uncomfortable. We will, I swear, never be able to teach Akkadian to enough students to translate the tablets we have....so what now
The field of Assyriology has been moving toward automatic translation of Akkadian for over a decade because, when it does happen, it will be a game changer.
Historians are now putting money on the line to test current capabilities of machine learning. Can automatic translation finally be possible?
Historians are now putting money on the line to test current capabilities of machine learning. Can automatic translation finally be possible?
December 17, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Text translation is one of the most resource intensive demands on the field: traveling to collections, staying for extended periods to look at tablets in varying degrees of conditions after years of dedicated study.
It's an immense privilege of time and money that few have. We need more help.
It's an immense privilege of time and money that few have. We need more help.
The field of Assyriology has been moving toward automatic translation of Akkadian for over a decade because, when it does happen, it will be a game changer.
Historians are now putting money on the line to test current capabilities of machine learning. Can automatic translation finally be possible?
Historians are now putting money on the line to test current capabilities of machine learning. Can automatic translation finally be possible?
📣 Competition Launch Alert! Deep Past Challenge: Translate Akkadian to English hosted by Deep Past AI
🎯 Build an AI model that translates 4,000-year-old Old Assyrian business records into English
💰 $50,000 Prize Pool
⏰ Entry Deadline: March 23, 2026
www.kaggle.com/competitions...
🎯 Build an AI model that translates 4,000-year-old Old Assyrian business records into English
💰 $50,000 Prize Pool
⏰ Entry Deadline: March 23, 2026
www.kaggle.com/competitions...
Deep Past Challenge - Translate Akkadian to English
Bringing Bronze Age Voices Back to Life – Machine Translation of Old Assyrian Cuneiform
www.kaggle.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
The field of Assyriology has been moving toward automatic translation of Akkadian for over a decade because, when it does happen, it will be a game changer.
Historians are now putting money on the line to test current capabilities of machine learning. Can automatic translation finally be possible?
Historians are now putting money on the line to test current capabilities of machine learning. Can automatic translation finally be possible?
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
“Why is it my lord is silent while I wag my tail and run about like a dog?”
I’ve been left on read too many times.
A man named Ashur-resiwa is begging a superior to answer his previous 3 letters, and we can maybe all relate to both sides of this particular coin.
I’ve been left on read too many times.
A man named Ashur-resiwa is begging a superior to answer his previous 3 letters, and we can maybe all relate to both sides of this particular coin.
December 17, 2025 at 3:57 PM
“Why is it my lord is silent while I wag my tail and run about like a dog?”
I’ve been left on read too many times.
A man named Ashur-resiwa is begging a superior to answer his previous 3 letters, and we can maybe all relate to both sides of this particular coin.
I’ve been left on read too many times.
A man named Ashur-resiwa is begging a superior to answer his previous 3 letters, and we can maybe all relate to both sides of this particular coin.
Gave myself a little break from dissertation writing to answer a question on @askhistorians.bsky.social:
"Did Ashurnasirpal II's Party actually take place?"
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
"Did Ashurnasirpal II's Party actually take place?"
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
teakettling's comment on "Did Ashurnasirpal II's Party actually take place?"
Explore this conversation and more from the AskHistorians community
www.reddit.com
December 15, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Gave myself a little break from dissertation writing to answer a question on @askhistorians.bsky.social:
"Did Ashurnasirpal II's Party actually take place?"
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
"Did Ashurnasirpal II's Party actually take place?"
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
Reposted by Andrew A.N. Deloucas
unironically the median American voter position
I'm a Hammurabi Originalist (I believe prices for market items should be permanently set by a beneficent monarch from the distant past).
December 11, 2025 at 9:33 PM
unironically the median American voter position