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andrew phillips

@herfst

þe hıne æꞇ ꝼꞃumꞅceaꝼꞇe ꝼoꞃð onꞅenꝺon ǽnne oꝼeꞃ ẏðe

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05.09.2023
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Latest posts by andrew phillips @herfst

”The fear of Iran’s destruction is increasingly uniting people as they fear the consequences of such a large-scale conflict.”

11.03.2026 17:42 👍 6 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0

Cool, when are you sanctioning the US and Israel?

11.03.2026 14:05 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

I think the Tamil Brahmi inscription reads:
𑀘𑀺𑀓𑁃 𑀓𑁄𑀶𑀶𑀸𑀷 𑀯𑀢𑀼 𑀓𑀡𑀝𑀸 / சிகை கொற்றன் வ(ந்)து கண்டா(ன்) cikai koṟṟāṉ va(n)tu kaṇṭā(ṉ)

11.03.2026 18:09 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Starmer is quite the mental gymnast. "We're just defending the murderer so that he can continue his killing spree"

11.03.2026 14:55 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Graphic shows three line graph time series of monthly carbon dioxide abundance in ppm (blue line), monthly methane abundance in ppb (red line), and monthly nitrous oxide in ppb (purple line). Graphs are all shown from January 1984 through November 2025/February 2026. Current levels of CO2 are 429 ppm. Current levels of methane are 1946 ppb. Current levels of nitrous oxide are 339 ppb. All graphs show long-term increasing trends along with some interannual variability and seasonality.

Graphic shows three line graph time series of monthly carbon dioxide abundance in ppm (blue line), monthly methane abundance in ppb (red line), and monthly nitrous oxide in ppb (purple line). Graphs are all shown from January 1984 through November 2025/February 2026. Current levels of CO2 are 429 ppm. Current levels of methane are 1946 ppb. Current levels of nitrous oxide are 339 ppb. All graphs show long-term increasing trends along with some interannual variability and seasonality.

The latest monthly status of key greenhouse gases shown side-by-side. These gases trap heat in our atmosphere and drive wide-ranging impacts across the Earth system.

For more data/info: gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/

11.03.2026 12:30 👍 73 🔁 35 💬 2 📌 2

For the most part the signs in any cuneiform text are represented in the Unicode set, although the difference in visual styles e.g. an inscription on a statue vs a tablet written in ‘cursive’ is not reflected well

10.03.2026 23:49 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Yes, it's a pretty fragmentary text but it can be understood as a dialogue between two characters, the narrator precedes each interaction with the formula ‘ebrum rū'ašu ippal’, ‘[the] friend replies to his colleague‘

10.03.2026 22:29 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
We remind you that there is no Palestinian state, just as there is no Palestinian baseball team. 😂

We remind you that there is no Palestinian state, just as there is no Palestinian baseball team. 😂

Israeli society and its institutions are genocidal to their core.

10.03.2026 17:07 👍 93 🔁 29 💬 6 📌 0
Preview
Exclusive: Iranian girls killed by ‘double-tap’ strikes on Minab school Eyewitnesses describe second blast which killed survivors as they sheltered in prayer hall

Exclusive: Iranian girls killed by ‘double-tap’ strikes on Minab school - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-iranian-girls-killed-double-tap-strikes-minab-school

04.03.2026 17:57 👍 197 🔁 147 💬 8 📌 44
Excerpt from 'The Illustrated Cairo Genizah', page 146:
“One of the most important books in the history of medicine was The Canon of Medicine, by Abu ʿAli al-Husayn ibn Sina (known as ‘Avicenna’ in Europe). Ibn Sina was a Persian polymath who composed works of philosophy, theology, physics, grammar, medicine, poetry, logic, and alchemy. European scholars translated many of these works into Latin, and The Canon of Medicine remained part of European medical curricula into the 18th century. Whoever owned this Arabic copy heavily annotated it, making corrections or clarifications in red ink and adding their own commentary in the margins. Many medical books had wide margins specifically so readers could add notes like this. This section deals with the anatomy of muscles in the arm and shoulder.”
11th-13th c. CE

Further images and catalogue data here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-AR-00040-00114/1

Excerpt from 'The Illustrated Cairo Genizah', page 146: “One of the most important books in the history of medicine was The Canon of Medicine, by Abu ʿAli al-Husayn ibn Sina (known as ‘Avicenna’ in Europe). Ibn Sina was a Persian polymath who composed works of philosophy, theology, physics, grammar, medicine, poetry, logic, and alchemy. European scholars translated many of these works into Latin, and The Canon of Medicine remained part of European medical curricula into the 18th century. Whoever owned this Arabic copy heavily annotated it, making corrections or clarifications in red ink and adding their own commentary in the margins. Many medical books had wide margins specifically so readers could add notes like this. This section deals with the anatomy of muscles in the arm and shoulder.” 11th-13th c. CE Further images and catalogue data here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-AR-00040-00114/1

This is one of the oldest manuscripts of the "Canon of Medicine." Originally composed around 1025 CE by Ibn Sina at the Buyid court in Hamadan (modern Iran), it combined Greco-Roman sources with Islamic medical science and remained a key text in European medical curricula until the 19th century.

04.03.2026 15:09 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 0
Photo of the Behistun inscription.

Photo of the Behistun inscription.

𐎰𐎠𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁𐏐𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎬𐎢𐎺𐎶𐏐𐎣𐎠𐏐𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹𐏐𐏃𐎹𐏐𐎠𐎱𐎼𐎶𐏐𐎠𐏃𐎹𐏐𐎶𐎼𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐏃𐎹𐏐𐎭𐎼𐎢𐎩𐎴𐏐𐎠𐏃𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐏃𐎹𐎺𐎠𐏐𐏀𐎢𐎼𐎣𐎼𐏐𐎠𐏃𐎫𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎠𐎺𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎶𐎠𐏐𐎭𐎢𐏁𐎫𐎠𐏐𐎲𐎡𐎹𐎠𐏐𐎢𐎳𐎼𐏁𐎫𐎠𐎮𐎡𐏁𐏐𐎱𐎼𐎿𐎠𐏐

Darius the King says: You who shall be king hereafter, the man who shall be deceitful or who shall be an evil-doer, to them do not be a friend, punish them well.

(DB4.67–69)

04.03.2026 15:00 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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"Irans Red Crescent Society said nearly 800 people have been killed so far, 170 of them are said to be children"

03.03.2026 12:11 👍 144 🔁 104 💬 8 📌 14
Cuneiform text on clay tablet, transliterated: nim lal₃ nu-ub-tu₂

Cuneiform text on clay tablet, transliterated: nim lal₃ nu-ub-tu₂

honey-bee
Sumerian, nim lal 𒉏 𒋭; Akkadian, nūbtu 𒉡𒌒𒌓

my good act of the day: helped a tired bee take flight again

02.03.2026 21:45 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Beautiful diagrams from a circa 17th-century copy of Muslim polymath Ismail al-Jazarī’s *Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices*, originally published in 1206: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/arabic-machine-manuscript

28.02.2026 17:46 👍 194 🔁 67 💬 2 📌 4
Cuneiform text, price of a field

Cuneiform text, price of a field

One such field was sold for 20 goats, 11 pigs and 1 and a half gur of barley.

šaḫ₂ 𒂄, ‘pig’ has been proposed to have been borrowed into Sumerian, and perhaps related distantly to proto-Indo-European suH- (‘sow’)

28.02.2026 15:00 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Kyiv supports killing schoolchildren.

28.02.2026 14:01 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Still from Palestine 36, the subtitle reads "Zionists do not negotiate, they want the land"

Still from Palestine 36, the subtitle reads "Zionists do not negotiate, they want the land"

“Zionists do not negotiate, they want the land”

28.02.2026 13:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The world will never be safe as long as Israel exists.

28.02.2026 12:42 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

fowl play

27.02.2026 23:04 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Gaza’s cultural sites have been decimated. UNESCO’s muted response sets a dangerous precedent UNESCO has been far too cautious over Gaza. This allows the destruction of historical sites to be treated as regrettable collateral damage, instead of a crime.

it is far, far from the most important thing, but it is still an important thing. An article that came out earlier this month

theconversation.com/gazas-cultur...

27.02.2026 21:06 👍 9 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0

The tablet of Enḫegal records the transfer of several fields owned by Enḫegal (𒂗𒃶𒅅) king of Lagaš, and one Sidu (𒋛𒆕), to Lugal-kigala (𒈗𒆠𒃲𒆷) a priest, for an amount of grain, copper, goats and pigs for each field. The name Lugalšude (𒈗𒆃𒉈), likely the scribe, was scratched at a later date on one edge

27.02.2026 21:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Open Letter of Scholars in Support of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese Open Letter of Scholars in Support of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese

Open Letter of Scholars in Support of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
twailr.com/open-letter-...

27.02.2026 14:20 👍 15 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 0
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#Nippur day off means a walk round the site, including inspection of the ziggurat of Enlil. Erosion is worsening with climate change and we hope to gain funding to restore and conserve it soon. 🏺

27.02.2026 14:17 👍 16 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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📢 February's Document of the Month is live on our project website.

📚 Read Bogdan C. Smarandache's fascinating piece 'Travelling in Troubled Times: A Latin Letter of Safe Passage for a Muslim Merchant Issued during the Frankish-Fatimid Wars' at bit.ly/DotMFeb26

#medievalmonday #manuscriptmonday

23.02.2026 16:32 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

7th-c. BCE Neo-Assyrian tablet from the reign of Sennacherib, held in the British Museum
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

...ša KUR.pi-liš-ta-a-[a]...
...of the land Philistia...

Israel will never erase Palestine from history.

15.02.2026 17:00 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Bluesky has a copy of Eslam's passport but won't let her on the site. What is the motivation for that?

Help her family btw: chuffed.org/project/1282...

14.02.2026 15:14 👍 57 🔁 53 💬 1 📌 3
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Anyone who's read (or, these days, watched) Dune will remember the scene when Stilgar first meets the Duke.

Think I just found where Frank Herbert took it from - an alleged Nuer practice:

www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

13.02.2026 20:51 👍 13 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
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Beirut’s History Is Being Repaved Developers have dismantled part of the ancient Roman walls in the city center to make way for a parking lot

Two millennia ago, today’s Beirut  was ringed by stone walls and tombs. Parts of the Roman walls survived war and earthquakes, only to be disassembled to make way for a parking lot, sparking outrage among Lebanese archaeologists.

13.02.2026 23:03 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
🚨Declassified can reveal the top nationalities to have served for Israel during the Gaza genocide.

British passport holders are the 6th highest in terms of dual-nationals, and 2nd highest for multi-nationals (those with British, Israeli and one or more other passports)👇

🚨Declassified can reveal the top nationalities to have served for Israel during the Gaza genocide. British passport holders are the 6th highest in terms of dual-nationals, and 2nd highest for multi-nationals (those with British, Israeli and one or more other passports)👇

This is a truly sick list. Every single person represented on it actively and enthusiastically chose to participate in genocide.

13.02.2026 16:32 👍 50 🔁 13 💬 2 📌 10

Barhebraeus in the 13th century on Uyghur script being adapted for Mongolian:

13.02.2026 15:56 👍 23 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 1