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LiorLefineder Profile picture
@lefineder
Dec 28 • 23 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
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Just finished reading "Letters from Mesopotamia", here are some thousands of years old letters preserved in cuneiform.
1. "Mom buy me this" - Iddin-Sin to his mother Image
2. "Dad buy me this" - Adad-abum to his father. Image
3. "take my wife"
If you didn't pay your debts your family members can be confiscated. Image
4." to encourage the others" - letter from a military commander to the king of Mari. Image
5. Logistic letter requesting 10 boats of 300 kor to send 3000 kor to the kingdom of Mari.
Since a kor equals 300 liters, the capacity of each of these middle bronze age ships is 100 tons. Image
Relatedly
6. Letter reporting cart problems Image
7. Report of an investigation of a brutal murder in the kingdom of Mari. Image
8. Letter about a really fun military campaign, everybody was having a blast. Image
9. So we caught a lion Image
10. Letter from the king of Babylon to the king of Egypt in which the Babylonian king discovers Egypt is far away. Image
11. Several letters from the king of Cyprus (Alashiya) to the king of Egypt about the ongoing plague in Cyprus.
"even in my family, there was a child of my wife's who died" Image
12. Letter from a governor in the Levant sucking up to the king of Egypt.
"I was extremely glad when the fragrance of the king wafted towards me and there was a festival every day because I was so glad" Image
13. Letter to the Neo-Assyrian king, the people you appointed are drunkards. Image
14. Letter from the daughter of the king of Assyria to the daughter-in-law of the king, reassuring her that she is of lower status. Image
15. Letter describing a religious ritual between the gods in the city of Calah. Image
16. Neo-Assyrian letter describing an Arab raid on the desert Caravans, one of the earliest attestations of the Arabs. Image
17. Backroom politics between the neo-Assyrian king and his governor.
You sent troops to confiscate lapis lazuli from the people and I will pretend to be angry about it. Image
18. Bayblonain letter from a sister to her brother. Image
19. Bayblonain letter from a brother to his sister. Image
20. letter from the Hittite king about how murder cases are handled. Image
21. Letter between Anatolian merchants, admonishing not to send merchandise to those who are permanently unavailable. Image
Letter collection can be found here:
isac.uchicago.edu/research/publi…Image

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More from @lefineder

LiorLefineder Profile picture
Dec 27
We have economic records on military supply to soldiers in the Neo-Sumerian empire (beer, boots, barley..) based on this we know something about units and army sizes.
There is a mention of a monthly shipment of 365,710 liters of barley, which could supply 6000-12,000 troops, regular units were usually between 600-2000 people.Image
"Here, we have a powerful military commander, appointed by the king of Ur, and about whom we learn
that the troops available to him consisted of at least 2 × 5,000 = 10,000 soldiers" Image
Muster record document:
"The scribe eventually recorded a total defi cit of 340 men from the 3,000 he had hoped to muster at an initial meeting, or approximately 10% missing the call." Image
Read 5 tweets
LiorLefineder Profile picture
Dec 20
A study tracking the fertility of 1,726 women plus their 7,256 friends and peers finds that women whose friend gave birth see a 13.7 increase in childbirth in the following 3 years, the same effect is not seen among mere peers. Image
The effect is only seen in intended childbirth strengthening the evidence that the increase in fertility is driven by choice due to the "friend effect". Image
Important to note how friendship and peer status are measured, many of the peers are not everyday acquaintances but previous peers from school, possibly a study looking at the peer-effect of current-day acquaintances would show an effect. Image
Read 5 tweets
LiorLefineder Profile picture
Dec 16
Study found that the burnt incense at the Temple of Yahweh in the ancient Kingdom of Judah contained cannabis.
"This is the first time that cannabis has been identified in the Ancient Near East"
"The shrine is also contemporaneous with the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, suggesting similar ritual practices may have taken place at the biblical house of worship"Image
smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/can…
Study:
"Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad"
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Read 4 tweets
LiorLefineder Profile picture
Dec 15
Written shortly before the Babylonian conquest of Judah, this ancient Hebrew letter from the city of Lacish states that the soldiers are watching for fire signals from the nearby town of Azeqah,
Possibly Azeqah had already fallen.
"We do not see the signals of Azekah”. Image
Image
The Assyrian king Sennacherib described the city of Azeqah as an ‘eagle’s nest … with towers that project to the sky like swords.’ located on a tall hill it could signal the neighboring city of Lacish. Image
"These were the only fortified cities left in Judah." Image
Read 4 tweets
LiorLefineder Profile picture
Dec 14
Rise and fall of the Indus Valley civilization.
Sites spread from West to East.
Sites declined from West to East; by 1300-700 BC almost all sites in the Indus valley disappeared. Image
Post-2000 there is a massive decline of artifacts and urbanism. Image
Technologies used in basic economic activity such as personal seals and weights; backed bricks, the basic building material of cities; simple marking of elite status such as shell ornaments, and all writing disappeared. Image
Read 6 tweets
LiorLefineder Profile picture
Dec 14
Largest Roman anchor ever found weighing 5,500 lbs and is 13.5 ft long.
Due to the size of the anchor, it must have belonged to a massive ship, the largest Roman shipwreck found had a carrying capacity of 500-600 tons but this anchor and ancient sources tell of larger ships.🧵 Image
The writer Lucian gives the dimensions of a Roman grain ship called the Isis when he saw it in Athens' seaport Piraeus: Image
Based on the dimensions of the ship it could carry 1200 tons. Image
Read 13 tweets

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