Maarten Kossmann
@maartenkossmann.bsky.social
Berber linguistics // linguistique amazighe // ⵜⵎⵓⵙⵏⵉ ⵏ ⵜⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ
Universiteit Leiden
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/maarten-kossmann
Profile picture: RIL 176
Universiteit Leiden
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/maarten-kossmann
Profile picture: RIL 176
Pinned
It’s Tuesday, oral exams period coming up, so a (temporary?) end to this Libyco-Berber tombstones series.
But first: some really puzzling stuff.
A series of inscriptions was found in 1938 in Mechta el Maza close to Bouchegouf (ex-Duvivier), Guelma region, eastern Algeria (RIL 1076-1091)
🧵
But first: some really puzzling stuff.
A series of inscriptions was found in 1938 in Mechta el Maza close to Bouchegouf (ex-Duvivier), Guelma region, eastern Algeria (RIL 1076-1091)
🧵
Thread of threads on Libyco-Berber inscriptions:
bsky.app/profile/maar...
bsky.app/profile/maar...
The archaeological discoveries at Oued Beht in Morocco have won the 2025 Field Discovery Award at the Shanghai World Archaeology Forum!
Congratulations to Youssef Bokbot!
dta.cnr.it/en/2025/12/2...
Congratulations to Youssef Bokbot!
dta.cnr.it/en/2025/12/2...
Oued Beht Archaeological Project Awarded the 2025 Field Discovery Award at the Shanghai World Archaeology Forum | CNR DSSTTA
dta.cnr.it
December 26, 2025 at 6:41 AM
The archaeological discoveries at Oued Beht in Morocco have won the 2025 Field Discovery Award at the Shanghai World Archaeology Forum!
Congratulations to Youssef Bokbot!
dta.cnr.it/en/2025/12/2...
Congratulations to Youssef Bokbot!
dta.cnr.it/en/2025/12/2...
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
Apparently this is ‘Brussly’, the tutelary spirit/personification of Brussels Sprouts
December 24, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Apparently this is ‘Brussly’, the tutelary spirit/personification of Brussels Sprouts
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
On avarice:
> qḍan yibawn, imawn qqiman-d d wudmawn
(the fava beans are quickly gone, mouths and faces are what remains)
> qḍan yibawn, imawn qqiman-d d wudmawn
(the fava beans are quickly gone, mouths and faces are what remains)
Maybe macaronic Darija and Tamazight (Berber) is the way to go 😱 Ḥasan al-Yūsī (d.1691) didn't mind:
wa qawmun žiyaʕun sakanū fī tagnit
xāfū ḍḍiyafaʰ kasabū yat tigdit
wa qad nazal(n)a ʕinda-hum ġer učči
wa kullu man minnā iggen ur ičči !
👇🏽
wa qawmun žiyaʕun sakanū fī tagnit
xāfū ḍḍiyafaʰ kasabū yat tigdit
wa qad nazal(n)a ʕinda-hum ġer učči
wa kullu man minnā iggen ur ičči !
👇🏽
December 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
On avarice:
> qḍan yibawn, imawn qqiman-d d wudmawn
(the fava beans are quickly gone, mouths and faces are what remains)
> qḍan yibawn, imawn qqiman-d d wudmawn
(the fava beans are quickly gone, mouths and faces are what remains)
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
Maybe macaronic Darija and Tamazight (Berber) is the way to go 😱 Ḥasan al-Yūsī (d.1691) didn't mind:
wa qawmun žiyaʕun sakanū fī tagnit
xāfū ḍḍiyafaʰ kasabū yat tigdit
wa qad nazal(n)a ʕinda-hum ġer učči
wa kullu man minnā iggen ur ičči !
👇🏽
wa qawmun žiyaʕun sakanū fī tagnit
xāfū ḍḍiyafaʰ kasabū yat tigdit
wa qad nazal(n)a ʕinda-hum ġer učči
wa kullu man minnā iggen ur ičči !
👇🏽
December 22, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Maybe macaronic Darija and Tamazight (Berber) is the way to go 😱 Ḥasan al-Yūsī (d.1691) didn't mind:
wa qawmun žiyaʕun sakanū fī tagnit
xāfū ḍḍiyafaʰ kasabū yat tigdit
wa qad nazal(n)a ʕinda-hum ġer učči
wa kullu man minnā iggen ur ičči !
👇🏽
wa qawmun žiyaʕun sakanū fī tagnit
xāfū ḍḍiyafaʰ kasabū yat tigdit
wa qad nazal(n)a ʕinda-hum ġer učči
wa kullu man minnā iggen ur ičči !
👇🏽
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
Nova inscripció paleofrígia, però de rerefons totalment persa: tasabara Bagaba↑os 'Bagabazos, el porta de la destral'. El personatge és conegut per Herodot, qui el situa devers el 513 aC, i la inscripció li dona un títol cortesà. Bona feina dels editors!
www.academia.edu/145535037/Ta...
www.academia.edu/145535037/Ta...
December 23, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Nova inscripció paleofrígia, però de rerefons totalment persa: tasabara Bagaba↑os 'Bagabazos, el porta de la destral'. El personatge és conegut per Herodot, qui el situa devers el 513 aC, i la inscripció li dona un títol cortesà. Bona feina dels editors!
www.academia.edu/145535037/Ta...
www.academia.edu/145535037/Ta...
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
⚠️Paper Alert!⚠️
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Bayesian analyses of radiocarbon dates suggest multiple origins of ceramic technology in Early Holocene Africa
Nature Communications - Several possible points of origin have been proposed for the spread of ceramic technology in Saharan Africa between 11–10,000 years ago. Here, the authors...
rdcu.be
October 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
⚠️Paper Alert!⚠️
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
Turned up at the National Archives in Algiers in three quarter length shorts because it was too hot for this poor pasty Irish man and I couldn't enter due to the dress code so a soldier that was posted there lent me a pair of his jeans so I could go in. Classic Algerian generosity!
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Turned up at the National Archives in Algiers in three quarter length shorts because it was too hot for this poor pasty Irish man and I couldn't enter due to the dress code so a soldier that was posted there lent me a pair of his jeans so I could go in. Classic Algerian generosity!
I watched AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH in Portugal today and I just want everyone to know that the entire movie was subtitled in English in Papyrus.
The entire movie.
The entire movie.
December 22, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
A few gleanings from Ibn Tunart’s (d.1172) dictionary (MS_088_a):
> tid-xsinin: coal (lit. ‘the extinguished ones’ in opp. to ‘live coals’: tirgin)
> azki, azgi: pottery (my local lect: ajʷg̱̱̱i)
> tazkkiwt: (donut-like) jug stand 'Ar. al-jiʔawa' (local lect: tazzwutt - usually from palm fiber)
👇🏽
> tid-xsinin: coal (lit. ‘the extinguished ones’ in opp. to ‘live coals’: tirgin)
> azki, azgi: pottery (my local lect: ajʷg̱̱̱i)
> tazkkiwt: (donut-like) jug stand 'Ar. al-jiʔawa' (local lect: tazzwutt - usually from palm fiber)
👇🏽
December 22, 2025 at 6:56 AM
A few gleanings from Ibn Tunart’s (d.1172) dictionary (MS_088_a):
> tid-xsinin: coal (lit. ‘the extinguished ones’ in opp. to ‘live coals’: tirgin)
> azki, azgi: pottery (my local lect: ajʷg̱̱̱i)
> tazkkiwt: (donut-like) jug stand 'Ar. al-jiʔawa' (local lect: tazzwutt - usually from palm fiber)
👇🏽
> tid-xsinin: coal (lit. ‘the extinguished ones’ in opp. to ‘live coals’: tirgin)
> azki, azgi: pottery (my local lect: ajʷg̱̱̱i)
> tazkkiwt: (donut-like) jug stand 'Ar. al-jiʔawa' (local lect: tazzwutt - usually from palm fiber)
👇🏽
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
I've been reading this to my five year old with an alveolar click for three nights now. So far he's replacing it with a velar stop but I will persevere
December 21, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I've been reading this to my five year old with an alveolar click for three nights now. So far he's replacing it with a velar stop but I will persevere
the dunes in winter light
December 21, 2025 at 7:28 PM
the dunes in winter light
Counterpoint: This disaster will likely lead in the longer run to much more scrutiny of students and colleagues as to whence and how they cite and reference - sth long overdue regardless AI.
I hope it will kill the "citing things bc they need to be cited" automatism.
I hope it will kill the "citing things bc they need to be cited" automatism.
Google scholar is now broken for good because people use AI-generated, non-existent references.
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
And so checked out Google Scholar. Now on my profile it doesn't appear, but somwhow on Nelli's it does and ... and ... omg, IT'S BEEN CITED 42 TIMES almost exlusively in papers about AI in education from this year alone... scholar.google.com.vn/citations?vi...
December 21, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Counterpoint: This disaster will likely lead in the longer run to much more scrutiny of students and colleagues as to whence and how they cite and reference - sth long overdue regardless AI.
I hope it will kill the "citing things bc they need to be cited" automatism.
I hope it will kill the "citing things bc they need to be cited" automatism.
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
A nice new chapter by Taine-Cheikh on change-of-quality fʕāl in North African Arabic.
(She criticises my proposal to derive this from Berber, preferring the old Form XI theory; I'm unconvinced, but I will need to take on board her comments on the Zenaga data.)
hal.science/hal-05414180...
(She criticises my proposal to derive this from Berber, preferring the old Form XI theory; I'm unconvinced, but I will need to take on board her comments on the Zenaga data.)
hal.science/hal-05414180...
hal.science
December 19, 2025 at 11:21 PM
A nice new chapter by Taine-Cheikh on change-of-quality fʕāl in North African Arabic.
(She criticises my proposal to derive this from Berber, preferring the old Form XI theory; I'm unconvinced, but I will need to take on board her comments on the Zenaga data.)
hal.science/hal-05414180...
(She criticises my proposal to derive this from Berber, preferring the old Form XI theory; I'm unconvinced, but I will need to take on board her comments on the Zenaga data.)
hal.science/hal-05414180...
The dismal state of Ancient History studies is exemplified by the fact that literally no young scholar would be able to correctly translate RIL 7.
December 20, 2025 at 10:44 AM
The dismal state of Ancient History studies is exemplified by the fact that literally no young scholar would be able to correctly translate RIL 7.
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
And no, "reading a paper" doesn’t always mean starting with word 1 & reading dutifully to the last word in the last citation in the bibliography—that’s not how research happens—but we shouldn’t be tossing in citations to papers we never directly consulted—but that was happening long before LLMs
December 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
And no, "reading a paper" doesn’t always mean starting with word 1 & reading dutifully to the last word in the last citation in the bibliography—that’s not how research happens—but we shouldn’t be tossing in citations to papers we never directly consulted—but that was happening long before LLMs
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite
Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:01 PM
I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
hear me out. these are just arabic conjugational prefixes (t-, y-) added to french verbs 😎
December 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
hear me out. these are just arabic conjugational prefixes (t-, y-) added to french verbs 😎
Thread of threads on Libyco-Berber inscriptions:
bsky.app/profile/maar...
bsky.app/profile/maar...
It’s Tuesday, oral exams period coming up, so a (temporary?) end to this Libyco-Berber tombstones series.
But first: some really puzzling stuff.
A series of inscriptions was found in 1938 in Mechta el Maza close to Bouchegouf (ex-Duvivier), Guelma region, eastern Algeria (RIL 1076-1091)
🧵
But first: some really puzzling stuff.
A series of inscriptions was found in 1938 in Mechta el Maza close to Bouchegouf (ex-Duvivier), Guelma region, eastern Algeria (RIL 1076-1091)
🧵
December 18, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Thread of threads on Libyco-Berber inscriptions:
bsky.app/profile/maar...
bsky.app/profile/maar...
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
#OCIANA #Top_10_in_2025 : The #OCIANA team inserted more than 1500 new inscriptions into the database. Here are our top ten (with a three-way tie at #10) of the year, just in case you missed them! From Nabonidus to Dahr, let us known what you think!
www.academia.edu/145461821/OC...
www.academia.edu/145461821/OC...
December 18, 2025 at 8:08 AM
#OCIANA #Top_10_in_2025 : The #OCIANA team inserted more than 1500 new inscriptions into the database. Here are our top ten (with a three-way tie at #10) of the year, just in case you missed them! From Nabonidus to Dahr, let us known what you think!
www.academia.edu/145461821/OC...
www.academia.edu/145461821/OC...
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
timeline cleanse: franky watches the garbage truck pick up the trash this morning
September 17, 2025 at 7:04 PM
timeline cleanse: franky watches the garbage truck pick up the trash this morning
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
Les concours chercheurs CNRS au titre de l’année 2026 viennent d’être publiés au Journal officiel et sont désormais en ligne sur le site du CNRS.
carrieres.cnrs.fr/concours-ext...
carrieres.cnrs.fr/concours-ext...
Concours externes des chercheurs (H/F) - CNRS Carrières
L’inscription aux concours ouvre au mois de décembre 2025 !
carrieres.cnrs.fr
December 17, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Les concours chercheurs CNRS au titre de l’année 2026 viennent d’être publiés au Journal officiel et sont désormais en ligne sur le site du CNRS.
carrieres.cnrs.fr/concours-ext...
carrieres.cnrs.fr/concours-ext...
Reposted by Maarten Kossmann
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?