Fun fact: you can automatically generate esoteric texts by machine translating Arabic Wikipedia pages on grammatical terms.

13. The fact that Linear B scribes invented the sign 𐁄 <dwo> from a sequence of two 𐀺 <wo> signs is objectively funny.

I'm not going to make a habit of thesisposting but there are some extricable chunks that people who aren't even me can maybe enjoy.

The Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem is a real historical event that's described in the Bible three times, and in Sennacherib's annals (in Akkadian cuneiform) in over a dozen minor variants. It's interesting to see which parts get left out of which narratives. 🧵

I think I've convinced myself Hebr. סְרָנִים 'Philistine (military?) leader', far from being related to τύραννος somehow, is actually just Assyrian šarrānū, an irregular but attested plural of šarru, and that this is connected with Akis (real, not Biblical) calling himself the שר, not מלך, of Ekron.

Speaking of Philistine names, have you ever noticed that many of the ones in the Bible... aren't names? 🧵