Very excited to participate in the Reception of the Ancient World in trading, collecting, gaming and fortune-telling cards Colloquium this Saturday!

Please feel free to reach out for the Zoom link if you’re interested in attending. It will be a lot of fun!

#AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky

Very happy to be presenting at the Beyond Borders Workshop in Edinburgh later this week! Truly honored to join a great group of scholars and to have the opportunity to share my research.

Following my last ancient card post, I wanted to also share this beautiful card of Darius I I just received! From the 1908 Stollwerck Album 10 series. Very fun to hold something so old and cool :)

#AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky #BlueSkyClassics

I’m a (baseball) card collector, and recently picked up this 100 year old card of the Gate of Xerxes. I was fascinated to learn how much tobacco, chocolate, and other types of companies used the ancient past in their promotional cards…got me thinking about a possible reception project.

I was lucky enough to have breakfast with Erich Gruen this morning. It was honestly one of the best moments of my academic career.

He’s someone I had heard a lot about and who has influenced my ideas and work for a while, and it was great to experience how wonderful of a person he also is.

Submitted a draft of my first ever publication. It stems from my dissertation on diplomatic messengers, so I decided to treat myself on more books about similar topics!

Very excited for these two @xinwen.bsky.social @superoldgranny.bsky.social

Help! Recently came across this figurine supposedly depicting Ishtar from c. 2000 BC. Her staff immediately reminded me of the caduceus associated with Hermes and messengers across the Mediterranean later on. Anyone have more info on what the staff could actually be/signify?

#AncientBlueSky

For a few years now, I’ve been thinking that there should be a short series based on the Master and Margarita BUT set in the present-day capitalist US. Would the devil and his cat really be surprised by what goes on here sometimes?

“Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”- RFK

Today more than ever, I hope we truly choose to fight against the savageness that might come in the next four years 💙

#skystorians

Happy to have finally purchased my 1st ancient coin! Special because:

1) it depicts a caduceus (very important for my work on ancient messengers) and

2) it depicts Ajax of Olba (named after my cat and not the other way around…if you ask my cat)

Starting the year off with some of my favorite Christmas gifts.

Learning signs has been one of the most difficult things about learning Akkadian. Trying to see if writing them out will help me memorize them better…so far, it’s at least fun!

From a cool mini class field trip to the Hearst Museum of Anthropology today

Finishing a dissertation chapter means having time for some books on my “fun reads” pile :) this one has been there for years, but I can’t wait to get started now.

Little Ajax will deserve a PhD of his own by the time I’m done with mine just by association