M. Willis Monroe
@willismonroe.bsky.social
Cuneiform Studies, History of Science/Religion, Digital Humanities/Coding, Associate Professor at the University of New Brunswick, Co-Director of the Database of Religious History.
This week were were thinking about how the combination of good archaeology and well provenanced texts can tell richer stories. Ea-naṣir's house and letters provide an excellent case-study, a 4,000 year old micro-history of one merchants life and work in the ancient city of Ur.
November 7, 2025 at 2:10 PM
This week were were thinking about how the combination of good archaeology and well provenanced texts can tell richer stories. Ea-naṣir's house and letters provide an excellent case-study, a 4,000 year old micro-history of one merchants life and work in the ancient city of Ur.
As further evidence of future crisis check out this graph (also from the whitepaper), the discipline where direct output creation was most common: "Education". What will that do to our education system in 3-4 years when these graduates are teachers?!
April 16, 2025 at 12:27 PM
As further evidence of future crisis check out this graph (also from the whitepaper), the discipline where direct output creation was most common: "Education". What will that do to our education system in 3-4 years when these graduates are teachers?!
There's a lot in there, but this figure is the standout. Students use AI to create work, not to understand tricky problems or figure out how to apply concepts. They're just using AI as a shortcut not a tool. Quoting the authors of the white paper: "An inverted pyramid, after all, can topple over."
April 16, 2025 at 12:27 PM
There's a lot in there, but this figure is the standout. Students use AI to create work, not to understand tricky problems or figure out how to apply concepts. They're just using AI as a shortcut not a tool. Quoting the authors of the white paper: "An inverted pyramid, after all, can topple over."
Caveat this is all anonymized data which they tried to assign to various disciplines in higher-ed, but it probably tracks pretty well... they start off looking at the proportion of subjects using AI compared to percentage of undergrads enrolled in those degrees: not surprisingly CS stands out
April 16, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Caveat this is all anonymized data which they tried to assign to various disciplines in higher-ed, but it probably tracks pretty well... they start off looking at the proportion of subjects using AI compared to percentage of undergrads enrolled in those degrees: not surprisingly CS stands out
Last week to submit an abstract for our workshop at ASOR this year: The Robot at the Back of the Classroom: Student Engagement and Assessment under the Shadow of Generative AI... We're interested in talking about what we're all talking about, how do we teach/inspire/assess in our classrooms with AI?
March 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Last week to submit an abstract for our workshop at ASOR this year: The Robot at the Back of the Classroom: Student Engagement and Assessment under the Shadow of Generative AI... We're interested in talking about what we're all talking about, how do we teach/inspire/assess in our classrooms with AI?
Same here, free 3d-printing in the library... The models on sketchfab from the BM and other institutions are excellent for teaching resources...
January 30, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Same here, free 3d-printing in the library... The models on sketchfab from the BM and other institutions are excellent for teaching resources...
This is an amazing amount of work, and such a cool output! It would be interesting to see whether his talks aligned at all with his scholarly output as well... this is what I found in OIP 138 for Banks' bibliography:
January 6, 2025 at 4:53 PM
This is an amazing amount of work, and such a cool output! It would be interesting to see whether his talks aligned at all with his scholarly output as well... this is what I found in OIP 138 for Banks' bibliography:
We just had a wood stove installed (Jøtul 602 v2 if you're wondering) and was dreading informing our home insurance company... I sent the e-mail this morning and they just replied that it reduced(!) our bill by $10.
(maybe because it counts as a secondary heat source and prevents pipes freezing)
(maybe because it counts as a secondary heat source and prevents pipes freezing)
December 3, 2024 at 2:55 PM
We just had a wood stove installed (Jøtul 602 v2 if you're wondering) and was dreading informing our home insurance company... I sent the e-mail this morning and they just replied that it reduced(!) our bill by $10.
(maybe because it counts as a secondary heat source and prevents pipes freezing)
(maybe because it counts as a secondary heat source and prevents pipes freezing)
Here's a section from Ossendrijver's 2012 book (title: Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy:
Procedure Texts) on astronomical procedure texts (pgs. 18-19) on the concept and writing of zero.
Procedure Texts) on astronomical procedure texts (pgs. 18-19) on the concept and writing of zero.
December 2, 2024 at 1:21 PM
Here's a section from Ossendrijver's 2012 book (title: Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy:
Procedure Texts) on astronomical procedure texts (pgs. 18-19) on the concept and writing of zero.
Procedure Texts) on astronomical procedure texts (pgs. 18-19) on the concept and writing of zero.
That's rough, maybe cover him in something really smelly for a week or so?
September 3, 2024 at 10:51 PM
That's rough, maybe cover him in something really smelly for a week or so?
3D Printed cuneiform objects from museum collections (h/t The British Museum and Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East for making their models publically available!) using UNB Library's Fabrication Lab. They were awesome to work with, the end results are fantastic. Can't wait to teach with them!
August 30, 2024 at 5:11 PM
3D Printed cuneiform objects from museum collections (h/t The British Museum and Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East for making their models publically available!) using UNB Library's Fabrication Lab. They were awesome to work with, the end results are fantastic. Can't wait to teach with them!
New faculty photo just came in... unfortunately this hat has been glued to my head for the past decade.
August 8, 2024 at 4:15 PM
New faculty photo just came in... unfortunately this hat has been glued to my head for the past decade.
NB: Everything about this article is made up, aside from the citations. Please do not believe that Babylonian cuneogrammers invented programming or neural networks. That being said, what they did accomplish with clay and reed sylli was really amazing and very cool!
April 18, 2024 at 3:57 PM
NB: Everything about this article is made up, aside from the citations. Please do not believe that Babylonian cuneogrammers invented programming or neural networks. That being said, what they did accomplish with clay and reed sylli was really amazing and very cool!
It's been a goal of mine for a while to submit something to SIGBOVIK "The Association of Computational Heresy". This year I wrote something with a few colleagues and published it in the 2024 proceedings: sigbovik.org In this article we created a fake cuneiform programming language...
April 18, 2024 at 3:52 PM
It's been a goal of mine for a while to submit something to SIGBOVIK "The Association of Computational Heresy". This year I wrote something with a few colleagues and published it in the 2024 proceedings: sigbovik.org In this article we created a fake cuneiform programming language...
Currently reading some cuneiform astronomical diaries from Babylonia and just noticed that rain is categorized as whether or not you have to remove your sandals...
March 28, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Currently reading some cuneiform astronomical diaries from Babylonia and just noticed that rain is categorized as whether or not you have to remove your sandals...
This is our standard evening glass... we switched a while ago. I'm guessings it's around 4 oz.
January 25, 2024 at 1:58 PM
This is our standard evening glass... we switched a while ago. I'm guessings it's around 4 oz.
In today's class we did some basic data work with the Valley of the kings (thanks to thebanmappingproject.com ). We started off thinking about some hypotheses about the size of tombs and the duration or date of a Pharaoh's reign. Then we graphed all the data and talked about our conclusions...
November 24, 2023 at 5:52 PM
In today's class we did some basic data work with the Valley of the kings (thanks to thebanmappingproject.com ). We started off thinking about some hypotheses about the size of tombs and the duration or date of a Pharaoh's reign. Then we graphed all the data and talked about our conclusions...
Ever wonder how to exclaim the impossible in Hittite? The rather short (and badly broken) myth entitled "A Tale of Two Cities, Kanesh and Zalpa" preserves what must be similar to "when pigs fly" in Hittite: "What have we come to that a donkey can climb up (a staircase)?"
October 24, 2023 at 3:34 PM
Ever wonder how to exclaim the impossible in Hittite? The rather short (and badly broken) myth entitled "A Tale of Two Cities, Kanesh and Zalpa" preserves what must be similar to "when pigs fly" in Hittite: "What have we come to that a donkey can climb up (a staircase)?"
I was curious how old my wikipedia account is, my first edit was December 2004 (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...)
It's cute how short wikipedia pages used to be. Compare that little stub of a page to the monstrosity it is now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midhurst
And no, I have no idea why I added that.
It's cute how short wikipedia pages used to be. Compare that little stub of a page to the monstrosity it is now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midhurst
And no, I have no idea why I added that.
October 20, 2023 at 2:11 PM
I was curious how old my wikipedia account is, my first edit was December 2004 (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...)
It's cute how short wikipedia pages used to be. Compare that little stub of a page to the monstrosity it is now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midhurst
And no, I have no idea why I added that.
It's cute how short wikipedia pages used to be. Compare that little stub of a page to the monstrosity it is now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midhurst
And no, I have no idea why I added that.
They solved it! They did a great job and worked together to uncover the full dynasty of queens
September 22, 2023 at 3:09 PM
They solved it! They did a great job and worked together to uncover the full dynasty of queens
Today's archaeology exercise in class is seriation. I used midjourney to create a group of "ancient" pots arranged into stratigraphic layers (with some missing strata), tomb assemblages, and a few vessels with queen's names. The students each get one piece of "evidence" to reconstruct the dynasty.
September 22, 2023 at 12:13 PM
Today's archaeology exercise in class is seriation. I used midjourney to create a group of "ancient" pots arranged into stratigraphic layers (with some missing strata), tomb assemblages, and a few vessels with queen's names. The students each get one piece of "evidence" to reconstruct the dynasty.
My department at the University of New Brunswick is hiring a Canadian historian of the long 20th century: www.unb.ca/hr/careers/p...
It's outside of my normal field, so please share if you know other modern historians.
It's outside of my normal field, so please share if you know other modern historians.
September 14, 2023 at 4:06 PM
My department at the University of New Brunswick is hiring a Canadian historian of the long 20th century: www.unb.ca/hr/careers/p...
It's outside of my normal field, so please share if you know other modern historians.
It's outside of my normal field, so please share if you know other modern historians.
Trialing a new exercise on stratigraphy in my intro level class on Friday. Designed a tell with 3 trenches, 8 strata per trench, groups of students will get one page, have to find their fellow trench mates, tell a story about the trench, then the class will tell the story of the tell.
September 14, 2023 at 11:54 AM
Trialing a new exercise on stratigraphy in my intro level class on Friday. Designed a tell with 3 trenches, 8 strata per trench, groups of students will get one page, have to find their fellow trench mates, tell a story about the trench, then the class will tell the story of the tell.