Marion Pragt

@worldlyscribe.bsky.social

Syriac, late antiquity, manuscripts, sheep and tea.

Our team at KU Leuven is organizing a Workshop on Letters & Epistolary Culture in Syriac Christianity at the Oxford Patristic Studies Conference (2–6 Aug 2027). We will be happy to receive proposals for papers by 30 June 2026 (marion.pragt@kuleuven.be). Details in the attached file.

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There is a new, open access 🚨 📖 book tracing the global history of Zoroastrianism from antiquity (6th century BCE-7th century CE) to the Middle Ages—and then into modernity. My friend & top Manichaeism scholar @babelalexandria.bsky.social has a chapter as well. www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

The Zoroastrian World | Jenny Rose, Albert de Jong, Sarah Stewart | Ta

Although Zoroastrians in the contemporary world are numerically few – estimated recently at less than 150,000 across the globe – their ancient Iranian ancestors

taylorfrancis.com

Voor een gezelschap met em. hoogleraar Syrisch Gerrit Reinink zochten we Syrische boeken. Daarbij kwam deze parel tevoorschijn. Dit bandje bevat een uitgave uit 1555 van de evangeliën in het klassiek West-Syrisch. Het Serta-schrift is zo mooi dat het in een expositie over Letterkunst komt. (2/3)

Goudgestempelde boekband. Collectie Athenaeumbibliotheek DeventerGoud op snee met decoratief reliëf. Collectie Athenaeumbibliotheek DeventerTitelblad met klassiek West-Syrisch Serto-schrift. Collectie Athenaeumbibliotheek Deventer

For the word nerds out there, the word in Akkadian for "expert in aromatics" is muraqqītu. This was the technical domain of women. As another random example, a woman named Tukulti-sha-shamê "the muraqqītu", provided oil for cultic events for a period of 8 months to a steward named Saggi'u.

No. 8: MARV 2.22 On this unsealed tablet Saggiu the steward is named as the recipient of (mahir) a series of amounts totalling just over one homer of two kinds of oil on different occasions, over a period of at least 8 months. The oil is either "myrtle oil" (IÀ a-si) or "purified oil" (IÀ ma-su-ú), used apparently interchangeably, and totalled together as just "oil" (IÀ.MES = samnu) at the end of the document.
The summary reads as follows:
SU.NÍGIN 1 ANSE 3 ½ qa IÀ.MES Sa SU munsGIS.TUKUL-ti-sa-AN-e mu-ra-qi-te tal-pi-tu sa is-tu ITI a-pu-MAN.MES-ni
UD.2.KÁM li-me 'MAS-DUMU.ÚS-SUM-na
a-di ITI al-la-na-te UD.20.KÁM li-me 'ra-gis-sá-ni
a-na tal-pi- ti É'.GAL'"-lim 'sa-gi-ú AGRIG ma-hi-ir
"Total: 1 homer 3½ qû oil, in the charge of Tukulti-ja-same, the perfumer, expenditure for the period from the month of Apu-sarrani, 2nd day, eponymate of Ninurta-apla-iddina until the month of Alla-natu, 20th day, eponymate of Ragissanu, for the expenditure of the palace(?), 15 Saggiu, the steward, has received".

Pasts Imperfect is back from break! This week, we focus on AI ethics and labor with @illdottore.bsky.social, Christine Johnston & Leigh Anne Lieberman. Then, ancient bees in jawbones, Roman camels in Basel, a book on temple robbery, new ancient world journals @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social & much more

Pasts Imperfect (1.8.26)

This week, we are back from holiday break with a deep dive into the ethics, big business, and myth-peddling of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education. Then, bees in ancient jawbones within t...

pasts-imperfect.ghost.io