#babylon — Public Fediverse posts

Café #Babylon: Die kurze und spannende Geschichte eines besonderen Berliner Cafés

https://www.l-iz.de/bildung/buecher/2026/08/cafe-babylon-kurze-spannende-geschichte-besonderen-berliner-cafes-667866
#Rezensionen #Bücher #Kulturgeschichte

𒅕

Reading: er

#Sumerian #sumerology #language #Babylon #study

Zes vragen aan Bert van der Spek

De trouwe lezers van deze blog kennen inmiddels de rubriek waarin dit de vierde aflevering is: ik wil de aandacht weghalen bij de gemakzuchtige stukken over archeologische vondsten en de ongefundeerde parallellen tussen toen en nu, en terugleggen bij het eigenlijke wetenschappelijke proces. Vandaag is het woord aan oudhistoricus Bert van der Spek, aan wiens handboek ik eerder een reeks blogjes wijdde, maar die meer heeft gedaan dan alleen een handboek maken.

**

Wat bestudeert u?
De geschiedenis van Babylonië na de verovering door Alexander de Grote in 331 v.Chr., die de zgn. Hellenistische periode inleidde. Veruit de meeste bronnen over deze periode zijn in het Grieks gesteld (geschiedschrijvers die soms eeuwen later leefden, Griekse inscripties). Daardoor hebben veel oudhistorici (die veelal opgeleid zijn als classici) door een Griekse bril naar het Hellenistische Nabije Oosten gekeken.  Ik probeer de in het Babylonisch geschreven bronnen bij het onderzoek te betrekken.

Wat doet u nou concreet?
Ik heb een groot deel van mijn leven eraan besteed die Babylonische bronnen voor de niet-assyrioloog beschikbaar te maken. Het belangrijkste opus is Babylonian Chronographic Texts from the Hellenistic Period (samen met Irving Finkel, Reinhard Pirngruber en Kathryn Stevens; 2025). Inhoudelijk heb ik mij bezig gehouden met vragen over de multiculturele samenleving. Een ander thema is de geschiedenis van de marktwerking en van het geld vanaf Oudheid tot heden. Dat betekent uren en uren turen op kleitabletten in het British Museum (en gelukkig nu ook op digitale foto’s daarvan), maar ook in Excel een databestand aanleggen van prijsgegevens uit Babylon (zie hieronder). Monnikenwerk.

Maar Hellenistisch Babylon biedt wel iets heel bijzonders: de Astronomische Dagboeken. Dat zijn de dagboeken die Babylonische astronomen dagelijks bijhielden. Die dagboeken bieden niet alleen de loop van de planeten, maar ook korte mededelingen over wat er in een betreffende maand of dag gebeurde in Babylon en in de wereld. De astronomen lijken een soort journalisten, maar het ging hun waarschijnlijk om data te creëren om hun holistisch wereldbeeld te onderzoeken: alles hangt met alles samen.  Zij hielden namelijk ook minutieus bij hoe de prijzen waren van de voornaamste landbouwproducten (o.a. gerst, dadels en wol) en de hoogte van de Eufraat.

We hebben die data in een dermate groot aantal, dat statistisch en econometrisch onderzoek gedaan kon worden in historisch perspectief. Vandaar mijn belangstelling voor economische geschiedenis (zie boven). Ik heb twee mooie bundels uitgebracht over marktwerking en geld samen met assyriologen, (oud)historici, numismaten, economisch historici, economen en econometristen. Economisch-historici en economen kijken zelden verder terug dan 1000 na Chr. Juist zij waren op voor deze projecten georganiseerde congressen uiterst enthousiast over het materiaal dat ze nog nooit gezien hadden. De Babylonische astronomen meldden ook minutieus wat voor weer het was (wolken, wind, regen, de hoogte van de Eufraat); met deze gegevens zijn klimaatstudies ondernomen (door een team in Dublin o.l.v. Francis Ludlow).

Hoe vergroot dit welk inzicht?
Jona Lendering heeft al als student oudheidkunde voortdurend gehamerd op het belang van theorie, zodat er ook een nieuw vak kwam, waar hij zelf de basis voor legde: “theorie van de oudheidkunde”. Ik heb daarvan geleerd. Wat betreft de economische geschiedenis heb ik me vooral beziggehouden met de theorie van Karl-Gunnar Persson die stelde dat prijsvolatiliteit een goede graadmeter is voor het functioneren van de markt. Sterke schommelingen duiden op het niet goed functioneren van de markt.

In Babylonië was dat het geval voor graan en gerst, maar niet voor wol. Dat komt omdat de geografische gesteldheid van Babylonië in- en export van voedsel lastig maakt, maar niet die van wol en ander textiel: Babylonisch textiel was tot in Rome gewild.

We hebben ook gekeken naar de invloed van politieke gebeurtenissen, zoals de verovering van Babylon door Alexander in 331 v. Chr. en van de Parthen in 141 v. Chr., en het klimaat (de hoogte van de Eufraat). In de bundel over geld hebben we gekeken naar het effect van de creatie van veel nieuw geld (in de vorm van zilver – Alexander bracht de Perzische goud- en zilverschat ter waarde van 5000 ton zilver in omloop voor de betaling van soldij) op de economie.

Deze studie heeft mijn visie veranderd op inflatie. Geldcreatie (en schulden maken) kan leiden tot inflatie (zoals gebeurde na Alexander de Grote), maar kan ook een enorme boost geven aan de economie, mits gebruikt voor investeringen (bouw schepen, huizen, steden, wegen, irrigatiekanalen, landontginning; het klassieke Athene is een goed voorbeeld). Geldschepping leidt dus niet altijd tot inflatie zoals Milton Friedman dacht. Nederlandse politici die het alsmaar hebben over zuinig beleid om het huishoudboekje op orde te houden, hebben het grondig mis. Ook heb ik veel gehad aan de theorieën van de econoom Douglass North, die het belang aantoonde van instituties in de brede zin van het woord (staatsinstellingen, rechtsstelsels, culturele gewoonten).

Bij de studie naar etniciteit in Babylon heb ik veel geleerd van de cultureel-antropoloog Fredrik Barth die etniciteit reduceerde tot het “labelen” van mensen (het aanwijzen van typerende kenmerken), zowel door de etnische groepen zelf als door de buitenwereld. Ik kwam op dat spoor door de studie van mijn VU-collega Koen Goudriaan over etniciteit in Ptolemeïsch Egypte (1988). Ik ben het overigens niet in alles met Barth eens.

In concreto heb ik laten zien hoe onder Antiochus IV in Babylon een Griekse kolonie werd gevestigd met eigen staatsinstellingen (een raad, een volksvergadering, gymnasium, geregistreerde burgers [politai] in  Babylonisch syllabisch spijkerschrift pu-li-te-e). Mogelijk waren autochtone  Babyloniërs daar ook lid van. Een voorbeeld van multiple identity. Een Griekse tempel is niet gevonden en wordt ook nooit genoemd. Waarschijnlijk beschouwden de Grieken de god Bēl als Zeus en offerden zij in of bij de tempel van Bēl, Esangila. Veel geleerden zeggen dat Babylon nu een polis werd. Een beetje raar alsof Grieken Babylon (en andere steden zonder Griekse invloed) niet altijd al aanduidden als polis, “stad”.

Welk boek over uw onderwerp zou eigenlijk iedereen moeten lezen?
Amélie Kuhrt heeft enorm veel gedaan om het niet-Griekse aspect van de geschiedenis van Hellenistisch West-Azië te belichten. Ik noem haar boek From Samarkhand to Sardis. A new Approach to the Seleucid Empire (1993), maar het is niet langer leverbaar. Recenter is Kathryn Stevens’ boek Between Greece and Babylonia: Hellenistic Intellectual History in Cross-Cultural Perspective (2019). Verder heeft mijn promotus Reinhard Pirngruber een prachtige dissertatie geschreven over The Economy of Late Achaemenid and Seleucid Babylonia (2017).

Is er iets dat u zelf nog kwijt wil?
Het is jammer dat de studie van de oude geschiedenis nog steeds gedomineerd wordt door classici die weinig benul hebben van niet-Griekse bronnen en van de wereld buiten Griekenland. Er zijn nog steeds docenten Grieks, die Homerus doceren zonder ooit het Epos van Gilgameš gelezen te hebben.

Ik geef als ander voorbeeld twee boeken over de Griekse economie van Josiah Ober (slecht boek) en van Alain Bresson (goed boek). Beiden trekken vergelijkingen met de economie van het oude Nabije oosten die gebaseerd zijn op volkomen verouderde ideeën over door de koning geleide redistributie-economieën, alsof daar geen markt zou zijn. Zij concluderen dan dat het succes van Athene te danken was aan de democratische instellingen en de vrije markt. De werkelijkheid is dat zowel Babylon als Athene profiteerden van hun imperia (tribuut, verzekerde inkomsten) en input van zilver (in Athene de zilveraders in Laureion). Het leuke hiervan is dat er ook voor mij als oudhistoricus met kennis van de assyriologie nog veel te doen valt en dat ik daar na mijn emeritaat nu eindelijk eens wat meer tijd voor heb.

**

Bert van der Spek was hoogleraar oude geschiedenis aan de Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

𒋀

Reading: šeš
Meaning: brother

#cuneiform #assyriology #deadLanguage #Babylon #education

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #TheOdyssey #Babylon #Sinners 8 Best Movie Scores of the 2020s So Far http://dlvr.it/TTx7JD

𒋧

Reading: šum₂
Meaning: to give

#cuneiforms #sumerology #archeology #Babylon #learning

Movie TV Tech Geeks #Movie #Babylon 10 Most Challenging Movies of All Time http://dlvr.it/TTskJf

𒌷

Reading: iri
Meaning: city

#Sumerian #assyriology #history #Babylon #research

Ashkenazi Jews

Author’s Note: This post has mentions of Nazis, the Holocaust, & Nazi Germany. We completely understand if you wish to skip over this post. We’ll catch you in the next one!

Also known as Ashkenazic Jews, Ashkenazis, or Ashkenazim.

This is a form of distinct ethnic subdivision of the Jewish Diaspora. Emerging from the Jewish communities that consolidated during the 10th century in the Rhineland (Western Germany) & northern France. They migrated there from centers such as the Italian peninsula & the Southern Levant. This includes present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, & Jordan.

After numerous massacres of Jews during the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), they began a gradual eastward migration due to mounting restrictions within the Holy Roman Empire & the favorable policies of Casimir the Great & others.

This diaspora ramped up after the persecution during the Black Death of the 14th century. The bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to the Kingdom of Poland (which includes modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, & parts of Russia). This area became the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazim adapted their traditions, rites, & customs to Europe. They traditionally followed the German rite synagogue ritual & until the Holocaust primarily spoke Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic, & Slavic influences.

The Yiddish language progressively declined in prestige, in favor of national languages & Hebrew, being stigmatized by assimilationists & later also Zionists. Though it was spoken by over 11 million people worldwide before the Holocaust. The Yiddishist movement, which sought to preserve & revive the language, faded through the 20th century. Including Duolingo adding Yiddish as a language.

As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930, near the population’s peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during WWII, which killed around 6 million Jews. Before WWII, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3-16.7 million, with 92% being Ashkenazi. As of 2023, the population of Ashkenazim was estimated to be around 10-13 million out of 15.8 million total Jews.

The name Ashkenazi comes from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz. He’s the 1st son of Gomer, grandson of Japhet, great-grandson of Noah, & a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. The name for Gomer has often been linked to the Cimmerians.

The Biblical Ashkenazis are usually derived from Assyrian Askuza, a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates. The name Askuza is identified with the Scythians.

In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as 1 of 3 kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni (or Mannaea), an ancient kingdom that flourished in northwestern Iran, & Arrat (corresponding to Urartu), called on by God to resist Babylon.

Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia (usually identified with Scandinavia), viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, in the 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. In the 10th century, in the History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertci, Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia.

As it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Chimea, & areas to the east. They’re also identified with the Slavim or Slavs. In keeping with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was called Sefarad (Obadiah 20), France was called Tsarefat (I Kings 17:9), & Bohemia was called the Land of Canaan.

Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France & Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of both medieval Germany & France.

In later times, the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern & western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany & Poland. Thus, the prayer book of Isaiah Horowitz (a prominent rabbi & mystic), & many others, give the piyyutim (a Jewish liturgical poem), according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz & Poland. A Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism.

In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition & synagogue ritual follow Ashkenazi practices (German rite). Until the Ashkenazi community 1st began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad & Islamic Spain. German Ashkenaz was so geographically distant that it developed a minhag of its own.

The counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic. Since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they’re ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi (a.k.a. Oriental Jews; Jews who lived in the Muslim world) who married into an Orthodox or Haredi (a.k.a. ultra-Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her kids to be Ashkenazi Jews.

On the other hand, an Ashkenazi woman who married a Sephardi or Mizrahi is expected to take on Sephardic practices & the kids will “inherit” a Sephardic identity. Though in practice, many families do compromise. A “convert” usually follows the practice of the rabbinical court (beth din) that converted them.

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means “Jewishness” in the Yiddish language. Before the Haskalah (a.k.a. the Jewish Enlightenment) & the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of the Torah & the Talmud for men, & communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men & women.

From the Rhineland to Riga (the largest city in Latvia) to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, & spoke Yiddish in their secular (worldly) lives. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now includes not just Orthodoxy & Hasidism, but a broader range of movements, ideologies, practices, & traditions in which Ashkenazi have participated & somehow kept a sense of Jewishness. Although pockets of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, styles of humor, & in patterns of association.

As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe, mostly in the form of aliyah to Israel. Or immigration to North America, South Africa, Europe (particularly France), & Latin America, the geographic isolation has given way to mixing with other cultures, & with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales.

Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews. Although many Hasidic & Hareidi groups still use Yiddish in daily life. Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographic Land of Israel or the Palestine region, where the State of Israel was established.

France’s blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that’s going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were 2 distinct Jewish populations.

One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition (which no one expects! Sorry, we’re Monty Python fans here.) & concentrated in the southwest. While the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, & mainly speaking a German dialect similar to Yiddish.

The 3rd community of Provencal Jews living in Comtat Venaissin was technically outside France, & was later absorbed into the Sephardim. Comtat Venaissin (called Comtat, for short) was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791.

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. (We’ll be doing a post about the Dreyfus Affair.) In the 1920s & 30s, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian Revolution, & the economic turmoil of the Great Depression.

By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, & many Jews were involved in diverse political movements. After the Vichy years & the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, 1st by Ashkenazi refugees from Central Europe, & later by Sephardi immigrants & refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone. Francophone refers to people/organizations who use French (language) regularly.

Ashkenazi Jews didn’t transmit their traditions or achievements by text. Instead, these traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next. The desire to maintain pre-Holocaust traditions relating to Ashkenazi culture has often been met with criticism by Jews in Eastern Europe.

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is a descendant of the Jews who settled in the Central European region of “Ashkenaz.” For roughly 1,000 years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe.

Despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow of countries from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Since the mid-20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities & non-Jews.

Religious persecution of the Jews in Western & Central Europe led to a significant migration of the Ashkenazi Jews into Eastern Europe. This resulted in a major cultural divide between Western/Central & Eastern Ashkenazi communities. In particular, this was reflected in the division of Yiddish into Western & Eastern Yiddish dialects. As well as in other cultural distinctions: traditions, food, dress, etc.

Initially, the Jews of Eastern Europe enjoyed relative freedom in terms of movement, being invited by the kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over time, the situation was reversed. By the 19th century, the Jews in the West had gradually been integrated into the general society.

While the Eastern Ashkenazi maintained their strict Jewish traditions & were mostly confined to ghettos, especially in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, which incorporated a considerable amount of land where the Eastern Ashkenazi lived: Poland & Lithuania.

Well-known differences in practices include:

• Observance of Passover (Pesach)
  • Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, grain, millet, & rice. Quinoa has become accepted as a food grain in North American communities. Sephardi Jews typically don’t prohibit these foods.
• Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the ACTUAL slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper Halakhic removal of the sciatic nerve. While many Ashkenazi Jews don’t.
• Ashkenazi Jews often name newborns after deceased family members, not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews often name their kids after their grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. An exception to this is among Dutch Jews, where Ashkenazi for centuries used naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim, such as Chuts. Chuts is the name given to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands in the 1850s-1860s.
• Ashkenazi tefillins are wound toward the body, not away from it. Ashkenazim put on the tefillin while standing up. Other Jews generally do so while sitting down. A tefillin(s) is/are sets of small black leather boxes with leather straps having scrolls of parchment written with verses of the Torah inside.
• The prayer shawl (tallit/tallis) is worn by all Ashkenazi men AFTER marriage. Except for Western European Ashkenazi men who wear it from the bar mitzvah. In Sephardi or Mizrahi Judaism, the prayer shawl is commonly worn from early childhood.

The term Ashkenazi also refers to the Nusach Ashkenaz, the liturgical tradition used by Ashkenazi Jews in their siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition’s choice of prayers, the text of prayers & melodies used in the singing of prayers. 2 other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazi Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari, used by those in Chabad.

Make a one-time donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Rate this:

𒈬

Reading: mu
Meaning: name, year

#cuneiform #sumerology #civilisation #Babylon #study

𒁺

Reading: ĝen
Meaning: to go, come

#cuneiforms #assyriology #culture #Babylon #education

"This week, #Jews around the world will mark #TishaBAv, the ninth day of the #Hebrew month of #Av and the saddest day on the #Jewish calendar. It is a fast day that mourns the destruction of both Temples in #Jerusalem, the first by #Babylon over 2,500 years ago and the second by #Rome in the year 70.

When we mourn on Tisha B'Av, we tend to travel backward in time. We place ourselves at the moment the Temple stood ablaze. We picture Jews sold as slaves and thrown to the lions in #Roman amphitheaters. We focus on what was lost then.

The full weight of a catastrophe is not measured at the moment of impact. It is measured in everything that follows."

https://aish.com/why-tisha-bav-should-hurt-more-every-year/

𒂗

Reading: en
Meaning: lord

#Sumerian #sumerology #language #Babylon #learning

Ha ha there were 6 people in the theatre and we knew one who said that was the highest ratio of people he knew in a theatre ever. I remember some undergraduate experiences… but he knew 2/3 if you count himself so. Meanwhile 500 waiting to get in for #NORDstream afterwards
#babylon #berlin

On the other hand the 19:30 premier of #NORDstream is sold out

#babylon #berlin

Quiet day to celebrate Brooks’ centenary by watching The Producers #babylon #berlin

𒂵

Reading: ga
Meaning: milk

#cuneiform #assyriology #deadLanguage #Babylon #research

𒈗

Reading: lugal
Meaning: king, master

#cuneiforms #sumerology #archeology #Babylon #study

𒈗

Reading: lugal
Meaning: king, master

#cuneiforms #sumerology #archeology #Babylon #study

𒇷

Reading: li

#Sumerian #assyriology #history #Babylon #education

𒀉

Reading: a₂

#cuneiform #sumerology #civilisation #Babylon #learning

𒄑

Reading: ĝiš
Meaning: wood

#cuneiforms #assyriology #culture #Babylon #research

Babylonian noble hunting lions in a chariot (Briton Riviere)

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/2152180/babylonian-noble-hunting-lions-in-a-chariot-briton-riviere

𒈾

Reading: na

#Sumerian #sumerology #language #Babylon #study