Many of us have found ourselves, at one point in our lives or another, in a so-called Wikipedia rabbit hole.1 Wherein you try to learn about a certain topic with the help of the popular digital encyclopedia, but end up going from topic to topic through clicking cross references while much more time than anticipated passes by! And despite the regularly suggested shortcomings of Wikipedia, such a pastime is perhaps more useful than many of the other ways in which one can spend one’s time online.2 Because, in this way, you are nonetheless able to learn a lot – a subject that you had previously never heard of might even become a veritable obsession. And one of the subjects that could be a candidate for such an obsession when people would coincidentally stumble upon it is, I think, the ancient city and kingdom of Ugarit and especially the way in which the people who lived there used to imagine the local landscapes.
The Longevity of Gothic and the Importance of Writing Letters
Traveling by train some years ago, I decided that I wanted to learn the Gothic language. And this became one of those things I have sporadically undertaken in my spare time since then. Most of us will associate the term Gothic – as a moniker for a group of peoples and their language, as opposed to the similarly named literary, architectural and vibe genres – with the Roman Empire.1 And this is understandable, as the Goths rose to prominence during late antiquity and most of our sources come from this period.2 And their language, for most intents and purposes, seems to have largely died out in the second half of the first millennium CE.3 But what struck me when researching the Goths, is the longevity of one branch of their language in Eastern Europe, which survived way longer than the commonly perceived end point of Gothic and that we are primarily aware of because of one sedulous letter writer from the sixteenth century CE. Thus, today we will discuss the drawn-out demise of the Gothic language.
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Nature, Culture and the Gilgamesh Epic
What do you do when you have a story about enduring friendship, reckless attempts to win fame and immortality, and the inevitable bleakness of the human condition? You mine it for ecological themes, of course! And that is exactly what we are going to do today with the oldest surviving epic in the world, the ancient Mesopotamian Gilgamesh Epic. Such an undertaking stands in a long tradition, as the Epic both offered its contemporary readers explanations for the world in which they lived, as well as granting us today many insights into the society that conceived of it.1 In this blog we will unearth how the Epic relates to the concept of wilderness and the perceived dichotomy between nature and culture in ancient Mesopotamian thought.
When Did the Anthropocene Begin?
In March 2024 a subcommittee of the International Union of Geological Sciences rejected a proposal to officially acknowledge the Anthropocene as an era of our geological history.1 This proposal was based on a specific research project that looked for the point where the growing impact of human activities on the global environment became visible throughout the geological record in certain ways.2 Such activities included creating radioactive materials and burning fossil fuels. If the results of this project, as they found their way into the proposal, had been accepted then the beginning of this new era would have been established around the midway point of the previous century, roughly coinciding with the advent of the so-called atomic age.3 This does not necessarily mean that we can now just ditch the idea of the Anthropocene altogether, though. There is arguably still a place for this term in science, scholarship, and our common parlance.4
Searching for Ecological Attitudes in Ancient Stories
Last week, spring was in the air: the sun was shining, the birds where chirping, and the cars polluted the air.1 But only two of these observations will presumably enter most stories that feature this season. Except when one writes specifically about pollution, that is. Such as in the famous ‘Fable for Tomorrow’ that opens the 1962 book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.2 And we might wonder whether it will be such specific works that shall survive and determine the reconstructed societal views on nature that will be attributed to our current day by the scholars of the future, when they are trying to glean these from our stories. Though, we do not need to wonder that much, as we ourselves struggle with similar questions regarding our own past.
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The Poignant Meaning of Τύχη in Ancient Greek
Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now, might have noticed that I am an adept of ancient languages. When others grab their phone, put on the tv, or devour snacks in their downtime, I turn to philology – and often also to those other activities, truth be told.1 And I love them all, from the venerable Akkadian to plain old Latin. Or should I say arâm Akkadian and amo Latin?2 Every aspect of ancient languages is interesting, obviously, but what fascinates me perhaps the most is the morphology and grammar of languages – the forms and structures which give each tongue its own feel and sense of elegance – and their lexicon.3 ,,Big deal!”, you might say about the latter, ,,Who doesn’t like, you know, words?” But words can convey a world of meaning, which is difficult to express in languages with a different vocabulary. And one of these words, which we should therefore immediately adapt in any of the still living languages that wants it, is the ancient Greek τύχη. So, let us play some semantics, without annoying others for a change!4
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What Is Bildung?
When I was involved with teaching in the Netherlands, the German word ‘Bildung’ tended to get thrown around a lot. And one could still play a drinking game when following the Dutch discourse on the state of higher education, for example, with an eye out for this term.1 But when I started blogging, I got many questions regarding the meaning of the name that I had chosen for the webpage that hosts my blogs: Bildungblocks. And then I realized that most people, luckily for them, have only ever enjoyed education and never had to be interested in the theoretical underpinnings or the adjacent vocabulary. Well, that ends today!
What We Lose When We Die
During our exploration of one of the saddest texts from ancient Mesopotamia, the Assyrian Elegy, we noticed that people in Mesopotamia might have good reasons to fear death. Because their ideas about the Netherworld that awaited them were mostly bleak. In our current era we may encounter many religions that offer the possibility of a happier afterlife, and there are also a lot of persons who do not presume that there is an existence after death at all. Most of us, however, still do not look forward to dying, thank you very much.1 And the accompanying fear of death has created a lot of beautiful artworks as well as philosophical treatises. In this blog, I aim to share with you the insights from a few of the latter, which were written by Thomas Nagel and Martha Nussbaum.
How the Eastern Roman Empire Became Byzantine
Apparently the people I’m surrounded by, care more about me than I ever dared hope for. Because, at the beginning of this month I was surprised with the beautiful new book The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium by Anthony Kaldellis.1 Within its tasteful red cover one can find more than a thousand pages of the good stuff: an engagingly written, thoroughly researched and amply annotated history of the Eastern Roman Empire. And already on the first few pages Kaldellis makes a very interesting point. Despite the subtitle of that very volume, he postulates that the moniker ‘Byzantine’ is maybe not a good fit for the Eastern Roman Empire.2 And considering that by all accounts you lot cannot seem to stop thinking about the Roman Empire, I want to take the time today to explain how the Eastern Roman Empire became Byzantine.3
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How the Cuneiform Sign ĜEŠTUG Became the Logo for Bildungblocks
It is seldom riveting when people talk about themselves for an extended period of time. And perhaps the same holds true for blogs. I therefore aim to restrict housekeeping on Bildungblocks to an absolute minimum. But one aspect of this site deserves elaboration, I think, and it also gives me the opportunity to talk about the cuneiform script that was used in the ancient Near East. And if you have been reading for a while, you have probably noticed that I never pass up an opportunity to talk about cuneiform! So, without further ado, here are the rhymes as well as the reasons why the cuneiform sign ĜEŠTUG (𒉿) became the logo for this webpage.
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