mu-pad3-da

holiday . . .

2009-12-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

We are not telling our daughter about Santa.
Why?
Because when it comes out we were untruthful about that, how will she ever believe what I tell her about Gilgamesh?

reading . . .

2009-09-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

Out of curiosity, approximately how many pages of secondary literature does everyone read on a weekly basis? How does that compare with the amount of primary literature you read?

I'm merely curious to see how everyone balances their "work" time between classes/teaching, administrative tasks, and research.

lectures . . .

2009-09-28T14:14:00.001-07:00

Several notable lectures upcoming here at Berkeley. Two this week.

Monday, 28 Sept, 4:00-5:00p
"The Emerging Story of Babylonian Astronomy"
John P. Britton
John P. Britton's (Ph.D., Yale) "The Emerging Story of Babylonian Astronomy" will emphasize recent discoveries illuminating the main elements in the emergence of scientific astronomy in Babylon. Newly discovered texts will be used to extend our narrative of the history of Babylonian astronomy, linking earlier to later developments. He will also address some questions about the place of Babylonian astronomy in the society of ancient Mesopotamia, to which more traditional Assyriological investigations might contribute.

Wednesday, 30 Sept, 4:00-6:00p
"The Army of the Kings of Ur"
Bertrand Lafont
Bertrand Lafont (CNRS, Paris) will discuss his recent research in Sumerian armies and soldiers. Kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100-2000 BCE) led their armies to the North and to the East. They conquered numerous cities and brought back booty. Yet, the tens of thousands of administrative texts from the period have revealed suprisingly little about the organization and management of the army. Dr. Lafont recently published his study "The Army of the Kings of Ur: The Textual Evidence" in CDLJ 2009/5.

In October:
Matt Stolper (Chicago) will give a presentation on the Persepolis Fortress archives after the event at Stanford
Eleanor Robson (Cambridge) will be presenting a lecture on Babylonian maths

In November:
Amelie Kuhrt (UCL) will be giving the annual Pritchett lecture

I'll likely post further information on these talks as they approach.

conjugations . . .

2009-09-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, my Greek professor showed us this clip from Monty Python's The Life of Brian (which is, by the way, the best satire on Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period) and threatened to introduce these pedagogical methods in his class . . . I've often considered the merits of this approach . . . I guarantee that no student will ever forget the language you're teaching . . .

Setting the scene, Brian (a character constantly mistaken as a messianic figure throughout the film) has joined one the many Jewish splinter groups. As an act of initiation, he must commit an act of vandalism . . .

memory/identity . . .

2009-09-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

The Berkeley Near Eastern Studies department's Memory and Identity working group had the first meeting of the semester this past Wednesday, so I thought I'd give the group a plug out in the "wider world" (or at least as wide as my few readers).

This year's theme is "social imaginaries" . . . and the group has been expanded to survey the concept in both the ancient and modern near east (last year, the group's first year, covered only the ancient). This means that the speakers and the group interactions are rather diverse with topics ranging from ancient historiography, art history, archaeology, texts, film, and modern literature.

We've got a good slate of speakers from various disciplines meeting on (essentially) an every-other-week schedule, so if you ever have reason to be in the Bay Area during one of these sessions, stop in and join the conversation. More information at the Memory and Identity working group's website: berkeleymemoryid.com.

austin . . .

2009-08-24T16:25:00.001-07:00

As everyone knows, a few weeks ago on the Agade list came the surprising announcement of a relocation for Hackett and Huehnergard. I've personally been hesitant to think it permanent (that is, not a visiting arrangement) if only for the incredulity of such a dual appointment . . . especially during these economic times and at UT-Austin (a state school!) which has not had a great tradition for ancient Semitics (also, Austin recently hired Huehnergard's student Naama Pat-el as an Assistant Professor teaching comparative Semitics, so hiring Huehnergard seemed like overkill). Furthermore, neither UT-Austin nor Harvard had made any official announcement.

However the UT Middle Eastern Studies department website (which has gotten quite a makeover) included a link to an article about UT's hiring of female faculty including . . . Jo Ann Hackett. The duo has also been added to the MES faculty on the website. So it appears to be very much official . . . and I'm still a bit in shell-shock.

Here are the relevent paragraphs on Hackett:

Among the incoming faculty members are Jo Ann Hackett, former director of graduate studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard, and her husband John Huehnergard, a former chair of that department.

"Everybody knows about the University of Texas and the quality of the languages and linguistics programs and we've always known this was a marvelous place," said Hackett, a Semitic language and Hebrew Bible scholar who will teach in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies. "We were in Austin for two days visiting and we left and we said, 'we've got to do this.'"

epiphany . . .

2009-08-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

You know those times when you're reading a text and all of a sudden an idea just pops out at you? I had one of those today.

I was going through several forms of a Sumerian verb looking for morpho-syntactic patterns while thinking about my project for my syntax class when something related to the syntactic theory I'm operating under but not at all what I was looking for jumped up and hit me. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic . . . it was more like it tapped me on the shoulder . . . over and over again . . . and then a few minutes later whacked me upside the head (I never had younger siblings, but I imagine this experience would be similar) . . . one of those grammatical Oh! Ohhhhhhhh!!!! (literally . . . I said that out loud . . . ) moments.

If I'm right about this, it could answer some nagging questions I've had about Sumerian syntax. Even better, it relates to my long-term projects (assuming I continue to work via this syntactic theory).

Sorry, I'm speaking in vagaries, but I need to check other texts and review the theory . . . but I definitely think I've stumbled upon something. Of course, it's probably something that Sumerologists wouldn't care about . . . come to think of it, I don't know if linguists would care about it much either (although it does have some typological implications) . . . huh . . . well, at least I care about it . . .

survey . . .

2009-08-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

I've got to write a (very) short paper on an issue of language contact. Obviously, I'm going to do something with the ANE. I've got two options:

Something in the realm of Sumerian-Akkadian (probably something related to the possibility of the Sumerian terminative še₃ in the Akkadian -ši in a lot of dative forms/-iš locative/dative morpheme (see Pedersen in fs. Sjöberg)
Word order of Amarna Akkadian (canonical Akkadian is SOV; canonical Amarna is VOS)

Thoughts?

hazards . . .

2009-08-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

I'm going to steal a line (or at least paraphrase) from one of my summer linguistics professors (Van Valin):

One of the job hazards of studying syntax is that you lose all sense of natural grammar. Too many "ungrammatical" constructions start to sound just fine . . .

I find this all the time. Often when I read an example in lx works marked by * (for ungrammatical), I sit there for a bit thinking that sounds perfectly fine until I eventually realize it doesn't.

Yesterday for example, I came across this sentence in a text:

*Into the room walked John_i and __i spoke to Pat immediately.

It took me about three minutes to convince myself that it really didn't sound right and wasn't good English . . .

pretty . . .

2009-08-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

From the SBL Program:

Assyriology and the Bible
11/21/2009
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Theme: Round City Roundtable: The Kuttamuwa Stela in Perspective
The Zenjirli funerary monument is one of the most exciting recent archaeological finds because, in addition to being serious eye candy, the inscription raises questions about cultural interfaces with potential implications for the history of religions. In this roundtable, five panelists will present their perspectives on this stela before opening the floor for general discussion with full audience participation.

I may be strange, but I find it amusing that the term "eye candy" was used in the description of an academic panel . . .

bummer . . .

2009-07-28T11:23:00.001-07:00

I had planned on enrolling in a seminar on Discourse Analysis this fall, but just discovered that the seminar will focus on political discourse analysis. While an interesting topic and potentially useful for my studies of discourse in general, I've opted not to take it (though I may still be persuaded to audit). Personally, I don't find politics in general too interesting and political rhetoric (though fascinating in many regards) just doesn't fit well enough with my interests to entice me to take a course on it . . .

loss . . .

2009-07-23T11:15:00.001-07:00

The saddest news from London is that after a brave struggle against a long illness, Raymond Westbrook died early this morning, peacefully and not in pain. He is Professor in Near Eastern Studies at The Johns Hopkins University and leaves us a rich volume of work on Near Eastern and Biblical legal traditions. He was much too young.

(via: agade)

onion . . .

2009-07-22T22:05:00.001-07:00

I get my news from two sources: the Daily Show and the Onion. Sadly, the Onion has been sold to the Chinese . . .

god . . .

2009-07-20T18:23:00.001-07:00

A couple weekends ago, we were back in Wisconsin for a friend's wedding. One of things we did was go to the church I grew up in. It was strange . . . not least because I haven't been in a church since the last time I was at that church over a year ago (we think maybe last March?).

The fact that I no longer attend a church has apparently sent many people who knew me growing up into a bit of a tizzy, as though this must portend terrible things . . . or, even better, exhibit the dangers of education.

One of my major issues with many Christian churches is the way in which the people who attend these churches understand God. Quite frankly, I would almost say that they don't know the same God that I do. That makes matters of faith and faith community very interesting.

I try very hard to keep matters of personal religion and theology in general out of this blog (if only because one's religion should have no bearing on others' perceptions of his/her scholarship). However, John Anderson's recent post deserves mentioning (and, for the most part, commending), so I didn't feel right simply pointing in his direction without first addressing my own similar frustrations with common (mis)perceptions of God.

Let me be clear: I believe in God. I align myself with the Christian faith tradition. I consider myself wholly orthodox. I just don't think the God I grew up with is the same God I see when I actually started reading the Bible (especially when I started reading the laments for what they were and stopped trying to make excuses based on preconceived theological categories) . . . that's my point.

panic . . .

2009-07-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

There is a glaring difference between a good teacher and a not-so-good teacher . . . and I am unfortunately in a desperate situation regarding the latter.

I am now through two weeks of a three week course . . . and I have no idea what the course is about, because I don't comprehend the theory that is the bloody title of the course! So I ask, how is one supposed to write a paper (in less than a week) utilizing a theory that one does not understand? I'm about to find out . . .

And in case anyone's wondering whether it's just my own stupidity, I asked my wife to read the introductory chapter of this professor's book on this theory with the hope that she could then explain it to me . . . my wife (who is monumentally smarter than I, especially when it comes to things of a more psychological, philosophical nature) also could not understand the concept. In addition, I am rather familiar with the glazed-over expression on some of the other students' faces . . .

cibh . . .

2009-07-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I posted on Brian Webster's Cambridge Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. After seemingly endless delays, it has finally been published (received my copy a few days ago). Rob Kashow provides a nice review of the grammar from the perspective of a student who has actually used it.

And as a bit of comment on Rob's post, perhaps negative thought on the complex learning of syllable structure in only the second chapter had more to do with Rob's own experience with it and the failure of his teacher to properly communicate it (and trust me when I say that said teacher cannot possibly be offended at that comment) . . . on the other hand, maybe Rob was being completely objective on the point . . .

UPDATE: Daniel and Tonya did an interview with Brian over at their blog and allow him to explain his approach in his own words. It's definitely worth checking out. Be sure to follow their links to several other reviews of the grammar/TekScroll . . .

influenced . . .

2009-07-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Jim Spinti has tagged me to list the 5 primary sources most influential on my scholarship meme (started by Kevin Scull). The meme has the following caveats:

1.) List the 5 primary sources that have most affected your scholarship, thoughts about antiquity, and/or understanding of the NT/OT.

2.) Books from the Bible are off limits unless you really want to list one, I certainly will not chastise you for it.

3.) Finally, choose individual works if you can. This will be more interesting than listing the entire corpus of Cicero as one of your choices.

I'd honestly have a very difficult time listing "individual works" rather than corpi . . . for the most part, I work with large bodies of texts . . . I can't very well list, say, YBC 09862 . . . that's just one small piece of a larger collection . . . but if I can, I certainly will.

The corpus of lamentations out of CLAM (Canonical Lamentations of Ancient Mesopotamia . . . a collection of balaĝ laments), Sumerian Hymnology: The Eršemma, and the 5 primary City Laments (Ur, Sumer and Ur, Uruk, Eridu, Nippur). This was my first extended foray into Sumerian literature and what cemented my desire to work in Assyriology.
The collection of Inana-Dumuzi songs in Love Songs in Sumerian Literature. This was actually my first major attempt at reading Sumerian literature for a research purpose. I was doing an analysis of a particular metaphor (love like alcoholic drink) in ANE love songs and was most engrossed with these songs of the shepherd and the woman/goddess he woos (of course, I got even more of the Inana-Dumuzi story once I started reading the eršemmas).
Schooldays . . . I first read this in Sam Kramer's History Begins at Sumer . . . I think it's one of the very first texts he discusses. I realize that book is woefully outdated and written for a broader audience, but when I read it, I was that broader audience . . . I was a student of the Hebrew Bible trying to dip into the wider cultural milleau . . . reading Kramer's book made me want to learn more about Sumer and Mesopotamia in general. This text was the hook that I remember. Even more, it gave me a nice glimpse into scribal education (or at least one view on it) . . . an interest which has yet to leave me.
The Tetrad . . . of the works on this list, this is the one I've worked on the latest. The Tetrad--Lipit-Ishtar B, Iddin-Dagan B, Enlil-Bani A, Nisaba A--was a scribe's first exposure to literary texts (following the phase of elementary education including lexical lists, sign lists, proverbs, and model contracts). These four hymns have a wonderful myriad of grammatical forms and constructions utilized in educating Akkadian-speaking scribes in Sumerian grammar . . . they're pretty useful for English(and other modern languages)-speaking students as well.
The corpus of legal texts from Hellenistic Uruk (found on HBTIN) . . . I'll admit it's strange that I would count this on this list (after all, I thought that Mesopotamian history stops at 330 BCE . . . [at least according to most major history books]). However, prior to my exposure to these texts, my research was almost exclusively linguistic and literary in nature . . . never really historical. Moreover, I've always loathed reading legal texts (for reasons related to my noted research interests). But being a part of this project has made me appreciate the value of administrative texts for historical reconstruction as well as the use and craftsmanship of seals. Furthermore, it's working on these texts that's shown me the value of computational linguistics on a particular corpus. Yes, it's still somewhat painful to read about prebend sales or quitclaims, but now that I actually perceive value . . .

There are several others that I really wanted to put on this list, so these quick notes are bonuses: Ba'al Cycle (you mean Yahweh isn't the only god who does this stuff?), Laws of Hammurapi (where I cut my Akkadian teeth), Enuma Elish (where I sharpened my Akkadian teeth and converted to Mardukism . . . ), ŠÀ.ZI.GA incantations (how can you not like ancient Viagra?), OB Izbu (divination isn't all about the inner eye and reading tea leaves . . . after reading Izbu, I actually found I loved omens), Amarna letters (cheers for West Semitic Akkadian!), Nanše and the Birds (er . . . actually listing this would just be for sucking up . . . I've never actually read the whole text), Psalms and Lamentations (my two favorite biblical books for many many reasons), Ammon Citadel inscription (I'm not sure why, but I really enjoyed this text), Curse of Agade (there's nothing like finding someone to blame for a fall from power), 1Q Pesher Hab, 1QM (War Scroll), and I've never read a letter from any ANE culture or period I didn't like (er . . . nevermind . . . some of the OB letters in UCP 9 are a major pain . . . but only because they're a mess . . . for the most part they're fascinating).

And to prove I don't only read stuff from the ANE, First Enoch (the first non-canonical [depending on one's tradition, I suppose] biblical text I ever read . . . and a thrillride to boot), Judith, The Illiad, Thucydides, The Aeneid, Augustine's Confessions and City of God, Martyrdom of Ignatius, Against Heresies, Caesar's Gallic Wars, and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations

dccmt . . .

2009-07-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

I didn't mention it in my previous post on maths (I was waiting for it to appear on the CDL portal), but the Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Mathematical Texts is now open for viewing. Beyond the texts themselves, Robson has a nice summary of Metrology (including charts) . . . this may mean I don't have to carry a copy of Powell's "Masse und Gewichte" RlA article or Huehnergard's summary with me anymore . . .

poetic . . .

2009-06-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything on Hebrew, but I thought I'd return to the subject in order to discuss an issue I've been thinking about lately regarding the syntax of Hebrew poetry (as opposed to narrative).

Now to begin, this entire question is built upon the acceptance of the theory that biblical Hebrew poetry and direct speech are syntactically comparable as opposed to narrative. Most obviously, word order in narrative is typically VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) whereas in speech and poetry it is typically SVO.

A second assumption driving this question is that VSO is the unmarked word order for Hebrew. All Semitic languages other than Akkadian and Amharic appear to be VSO languages. Akkadian and Amharic are SOV languages due to the interference of other languages (Sumerian and Cushitic languages respectively).

My question then is what drives this similarity? Typologically, poetic language is a high literary language with its own unique characteristics and grammatical rules including variation in syntax, rhythm, and vocabulary. Speech, of course, is normally highly informal, often "breaking" "formal" grammatical "rules." Thus, in most languages, poetic language is heavily differentiated from speech.

Why then is the most informal of discourses very similar to a highly formal discourse in biblical Hebrew? As near as I can tell (which is difficult given the nature of the evidence), this similarity is unique to Hebrew among the Semitic languages.

I've already discussed this at length with a friend of mine who does a lot of work in Hebrew poetry and linguistics, and she's given me her working idea. I also know that this issue has been discussed in a very few places (though I can't say I've actually read them all). However, I'd like to put this out there for broader discussion to hear your thoughts on the issue.

Also, be sure to read Peter Bekins's ongoing series of posts on the verb in BH poetry as a review of Alviero Niccacci's work on the BH verb.

maths . . .

2009-06-24T10:48:00.001-07:00

For some reason, I've never liked maths. Never. In fact, the last time I had a course in maths was my junior year of high school. I refreshed myself for the GRE, but did so very unwillingly. Most of the time I feel that I would rather have my wisdom teeth pulled again than do maths. One of the reasons I'm in the humanities is because I can't do equations and algorithms or what not . . . and most importantly, it's not required that I do any sort of math . . .

Yet, my research future has apparently decided that it is imperative that I pick up a bit of advanced math in order to do statistics and a bit of computer science and programming (for linguistics research, corpus linguistics, natural language processing, etc.) . . . my high school teacher is probably giggling evilly (how one can giggle evilly, I'm not too sure . . . ).
EDIT: Check out Duane's post on the importance of statistics in everyday life. Please also note my comment there . . . I suppose it's not clear here that I think maths are important . . . it's merely an area that I've chosen to avoid till now to save myself the migraines of a discipline I, frankly, don't understand and often don't like.

Of course, complicated equations and algorithms are nothing new. Mathematical tablets look about as foreign to a cuneiformist as calculus does to the average English reader. So, again, math comes back into my research as a part of the advanced scribal curriculum.

If maths are your thing, check out Eleanor Robson's (one of the if not the foremost scholar on Mesopotamian mathematics) faculty page where she has several articles available for download.

bilinguals . . .

2009-06-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

I've come across an interesting thought regarding specializations and the unfolding of modern education in certain fields. It occurs to me that there are certain areas of the ancient humanities in which given two related subfields of a discipline, one requires more language work than another.

Allow me to elaborate. Assyriology is often divided into two different areas of expertise: Sumerologists and Akkadologists (or rather, those who work more with one of these two languages than another). What occurs to me, however, is that those who focus more on Sumerian are required to be just as competent in Akkadian, but those who focus more on Akkadian need not have much competence in Sumerian. Those whose work on Akkadian texts typically need only take a year or two of Sumerian (if that) whereas those who work on Sumerian texts must have several years of Akkadian, often more than Sumerian. For example, Chris Woods, Assoc. Professor of Sumerology at Chicago talks about how until recently he was more comfortable in Akkadian than Sumerian. (In my own case, my Akkadian and Sumerian . . . and also my Hebrew . . . are equally bad).

This same process typically holds true for biblicists who specialize in Hebrew Bible (especially, but not exclusively, in the Christian tradition): typically, these scholars have just as much, if not more training in Greek than in Hebrew. Aramaicists often have more training in Hebrew than Aramaic (despite Aramaic having a much larger corpus). On a sidenote (and if you know better, please correct me if I'm wrong), this does not seem to hold true for Classical studies--a Classicist is knowledgeable of Latin or Greek regardless of her own specialization and one does not necessarily supercede the other.

Now this is not to say that Sumerologists are better or even more specialized than Akkadologists or Hebrew biblicists than New Testamentologists (I realize I'm making up terms now . . .) or Aramaicists than Hebraists. Obviously, the latters in these lists receive more extensive training in their own languages and areas. However, it is true that the formers more often comment on the latters' works than vice versa. I just find it an interesting commentary on our modern approaches to these disciplines of ancient humanities that one subfield essentially requires a more general character than its sister subfield. Obviously in each of these cases there is good reason for the multiplication of work: for Sumerologists, much of our understanding of Sumerian is due to Akkadian; for Hebrew biblicists, Greek is essential for studying the LXX; for Aramaicists, the Hebrew Bible is often the venue through which one embarks on Aramaic studies.

Once again, this is not to say that those who must learn multiple languages are better scholars or anything of that nature. This is merely an observation brought out for thought and perhaps discussion.

midway . . .

2009-05-27T11:36:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting in the terminal at Midway airport in Chicago on my way to Philadelphia. As promised, since I'm in the neighborhood, shout out to my peeps at U of C.

woes . . .

2009-05-25T20:23:00.001-07:00

It seems that now is the time when the grad students are bemoaning the task of deciding upon a dissertation topic. Doug and Pete (and I think someone else as well, but who that was escapes me) have weighed in, so I thought I lend my voice to the matter. Yes, I realize that unlike these two, I'm at least two years away from having to decide, but I'm too much of long-range planner to wait that long . . .

Doug's major conundrum is that there's really nothing new to do in biblical studies . . . to be frank, that was one of the reasons I moved away from biblical stuff to Assyriology, Sumerian in particular. I've often missed the whole "fixed corpus" aspect of studying HB, but the big drawback is that modern academia has had a couple hundred years to pore over that relatively small data set. Assyriology, by way of contrast, is a much younger field, with far more texts, geography, history, etc. That means that, in theory, there's a lot more to do. Of course, since biblical studies is replete with secondary literature there is much to draw on (of course, that makes the bibliography review more difficult) . . . in Assyriology, depending on the topic, there might be very little previous research even in the general vicinity.

Pete's big gripe seems to be deciding upon something chic and sexy that will keep his interest for that long and tedious haul . . . or at least something that "would give me a niche and propel my research for the next decade or so." I think every graduate student hopes for that riveting topic that captivates both themselves and the entire field . . . the dissertation that scholars immediately demand be published and launches the student into a tenure-track position at a research institution.

I'm personally caught between wanting to do a topic that I personally would find interesting or at least novel or doing a topic that the field really needs. My advisor has suggested two topics to me, both of which are glaring holes in the field. One is strictly grammatical that would, frankly, be very tedious. The other deals with a set of texts that even my advisor (yes, the guy who does lexical texts) thinks they're really boring.

I think the thing about the dissertation is that (hopefully) it's not the end of your academic career . . . it's the beginning. In my case, if I can be a leading authority on even one of these minor points, no matter how "boring," that everyone would reference, then that may well be more important for my career than doing an extremely interesting (to me) linguistic topic that most Assyriologists would hate to read. Hopefully, doing the "more necessary" topic would allow me to have a long career during which I could do those linguistic studies.

For instance, Fumi Karahashi's dissertation "Sumerian Compound Verbs with Body-Part Terms" is essentially a catalog of these types of verbs, the texts and contexts in which they occur and the semantic range of these verbs . . . not at all a stimulating topic. However, it went a long way in helping us understand compound verbs and how their elements contribute to the semantics of the verb. I think every work since references her work. Since then, her work is highly linguistic in nature . . .

So . . . I've got about two years to decide which route will be better . . .

finally . . .

2009-05-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

And now for my first month in the month of May . . . wow . . .

Why have I been out? In a phrase--finals week . . . er . . . weeks. For some reason or another I completely underestimated the closing weeks of this semester and found myself with quite a lot to do and not as much time as I would have liked . . . but then again, I suppose that characterizes everybody's end-of-term situations . . . or even week-to-week situations.

Late last month, I realized that I had misread a crucial clause in the academic catalog. I had been taking a linguistics course this semester as Pass-Fail. For some reason or another, I missed the clause that read essentially: "graduate students must attain a grade equivalent to a B- in order to pass." Let's just say that with a week or so left in the semester, I had not done B- work (that's the point of doing a course P/F, yeah? So one doesn't have to put in as much work as normal?) So I had one homework assignment and the final to turn it around . . . luckily I also had the benefit of the wonderful Curve.

On 11 May, I had my major project due for Akkadian on -ma and u in OB šumma clauses . . . I had been working on this since February or March, so it wasn't as if I wasn't prepared for writing. At any rate, come the weekend prior to the due date, I was around 97% finished with my research and analysis and chasing down a few last minute leads (which all turned into dead ends). I started writing Friday . . . on Sunday afternoon, I was thoroughly dissatisfied with my approach and scrapped it. The result: my first full all-nighter (which made the next day a bit of a wreck including the presentation of my research, a meeting, and the rest of my research day) and a paper that I think may have been my worst since high school . . . the worst part was that I failed in my initial goals and came away saying that the OB grammarians pretty well have the right of it.

Two days later, I had to write my Sumerian final and my German exam (for reading proficiency). Sumerian wasn't too bad, though I wasn't real satisfied with my performance there. However, I was thoroughly embarrassed by German. For some reason or another when I sat down to do that thing, everything I knew about German was gone (apparently supplanted by cuneiform . . . ). I've been reading scholarly German for about a year now without much of a hitch (or at least, I think so . . . maybe if someone knew how I was translating articles . . . ), but I'm pretty sure my committee thinks I'd never seen a German clause before . . .

I then had the aforementioned linguistics final . . . at 8AM on a Saturday morning!!! What the Sheol is that about??? Apart from that ungodly schedule, the actual writing of the exam wasn't bad at all.

Then I had to finish around 40 lines for my omen texts final due either Monday or Tuesday . . . I can't remember which.

I next had to finish up some data input for the prosopography project before we meet next week in Philly.

Oh, and I had my jury service today. When I called last night, I was put off to the afternoon group, so I still didn't know if I would have to serve. Thankfully when I called this morning, I'd been dismissed with obligation fulfilled.

So I'm finally caught up with everything just in time to start my summer projects. Thanks for letting me gripe for a bit. In the coming weeks, I'll (try to) talk about my summer plans, my tablet time at Penn/trip to NYC (visiting a good friend and his family), a couple reviews, perhaps a preview of my fall semester, and general normalcy for this blog.

five . . .

2009-04-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

Question: How many Assyriologists does it take to change a light bulb?

It's sad, but true. And it takes them an hour or so to do it . . .