James

History and classics undergrad who loves studying the ancient world, especially Greece and the Near East.

[Athanasius @Athanasius_45]

Little Theon writes a letter to his father and makes quite a few mistakes. 2nd to 3rd century AD. (Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 119, Leonard Palmer - The Greek Language, p. 193).

[Grégory Osmont @Ancient_Scripts]

Répertoire des signes du linéaire A

https://t.co/0HIm6yO8ht

#lineaireA #linearA #minoen #minoan

[Flint Dibble 🍖🏺 @FlintDibble]

What a stupid claim. None of us think we are close to a full picture

However some hypotheses can be falsified. And a global civilization with advanced technology from the ice age is one such false claim

[Athanasius @Athanasius_45]

An epigram for the Corinthian sailors who fell at the battle of Salamis:

Ἀκμᾶς ἑστακυῖαν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ Ἑλλάδα πᾶσαν
ταῖς αὑτῶν ψυχαῖς κείμεθα ῥυσάμενοι.
-
As allHellas stood on a razor’s edge,
we saved her by laying down our lives.
Greek Anthology 7.250

[Gudea, Ensi of Lagash @ensi_gudea]

Reject walkable cities. Return to climbable Catalhoyuk architecture.

[Dr. Peter J Brand @PeterBrandEgypt]

@TheProjectUnity Why? Because those are modern cement or limestone blocks with mortar installed by the antiquities service to prevent the loose ancient blocks above from falling. Even 4500 year old Egyptian biult (not 15,000 year old, alien built) decay! 😃😅🤣😂. Mr Anderson is a true Anomaly

[Gudea, Ensi of Lagash @ensi_gudea]

The SKL also says “Who was King? Who was not King?” During this period, every single person was actually a monarch.

[Derek | The Hellenistic Age Podcast @HellenisticPod]

“…textbooks for ancient Near Eastern history tend to conclude their narratives with the arrival or death of Alexander the Great [323 BC], whereas textbooks for ancient Egyptian history typically continue into late antiquity [394 AD]…”

- P. Kosmin and I. Moyer (2021)

[James @ancientcivs]

@FlintDibble I need whatever that guy is on 🤣

[sententiae antiquae @sentantiq]

“They write books people read while shitting”

Scribunt carmina quae legunt cacantes #RobertBurton #Martial

[Athanasius @Athanasius_45]

Evan Hayes and Stephen Nimis authored a Greek reader with running vocabulary and grammar notes using Lucian’s Dialogues of the Gods. It’s available as a free .pdf version and in paperback.

https://t.co/clYv4vivne

[archaeobirder @GulcinGunyol]

This man clearly wants Göbeklitepe destroyed. He has no knowledge of real archaeology. He deceives his followers with his nonsense.

[Lee Clare @drleeclare]

Good morning from #Göbeklitepe
I think enough was said yesterday. So, today I’ll leave the floor to Trump’s wannabe Secretary of Archaeology @BrightInsight6 who will try to convince you why it’s a good idea just to “dig up” pillars in a foreign country.

[Anatolian Archaeology @Anatolian2023]

Around 2450 BC,a stone plaque commissioned by Enannatum,ruler of Lagash, to be dedicated to a temple.

This plaque was found during excavations at Tello (ancient Girsu).

The nail inscription on the stone plaque indicates that the person raising his hands in prayer is Enannatum.

[Justine “That Woman” Warren @adancingferret]

Taken along with the additional evidence including the workers villages, the onsite quarries, the tool production areas, the workgang marks that indicate not just their presence, but how they were organized, the associated necropolis and the fact that the papyrus discusses

[sententiae antiquae @sentantiq]

φιλόμβρος: philombros, “rain-loving”
φιλόμηρος: philomêros, “Homer-loving”
φιλομήτωρ: philomêtôr, “mother-loving”
φιλονέος: philoneos, “youth-loving” #Lovewords

[Gudea, Ensi of Lagash @ensi_gudea]

Remarkable how a ship deposited in a sealed limestone chamber by the Pyramid in ideal conditions could survive intact while working vessels made of valuable cedar for a one off project do not seem to be found in the archaeological record

[MajoraZ @Majora__Z]

1. Cortes's allies were STATES, not tribes (EX: Tlaxcala was a republic w. senate,🖼️1). Civilization had existed in the area for millennia (🖼️2)

2. Most DIDNT hate the Aztec, who yes, were conquerors, but ruled loosely, enabling opportunistic side-switching. THATS why Cortes got (most) of those alliances: From the Aztec being overly permissive and leaving subjects with their own agenda, not that they were (particularly) oppressive

3. Almost all of Cortes's allies were arguably "Aztecs" too, and also did sacrifices. Those allies were Nahua (like the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the specific group you meant by "Aztecs"), and even the non-Nahua civilizations in the region did sacrifices. Again, the Mexica (mostly) weren't uniquely bad/hated, just the most militaristically successful

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A somewhat longer but still summarized explanation:

Again, while the Mexica of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan were conquerors, they and other major Mesoamerican powers didn't often directly govern the places they conquered (no draft animals + the terrain made it logistically iffy): Subjects usually kept their kings, laws etc, with basic obligations like taxes (not usually of sacrificial victims: those were mostly collected in wars, not from already conquered subjects), not to block roads, etc

That meant subjects kept their own political ambitions and agency. Defecting was common, as was pledging yourself as a subject (as they got mostly left alone) or an ally to another state to take out your collective rivals or capitals, to then have higher status within that new kingdom you helped prop up

THAT is what happened with Cortes and how he got allies

The Mexica/Tenochtitlan got help overthrowing their old capital and rose to power this same way a century before Cortes. And decades after Cortes, various Zapotec, Maya etc states allied with other Conquistadors to take out their rivals too. This was just a common thing, not a unique reaction to Mexica rule in particular

Now, Tlaxcala specifically may have resented the Mexica, yes... because they were at war, Tenochtitlan was trying to conquer Tlaxcala: It wasn't a subject already inside the empire. Texcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco etc WERE inside it, and (to varying degrees) BENEFITTED from Mexica rule, due their political marriages with Mexica royalty and the taxes Mexica conquests brought into the valley

Which is why they, unlike Tlaxcala, only allied with the Conquistadors and Tlaxcala AFTER Tenochtitlan was ravaged by smallpox, multiple Mexica kings/nobles died etc. By then states had less to lose & more to gain by switching sides

Even then, most Aztec subjects didn't defect; and of those that did, some only did so after being beaten and forced to, or only specific officials/factions switched sides (EX: Ixtlilxochitl II of Texcoco and his followers defected, not his brother/the king Coanacochtzin)

Even Tlaxcala used Cortes to attack other cities to further their own political reach, not just to strike back at the Mexica: Everybody was using and manipulating each other, it wasn't as simple as states rallying against Mexica tyranny (which as I said, wasn't much of a thing), nor Cortes dastardly playing (or graciously liberating) local states against each other.

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For even more info, see:

https://t.co/myl68po2LA on how Cortes was used and manipulated by local kings & officials like Xicomecoatl, Ixtlixochtlli II, Xicotencatl II, and even Moctezuma II, as much as Cortes used them

https://t.co/Mbp39uJTFB Touches on the motives behind Moctezuma II's actions a bit and his attempt to use Cortes (I should do a more in depth version of this)

https://t.co/k25yfDzJOR and https://t.co/7ASRld4vSW are more in depth versions of the "somewhat longer" explanation in the preceding section re: Aztec being hands off and it enabling opportunistic side switching, while https://t.co/dgtahqapSf is an even MORE-more in depth version (and this also in turn links to stuff about Flower Wars, in the meantime since I need to make a tweet about to add here too)

https://t.co/TRwC0LjUJ4 and https://t.co/25CipllusB are me addressing people who were skeptical of the above info, in case you want to see me further clarify on things

https://t.co/P5puddr4qG
has more info on Aztec vs Mexica vs Tenochca vs Nahua etc as terms

https://t.co/6GDgqJjzBV
is a directory of general Mesoamerican infodumps I've done, including some of the above links, but also stuff on cities, architecture, engineering, warfare, etc

[τοῦτο βλέπω @toutovlepo]

He was like the sixth guy to try what he did and really did work perfectly within the system: patron-client networks, debt financed by imperial adventures, factional politics. Even his famous three provinces was a callback to Pompey’s Asian campaign!

As I’ve written:

[MoundLore @MoundLore]

America bulldozed its ancient cities.

Not myths.
Not tribes.
Cities.

Ceremonial centers aligned to the stars, built by engineers, astronomers, and artists flattened for parking lots, farmland, and factories.

Here are 7 sacred Indigenous sites we lost forever:🧵