Lack

February 19, 2007 at 8:51 pm (dissertation, life, linux, soas)

I haven’t written for a while now. I’ve been quite ill with an upper respiratory infection. I went to the doctors and was prescribed some anti-biotics which costs me all of £6.50 and the doctor’s was free. That’s the beauty of socialized health care. If I return to the states for any extended period this is going to be one of my chief concerns.

Today I went to a lecture on the “Theoretical framework of the Neo-Assyrian Administration” which was really interesting. These lectures at SOAS as great so many Assyriologists come that the discussions afterwards are always very enlightening.

I was reading planet gnome as I do and came across a link to this e-mail on compiz development. It all sounds very exciting in particular XCB the replacement for Xlib. It almost makes me want to get into hacking on X but that’s quite a feat, considering I barely even know rudimentary C.

My applications for various schools are all complete and I just printed out the application for SOAS scholarships. Now I just need to send them all off. I really just want to goto SOAS next year, but I figure I should apply to other places as well, plus it’d be pretty cool to get into Oxford. I’ve also had some interesting thoughts on my dissertation in particular one article I found that talks about a year name of Apil-Sin.

mu a-pil-30 ú-ga-li-bu
“The year Apil-Sin shaved”

We never seen representations of the Assyrian king without a beard, yet at times he did shave. So for what reason did he shave, the author (based on another article) seems to think it had to do with initiation. I’ve found many other references to shaving for mourning and punishment. So hopefully these can all be collated into a grand beard reference. “sadece zaman biliyor” (only time knows).

2 Comments

  1. WSM said,

    February 20, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    On kings without beards, take a look at this, which we just saw at the Morgan Library in NYC: King Ur-Nammu humiliating himself.
    http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=197

    The label for this explained that the king is playing the role of mud-carrier, the lowliest position. The sculpture is about 20″ or so high and it certainly looks like he has no beard, though it is possible he has a little tuft on his chin.
    I’m sure you can find a good picture of it in the library at SOAS.

  2. willismonroe said,

    February 20, 2007 at 8:12 pm

    Sorry I should have clarified. You never see Assyrian or Babylonian kings without beards. Sumerian kings are almost defacto beardless, which is so interesting.

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