Akkadian expression of the day:
Pirištu ša ilāni rabûti ("the secret of the great gods").
Pictured: the Tōkyō branch temple of Kōyasan (高野山東京別院, Kōyasan Tōkyō Betsuin), representing the Shingon school of esoteric/Vajrayāna Buddhism - the one with all the secret mudrās - secret hand gestures - and mantras). I woujld very much like to visit the main Kōyasan temple, which is, well, on Mount Kōya in Wakayama Prefecture. Maybe one day!
Now, I've spent my first two months (and a bit) in Cambridge, as a visiting fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (with the wonderful abbreviation CRASSH). On Saturday, I return to Sweden for the Christmas break. It's been two quite intense months, and I've done a lot of writing, especially on my new monograph. Some other stuff has been going on, too:
I've published a new article in Svensk exegetisk årbok, on "L's and S's in the Land of Israel" - which can be read here.
There's been a Q & A published with yours truly on the CRASSH website on the scholarship I'm doing while here in Cambridge - see here!
I've also started doing a few readings of ancient languages on Youtube -
here's one in Old Babylonian Akkadian (with Swedish introduction) from the OB Gilgamesh. With ejectives and everything!
And here's one in Classical Hebrew, with my classicized Mizrahi-style pronunciation: Isaiah 1:1-10.
And here's a bit of Ugaritic, Baal's cosmic message for Anat (translation in the description).
And here's me doing an impromptu Vedic recital (with accents and stuff) at the inauguration of the Stockholm University Indo-European Languages Center in September.
Oh, and there's some Hittite, too!
And here's a beautiful picture from Wolfson College, where I'm staying:
