Quo vadis?

studyblr/historyblr | History Student | Military History and Naval History Enthusiast | Ancient History Lover | Book hoarder |

[bearbeerian-blog]

I made a new blog

You can follow me at @sivis-pacem since I'll stop using this blog (@bearbeerian). The avatar is the same.

@sivis-pacem it's an history sideblog, mainly Roman, Greek and ancient cultures, classics, art and archaeology, regarding both mundane and religious topics. Technically it's a studyblr/historyblr, but it's more of an archive than a place to share study tips.

[bearbeerian-blog]

I will probably abandon this blog. I have another main blog (that I use a lot more than this one) and since I'm following the same blogs both here and there, I'll probably make an histoyblr/studyblr side blog and delete this one. Or delete the content and leave it here, just in case.

If you're interested and want to keep seeing the Roman shitposting in your dashboard, I'll notify you as soon as I'll make the sideblog.

[thisforestsolitude]

“In particular I studied History, which adds flavour to moral instruction by imparting a pleasurable knowledge of past events, spurring the reader by the accumulation of examples to follow the good and shun the bad.”

— William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (via that-history-student)

[signorformica]

Fragments of a polychrome painted ceramic bust belonging to the cult of Demeter and Kore (in Greek mythology, also called Persephone). Museo archeologico regionale Paolo Orsi . Syracuse, Sicily ~ 4th century BC. Bibliothèque Infernale on FB

[verylostpenguin]

I love studying ancient history because you think of the ancient Greeks and Romans as really intellectual and sophisticated people and then you actually learn about them and realise that they’re actually all morons just like us

[bearbeerian-blog]

Blog reworking

So, a few things.

When I made this blog I wanted to use it as an "info dump" for my language studies. I used to reblog vocab lists, material, general stuff about Finnish and Russian, maybe some Spanish, because I genuinely thought i would've been able to study those languages by myself.

But life's a bitch and I realised that no, I cannot study languages because of my innate laziness and study schedule. I have no time to do it and honestly I prefer to read a book about maps and state borders rather than conjugation and stuff. I tried for months to study those languages, and I failed because I'm not that kind of person, and it's ok. (It doesn't matter that I have to learn French and Latin for academic reasons, because when I'll do it I'll cry blood and curse my ancestors, but I still have some time).

So I thought to use this blog for my main interest: Roman history and ancient history in general. Since I'm planning to specialise in this area and I still think this hellsite can be used to find curious topics to study, I'll use this space to find and share (possibly) papers, paintings and photos about ancient history (mainly Roman, Greek, Etruscan and related to the Roman provinces).

This blog is still studyblr/historyblr related.

I know a lot of people who uses to follow me here where interested in the language posting. It's ok if you'll unfollow, I would do the same.

Thanks for reading.

[via-appia]

Roman theater at Bosra, Syria - one of the largest Roman theaters and the best preserved in the Middle East

Roman, Syria, 2nd century

[via-appia]

The theater has sustained some damage during the war in Syria.

[sisterofiris]

All roads led to... Sumer?

That debunk post I wrote about the “secret Greek matriarchy” is still going around, and yesterday it was reblogged with an interesting comment. I’m creating a new post for it, because the comment was added by an actual, literal fascist (as in, far-right Italian person who supports Mussolini) and I don’t particularly feel like debating with an actual fascist, but their point nevertheless deserves mention.

They wrote:

I would rethink that part about us owing as much to the Sumerians as we do to Rome. Our alphabet - Rome. 70% of English vocabulary - Rome. Our law codes - Rome. The arch - Rome. Concrete - Rome. Paved roads - Rome. I could go on and on and on. The legacy of Rome still lives on in every aspect of life, because they united most of Europe, north Africa and the Middle East for centuries.

Fascist ideology aside, this is all true. Europe, and by extension many countries with a European colonial past, owe many elements of their society to Rome. This was the accepted theory for hundreds of years: Ancient Greece and Rome are the roots of Western society, and Europe was built on their foundation. Since the discovery of Mesopotamia and the decipherment of cuneiform, however, we have come to realise that our roots go far deeper than the 5th century BC.

We use the Latin alphabet. But the Romans did not invent the alphabet: it dates back to 13th century BC Ugarit. And Ugarit itself did not invent writing: that was the brainchild of the Sumerians, around the 32nd century BC. We may not think about it much, but as we use our Latin characters, we’re partaking in a 5000-year-old Sumerian tradition.

Many of our legal concepts are Roman. But the Romans did not come up with law itself: again, it was a Sumerian invention. The first legal codes were Sumerian, as were the first courts and prisons. Our laws may seem very different from Ur-Namma’s, but it’s thanks to him and to other Sumerian kings that we came up with the idea of law at all.

Law and writing are both important if you want to have a functioning city. Unsurprisingly, the first cities were built in Mesopotamia as well. Along with them came agriculture, large-scale irrigation (the word “canal” is thought to derive from Sumerian), trade and roads (the Sumerian ones may not have been paved, but by 2000 BC, the Minoan ones were), elaborate architecture, literature, astronomy, and much more. The Sumerians were also the first people to claim authorship for what they did: I, Gudea, built this. I, Enḫeduanna, wrote this. I, Ur-Iškur, bought this.

This is why they, and Mesopotamia in general, matter to us. We owe to them the very foundations of our society - and we don’t even realise it, because of how fundamental those foundations are. By focusing too much on the design of the room, we’ve forgotten who built the walls. (It was the Mesopotamians. They invented bricks too.) Of course we owe a lot to Rome. Of course we owe a lot to Greece. But we were given just as much, if not even more, by the Sumerians.

[romegreeceart]

Rome: 2nd-century mosaics unearthed during the construction works of Metro Line C (2016, Click the source link if you want to see more photos)

[bearbeerian-blog]

Hiatus update ~ end(?)

I might have returned. I won't be present 24/7, I login sporadically (I still think spending time on social media is a waste of time and life) but I'm back on this hellsite.

I became quite a hermit. I like this situation.

I'll change a few things on this blog, maybe I'll write something. Stuff happened while I was living my goddamn life and I need to rework my virtual space too.

I'm bitter as Sulla now that I managed to get out of the flaming mess I was in. I almost completely rewired my brain, I have goals and I'm fine, kinda. Well, I'm better than before, that's what matters to me.

I hope you did well while I was away.

[bearbeerian-blog]

I may or may not be on hiatus for some time. I’ll queue something, but I don’t know if I’ll do it or post/reblog something sporadically.

It may be that time of the year when I disappear from the internet because I’m too tired to be here.

If you want to stay in contact, message me and I’ll give you my Telegram username (I don’t have Twitter and I don’t give my FB if I don’t know you well, there’s personal stuff on that social). I’m not good with chatting, I often disappear or I don’t answer for hours or days because I study and I’m an introvert, but still. If you want, I’m here.

[bearbeerian-blog]

Hiatus never really ended. I want to try to work on a project here on Tumblr and I need to start again with another blog. I want to focus on that for a while.

Remember to drink water.

See you.

[thiswaitingheart]

Ways in which a university is like the Royal Navy

captains / professors come in these shapes: 

1. good at command / delegating, values their colleagues & knows exactly what is going on nine times out of ten (rare but valued)

2. reasonably good at their job but not so good with people (occasionally seasoned with ‘authority through hierarchy’) 

3. has no fucking clue what’s going on at any given time 

4. lost somewhere on the open sea (of research)

5. 90% ego 

much of the weight is pulled by lieutenants and midshipmen, commonly known as postdocs and PhD students 

any department / ship is lost without a competent master / secretary

let’s just say some of the seamen / students are definitely more able than others 

no one knows what the fuck the Admiralty / administration is doing 

mostly kept afloat by tradition and emergency carpentry 

produces a variety of health and safety issues on the regular 

much science is produced by accident 

half-pay is a curse

nothing works if the food is (too) bad

never enough space for anything / anyone

correspondence is always delayed

politicians have very different ideas about the purpose of this institution than the people belonging to it

[bearbeerian-blog]

Why now Tumblr theme on mobile is blue with bright light colours fuck my eyes hurts and Idk if it's possible to change this horror someone send help

[bearbeerian-blog]

I have an exam tomorrow and I really hope me and the professor will discuss about: Why I haven't attended class in the last two weeks, my back pain and my plan for a sociological research about introvert nerds that play D&D.

[interlingva]

if you’re learning spanish russian french or german and don’t like using memrise or duolingo definitely try lingvist cause it’s free and they have an app and a website. it definitely focuses on vocab (in context) but relevant grammar notes pop up regularly and there’s a whole grammar section you can read through if you’re a complete beginner

[bearbeerian-blog]

Me: I can't understand why everyone is so obsessed with Japanese. There are plenty of interesting languages, why everyone is so hyped for it. It's not even... like, why do you need Japanese in your life?

Also me, after watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: I need to learn Japanese

Also my Stand: NANI?!

[bearbeerian-blog]

Hiatus update

I thought a lot about writing this post, I'm not one of those users who scream like a banshee before leaving a social. But hey.

I hate Tumblr. I always did. I hate what @staff is doing, especially after the last guidelines update. But as much as I despise this social, I have to admit that is useful. I like the studyblr community, I like how people is willing to help each other. It's a warm part of Tumblr that I know I will miss (i won't miss all the self love, but it's stuff I cannot understand tbh).

What I'll probably do for now on is this: I'll delete all the content in my blog and start from scratch. I'll unfollow a lot of people (if we are mutual, don't take it personally), following only Russian/Finnish langblr that only post about language and culture and historyblr that post about... well, history. I want to start writing vocab lists, verbs, and history stuff, organising the blog into:

Studyblr (study lists, advice, resources)

Historyblr (articles, papers, culture)

Langblr (vocab lists, verbs, culture)

Everything will be tagged and nicely available if you're interested in those topics. I'll avoid personal rants and similar stuff, unless it's related to my university and academic experience (maybe it's helpful for someone).

I'm still on hiatus, Idk when I'll come back here.