Why I used sheep entrails to predict the Trump era
Predicting Donald Trump’s presidency via sheep entrails must rank among the most unusual exercises in academic outreach ever undertaken. But it is just one way Dr Selena Wisnom has brought her Assyrian research to the wider world.
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"Wisnom argues that reading the literature is not enough: "There are all kinds of things you can understand better if you try it than if you just read about it,' she says – an assertion that any teacher of ovine anatomy would second. She chose political prediction because in Assyria divination was a vital political tool. 'They would ask things like, "Is there going to be a rebellion in the south? Is the chief eunuch going to take the throne?"
The ancient leather armor, datable to 786-543 BCE, was originally made of about 5,444 smaller scales and 140 larger scales, which, together with leather laces and lining, had a total weight of 4-5 kg.
Taking its name from the Assyrian word for “peace,” Shiluh is Turkey’s largest commercial Assyrian-style winery. It is based in Midyat, about 100 km from Mardin in southeastern Turkey, and carries on the winemaking tradition of Christian Assyrians in a modernized way.
We think of ancient civilisations as operating very differently from the way our economy works today. Yet the Assyrians, around 3,000 years ago, began the basis of modern capitalism, in a region spanning most of modern-day Iraq, eastern Syria and southeastern Turkey.
A magnetic survey at Khorsabad, once the ancient Assyrian capital, has revealed the remains of a huge villa (with 127 rooms), royal gardens, the city’s water gate and five large buildings.
The American attack on Iran is reverberating across the Middle East, with Assyrian areas in northern Iraq already experiencing the effects of rockets, drones, and falling debris, according to multiple local reports.
The ancient leather armor, datable to 786-543 BCE, was originally made of about 5,444 smaller scales and 140 larger scales, which, together with leather laces and lining, had a total weight of 4-5 kg.
Taking its name from the Assyrian word for “peace,” Shiluh is Turkey’s largest commercial Assyrian-style winery. It is based in Midyat, about 100 km from Mardin in southeastern Turkey, and carries on the winemaking tradition of Christian Assyrians in a modernized way.
We think of ancient civilisations as operating very differently from the way our economy works today. Yet the Assyrians, around 3,000 years ago, began the basis of modern capitalism, in a region spanning most of modern-day Iraq, eastern Syria and southeastern Turkey.
Dr Selena Wisnom
