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?"
A new petition before the ACT Legislative Assembly is calling for the inclusion of Assyrian, Armenian and Greek genocide education in the territory’s school curriculum, as community groups intensify efforts to secure broader historical recognition.
A century after the National Museum of Denmark amassed clay tablets from the ancient Near East, researchers have fully analyzed and digitized them, revealing texts from anti-witchcraft rituals for Assyrian kings to beer receipts and dynastic lists mentioning Gilgamesh.
A farmer in Baghdida is growing a wide range of pepper varieties inside plastic greenhouses, part of an agricultural effort that community leaders say helps Nineveh Plain residents stay on their land.
A new petition before the ACT Legislative Assembly is calling for the inclusion of Assyrian, Armenian and Greek genocide education in the territory’s school curriculum, as community groups intensify efforts to secure broader historical recognition.
In the fractured Byzantine world, Jacob Baradaeus walked unseen in beggar’s rags, defying imperial persecution. Through a hidden network of secret ordinations, he revived a dying Assyrian church to become the quiet force who preserved its faith, lineage, and future.
A century after the National Museum of Denmark amassed clay tablets from the ancient Near East, researchers have fully analyzed and digitized them, revealing texts from anti-witchcraft rituals for Assyrian kings to beer receipts and dynastic lists mentioning Gilgamesh.
Dr Selena Wisnom
