VIEWS project

VIEWS project

@viewsproject.bsky.social

Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems (VIEWS) is a Cambridge Uni project funded by UKRI, and host of the Endangered Writing Network. For more information please visit our websites: https://linktr.ee/viewsproject?utm_source=linktree_profile_share

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VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Another thing new followers may not realise is that we run the Endangered Writing Network, which aims to bring people from varied backgrounds together to tackle problems of language and writing endangerment. So we are interested... 1/3 viewsproject.wordpress.com/endangered-w...

viewsproject.wordpress.comEndangered Writing NetworkTo join the Endangered Writing Network and play a role in this important conversation, please scroll down to the contact form further down the page and send us your details. Across the world today,…
VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Join us on Wednesday 28th October, 4.30pm GMT (Room 1.11, Cambridge Faculty of Classics and online) for our next seminar: Chunfeng Zhang: When Dongba Writing Meets Chinese: How a Writing System Adapts to a New Language Zoom registration: cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

cam-ac-uk.zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS Autumn seminars. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS Autumn seminars. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

VIEWS project reposted

Zev Handel
@zevhandel.bsky.social

Today (October 9) is Hangul Day 한글날 in South Korea. One of only a very few official holidays that celebrate a writing system! To mark the day, I'm reposting a thread that originally appeared in April, 2024 over on the other site. I've made minimal edits, so apologies for any outdated references!

VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Big news for these important objects - which feature some significant early Greek inscriptions among them.

Chapps@chapps.bsky.social

This morning it was announced that several pieces of 7th c. BCE Greek (Cretan) armor and other antiquities in the #MetMuseum were repatriated to Greece. Looted in the 1960s from Crete, this includes two helmets, and three mitrai (belly guards). A look at three items ... 🧵 🏺 1/ 📸 me

VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Join us for a special VIEWS/EWRN event: Monday 28th September 19.30 BST Korede Aderele “A Computational Approach to Yoruba Symbolic Systems: Interpreting Door Panels as an Extension of Oral History” Zoom registration: cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

cam-ac-uk.zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS/EWRN seminar: Yoruba Symbolic Systems. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS/EWRN seminar: Yoruba Symbolic Systems. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

This sounds very interesting: a proof of concept for the virtual unrolling of carbonised scrolls, if I understand correctly from the abstract because I haven't had time to read it yet: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

journals.plos.orgA model carbonized papyrus scroll opens a novel path to identifying readable scrolls of the Herculaneum LibraryWe report the successful fabrication of a laboratory-made carbonized papyrus scroll and the virtual unrolling and reading of its custom leaded ink text, using X-ray tomography. We believe this is the ...
VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Hive mind, which is better? "How writing looks, and how it is seen, are often of crucial importance" OR "How writing looks, and how it is seen, is often of crucial importance" Will be in a book blurb so a good place not to distract people with grammatical ambiguities.

VIEWS project reposted

Josephine Quinn
@josephinequinn.bsky.social

I am VERY EXCITED to see the ad come out for post-doc positions associated with my Cambridge Lab for Ancient World Studies: please pass on to anyone who might be interested and works across ancient regions/languages/worlds... www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

cam.ac.ukResearch Associate (Fixed Term)Applications are sought for three Research Associates to join the Cambridge Lab for Ancient World Studies (CLAWS), directed by Professor Josephine Quinn. Starting no later than 1 October 2027, you wil...

VIEWS project reposted

Word Family Friday
@wordfamilyfriday.bsky.social

Hieroglyphs stopped being used so long ago there was still an emperor in Rome, and yet the Greek alphabet (much less Roman alphabet) still won't match its longevity for another 1000 years! www.aidanem.com/timeline-of-...

Dr Danny Bate@dannybate.com

On this day in antiquity: the final known text in Egyptian hieroglyphs is written down. These two texts from Roman Egypt, written in hieroglyphs and Demotic on the Nile island of Philae, are short, but they nonetheless give us their author's name and their date of creation: August 24th 394 AD.

VIEWS project reposted

Dr Danny Bate
@dannybate.com

On this day in antiquity: the final known text in Egyptian hieroglyphs is written down. These two texts from Roman Egypt, written in hieroglyphs and Demotic on the Nile island of Philae, are short, but they nonetheless give us their author's name and their date of creation: August 24th 394 AD.

VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

We had a lovely Chinese calligraphy workshop on Friday, led by our visiting fellow Roland Buckingham Hsiao. We started with seal script, and tried a bit of cursive as well as signs from the Lisu syllabary (an early 20th C minority script). Very calming, great vibes all round.

VIEWS project reposted

𐌷𐍂𐍉𐌸𐌹𐌻𐌰
@hrotha.bsky.social

Jajajaja noooo artesano del féretro de san Cutberto cómo me escribes el nombre sacro griego ΧΡΣ (Χριστός, Cristo) como ᛉᛈᚴ, con la runa ᛈ (p) como si eso no fuera una rho, qué vergüenza pavo, que si pones XPS en el alfabeto latino tiene un pase pero con las runas menudo ridículo lol

VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

I'm stupidly pleased with this giraffe doodle 😂 Well my son likes it, so that's enough for me. We watched a video and discovered that giraffes say "Mmmm" (having wondered what sound to ascribe to them while singing). Mirror writing speech a la Greek vase painting.

VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

I would urge everyone to read this response to the New Yorker's upsetting piece that really mischaracterised language revitalisation efforts.

Endangered Languages Project@e-l-p.bsky.social

If you’ve seen this article, you may be sitting with anger, pain, or just exhaustion at dealing with another helping of colonial nonsense. We feel a responsibility to speak back when these colonizing narratives show up, yet again, in such a prominent venue. endangeredlanguages.com/story/respon...

VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

An excellent post on writing (or not writing) in Homer's epics by @dannybate.com!

Dr Danny Bate@dannybate.com

I rarely write about Homer, being daunted by the topic, but since the poet is having a moment, here's a piece about the alphabet, writing, and their absence in the epics. Inspired by a chat with @viewsproject.bsky.social, I hesitantly suggest a theory for that absence. dannybate.com/2026/07/24/h...

dannybate.comHomer’s ABCsOr: Why don’t people in the Iliad and Odyssey write anything down? Sing, goddess, of how Homer is all the rage right now. My timelines have become streams of Nolan-inspired analyses, hot takes and …

VIEWS project reposted

Dr Danny Bate
@dannybate.com

Outside of Roman histories, the great Carthaginian general Hannibal makes a surprise appearance in an Etruscan tomb. This epitaph from the 2nd century BC (for a man who lived to 106!) mentions "hanipaluscle" at the end. Yet, being in Etruscan, we're not sure what this man did for/against Hannibal!

VIEWS project reposted

Sarah E. Bond
@sarahebond.bsky.social

A game board from the forum of Timgad (Algeria) is a more Roman spin on the trite ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ sign. Replacing hunting w/cheese & and I am in, y’all. ‘venari lavari / ludere ridere / (h)oc{c} est / vivere’: ‘to hunt, to bath, to play, to laugh — This is to live!’ (CIL VIII, 17938). 🛁

VIEWS project reposted

Anna P. Judson
@annapjudson.bsky.social

#OnThisDay in 1952 Michael Ventris announced on the radio that he had deciphered the Linear B script, and the language it was used to write was Greek: www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/maga... #AncientBluesky #ClassicsBluesky 🏺 1/2

bbc.co.ukLinear B decoder Michael Ventris on BBC in 1952For more than 50 years, the decipherment of a mysterious ancient script called Linear B was seen as one of the greatest linguistic riddles - it was eventually cracked in 1952 by a British architect.
VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Seminar today! 16.30 BST (UTC+1) Vincent Morel: Inscribing Territoriality: Graffiti and the Politics of Visibility in Egypt’s Eastern Desert cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

cam-ac-uk.zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS Summer seminars 2026. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS Summer seminars 2026. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Today! 10th June, 16.30 BST (online only) Sveva Elti di Rodeano Phrygian and the Spread of the Alphabet cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

cam-ac-uk.zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS Summer seminars 2026. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: VIEWS Summer seminars 2026. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
VIEWS project
@viewsproject.bsky.social

Red alphabets and yellow alphabets - take that, Archaic Greece! (Joke reveal: regional Archaic Greek alphabets were very diverse in letter shapes and values, and have been classified into colour-coded types by modern scholars: red, green, light blue and dark blue. But not yellow! 😁)