The socials pushed me a ‘news story’ which linked to this awesome new open access article:
Kileci, Şenkal, Nihal Tüner Önen, and Şükrü Özüdoğru. 2026. “A New Astragalos Oracle Text from Kibyra: A Comparative Study With Southern Asia Minor Parallels”. Gephyra 31 (October): 257-94. https://doi.org/10.37095/gephyra.2002699.
Astragalus
It publishes an inscription telling how to interpret the bones! You should download and read the whole article but here is a taster.
Digression. Something about this reminded me of the antiquated marking system in Oxford. Few used it when I was there and I suspect it may have gone the way of the dodo but one used to get collections marks like alpha-gamma-alpha. I never fully understood it, but was told that unlike a single number the letters helped to convey nuance. If I understood right an alpha-gamma-alpha mark might mean something like “smart, but lazy, with good style”. I wonder if anyone has written about that system?
I bought four knuckle bones in Rome this past summer. I keep them in a replica black glaze dish with the type of small stamps common in the mid to early 3rd century BCE. Now I clearly need to acquire a fifth.
I didn’t post my slides, lecture notes, and handout from the Champaign Urbana talk as I considered it a dry run. I want to give the lecture a couple more times. It feels meaty but i give myself a B+ for performance. I need to cut or at least trim and smooth out my oral delivery. I’m trying to convey a little too much.
I’m working now on my mega trip. Warsaw-Dongguan-Beijing. I’m not scripting these talks. I think scripting (before throwing out the script) does help me work through complex ideas and certainly makes publication later easier, but I do think it is still an impediment to performance. I criticize myself internally as I notice my deviations from the plan. This type of intrusive thought impedes the creative flow of narration. If i rehearse it in my internal voice as I refine the slides I get to a point where I’m comfortable narrating extemporaneously. It is smoother and easier to comprehend even if I may cover less material.
I’m not ready to share details but right now I’ve got invitations that means it looks like I’ve got a month (or more!) in each of three different countries in 2027. We’ll see how it all works out. Needless to say my love of a plane ticket to somewhere else persists.
Ok. Not a lot about knuckle-bones here but clearly i wanted to write.
