Between-rivers

Gu3-de2-a ensi2 Lagaški-ke4 Ma.du.ridki-da e-ne-am3

'Gudea ensi Lagashk Madrida eneam'

Gudea, prince* of Lagash, is in Madrid

At least a bust of his is. This afternoon we (my S.O and I) were on the National Archaological Museum, in Madrid. I have already been there before, but I enjoyed this visit a lot more, there was considerably less people, and we could enjoy all of the rooms a great deal... I took some pictures, low quality ones with my phone camera, and many more I'm going to take next time, with the good camera, which I didn't take with me because I thought it wasn't allowed to take pics on the museum (doh! I was ready to "steal" some with my cell phone, hehe... :-)

The place is incredible, and some of the thousands of remarkable things we saw were the Lady of Elche bust (which was, probably, the inspiration for Princess Leia look on Star Wars), a complete craneum of a paleo-elephant (which is, without the huge tusks, almost as big as myself, with the tusks is about 4-5 meters long!), a fantastic collection of celtic, gold torques (several of them from my own land! :-), lots of Egyptian mummies, and steles, in coptic, greek, and hieroglyphs (even a stele from the Saite Dinasty!); a cuneiform inscription barely readable (not that it would be any easier, anyway, but I could write you the cuneiform of the Sumeria sentence above, and this one I'm talking about, however...), and weapons, a Corinthian-style helmet, swords and daggers, Ibearian soliferra, arrowheads, etc... There's a fantastic collection of Greek amphorae and crateres with black and red images exposing lots of interesting hoplological information, pretty incredible...

Lots of other jewels on the Museum, though, from Atapuerca (Homo Antecessor) to Medieval times, going through most important segments in Spain History: several rooms for pre-Historic times (pleistocene, oligocene, paleolithis, mesolithic, neolithic (including really incredible Balear Islands info and tombs), early bronze, late bronze, iron, Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks, then Rome, Visigoths, Muslims, and finally the first Christian states; plus some Near East info (like our now famous Ensi* of Lagash and the cuneiform text, among others), the big Egyptian room (basically New Empire, Nubian dinasties and some Saite, plus Ptolemaic dinasties material scattered through time) and some info from Sahara (which was once Spanish) pre-History. Very stimulating, indeed...

Not much going on The Libyan at the moment, still slowly writing the Spartan section, while preparing the Battle of Memphis...

In the meantime, I am documenting myself for the Mesopotamian novel (yeah, I have to accept it: I'm going to do it). So, among the host of books I have bought (including the two I got on the Museum store :), I have started to learn Sumerian. The sentence that opens this entry is, I hope, correct Sumerian, and corectly translated as well ("Ma.du.rid" is the approximate name of Madrid into Sumearin, but I am not sure of that, actually).

Yeah, a fascinating language. Not a dead language, mind you, but a resurrected language, even if nobody really speaks it... Cool, indeed. Cuneiform is as hard as I was told, damn it, LOL! Fascinating, though, to be the first known script of Humankind... Why Sumerian? Well, I love languages, it's interesting enough to try, and pretty well known to be the first known language of the planet, plus I have gotten lots of Sumerian texts transliterated (and translated, OK :-) so I can work on them by myself... That will give me the flavor of the civilization, indeed.. Akkadian may come later, who knows? After all, the Epic was written in Assyrian, which was an Akkadian dialect, and I want to learn a semitic language... So if I start Arab, I can add Akkadian and do some comparative learning... :-)

Nod... Sumerian culture is resulting really fascinating... If I can fixate half of the ideas I am having into a coherent story I may get an Early Bronze Age Historical Fiction novel really cool to read... We'll see when the time comes... :-)

You are invited to, in the meantime, stay tuned and contribute to The Libyan... :-)

laters... Kallisti!

* Note: ensi2 is the transcription of translittered Sumerian PA.TE.SI, whose meaning is not yet known, but it's often equated to "prince" (because "king" is lugal, and Gudea is also called "lugal Lagashke", i.e., King of Lagash)... en, however, means "lord", and by context, it is know that it was an important city title, lesser than king...

PS- for those who wonder, if anyone does, my next languages to learn will be: Turkish, Russian, Arab and Finnish, plus going deeper in Esperanto and, maybe, finally get into Japanese. This way I will have: several Romance languages, plus a bit of Latin, a Germanic language, a Celtic language (someday) (which I know right now), plus an Slavic language, a Semitic language, a Fino-Ugrid language and Turkish (which may be Altaic)... I'll be able to, basically (and with care), move around and talk to folks of most Western Eurasia, from Portugal and Spain to Iraq and maybe Iran on the South, and up to Mongolia in the north... Arabian, Russian and Turkish can take you really far away once to move Eastwards from Greece, and they must be delicious! Classical Greek to read AEschillus would be just cool as well! ;-)

Writing (written) musings for a new year

We are in the first of the two months added to make a 12 months year in Roman times that eventually happened to be the firsts when New Year was moved from Spring to Winter. Pretty interesting stuff (and explains why September (the seventh month in latin) is actually the ninth month), search for it, you'll learn a good handful...

Time measurement is on the essence for a Historical Fiction writer, specially if you keep moving back in time, as I seem to be doing more and more (XIII BCE Century (half novel), to III BCE Century (Half short novel), XVI Century (plotbunny) --hey, pretty near to the present!--, to V Century (big plotbunny) --oops!-- to V BCE Century (current novel) --hey!-- to XXVII BCE Century ---WAAAAIT THERE! What'll be next??? Neolithic???).

Accurate measuring of time is very important, and quite a recent feat in Human History... As an example, in my current novel, circa 460 BCE, Athens started the year in August (more or less, it wasn't called that way, of course) and Sparta, with a different name, in September (and IIRC, one by the new Moon and the others by the full Moon, but I may be confusing civilizations, kinda an information soup in my head now, back from holidays and all that)... Funny, isn't it? Even counting years by Olimpic Games was pretty bad, we gotta be thankful to Thukidides who tried to be sistematic with dates...

So, January, time of reflection, of good will, resolutions, and all that...

January also brought me a new writing devicve. Writing devices are a Good Thing, or you would have a hard time to, well, actually write something. This device is a wonderful, as-new, shiny Psion Series 5mx, in Spanish, with Spanish keyboard and all that! Joy, joy! :-)

This is an incredible, now extinct (I mean, you use eBay) machine, and a fascinating writing device. Almost all of my Nano in 2005 was done on my Psion Series 5 (the model before this one), I can vouch for it's promptness and readiness if you, like me, write on the go.

Now, ready to re-take The Libyan, I'm back to Sparta, to finish that part, and then we'll take Memphis, then Prosopitis, and later on, the World, Bhwah-hah-hah! Oops, too much Giffen-De Matteis's Justice League, I'm afraid...

Be gentle to your time, and be gentle to your writing device --and be gentle with your head, and hands, and your whole self in general, yeah--, and 2006 (a.k.a. 2K6, a.k.a. MMVI) will be a great writing year, indeed...

Kallisti!

Happy New Year!

Ditto!

May 2006 bring us peace and happiness to all of you, your beloved ones, and the rest of Humanity and Life on Earth...

As for writing, I'm on it again (back to Sparta, where I left it before moving to part II) and have self-gifted some books on Sumer and Mesopotamy, and a new translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, hehe... ;-)

Best wishes to all!

Kallisti!

Kambuyiyâ and plotbunny

Ah, the joys of reading!

After Nano, I've taken some time to rest and read literature, which I wasn't really able to do while writing, as most of my reading time is my writing time as well.

Thus, I'll re-take my writing soon, but in the meantime I've enjoyed a couple of novels, one a very funny parody of Harry Potter, the other a cool HF book by a German author I didn't know.

The book is Tamburas, the Greek (original title unknown, don't you hate when publishers don't do their homework on the ISBN page? A quick INet search threw the original title Tamburas), by Karlheinz Grosser. Originally published by Heinemann in 1967, I have a spanish translation of Belaqva of 2002.

I got it at a discount price (EUR4.95, really cheap!), it's 447 pages (I'm on page 427) and it's been a pleasing and interesting reading. Tamburas is a bastard son of Pisistratos, tirant of Athens (ca. 530), who must leave his town and face the unknown when assaulted by pirates and forced to serve Polikrates, tirant of Samos, and then to serve Great King Kambuyiyâ (Cambises).

The book is written in 1st person POV, well constructed, and pleaseantly flowing. The author did his homework, and despite some things I have frowned at, it's very well researched and it shows. It was a bit weird reading the battle of Pelusion from the POV of the Persians, when I have read it less than two months ago (you can check the archives) from the POV of the Egyptians in Scott Oden's Men of Bronze. The battles are very different, but that's understandable. However, where Scott stopped, Karlheinz went on.

Now, the second part:

I have a strong, I'd even say a stronger, plotbunny biting my shiny... um...

OK, I want to finish this novel (The Libyan), then finish Damned Linneage, my 2004 NaNovel. But (and it's a big 'but', hence the bold face) this plotbunny bit me last year as well, and it's demanding attention.

More and more attention.

Will I say it? I will, I feel generous... ;-)

It's a HF novel telling, as historical fact--at least inasmuch I am able to--, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I have read it several times, and loved it all of them. Bronze Age culture is fascinating, and it's a chance to explore strange, new worlds. I am very tempted to go for it.

So, warning, don't feel weird if in some months you see a new work-in-progress bar on the blog...

Take care and Merry Full Moon!

Kallisti!

NaNoWinner!

$ cat Inaros_advancing_20051130.txt | perl ../wc.pl
W: 91025 (MP: 364.1, PP: 182.05), %: 75.8541666666667

And from NaNoWriMo:



Excalibor's Novel: The Libyan
Word Count So Far Winner!
50077 / 50000 words

Yeah, it was hard, but I've made it, and added a big punch (of crappy, shhh) to the novel in the process!

Thanks to all my supporters and sufferers, it's been great, now I'm back to reading, and planning (that battle at Memphis ain't gonna be easy!)

Kallisti!

Agony...

$ cat nano/Inaros_advancing_20051129.txt | perl wc.pl
W: 85124 (MP: 340.496, PP: 170.248), %: 70.9366666666667

Validated Nano-counter: 44,416 words

I should be able to do it, I mean, I've got some 36 hours, and just over 6,500 words to go, the problem is finding time to do it... Fortunately, I skipped ahead for a part of the story considerable more dynamic than "Mission: Sparta", and the rythm will start raising to the next grand check point, the battle of Memphis, which is closer and closer... *grin*

I expect to get into the flow and do a good run for the battle, but, you know, plans are what you'd like to do and finally don't, so I'll be expectant...

Good luck to all the Nanoers who are close to the deadline mark! We can do it, gang! Those who are far behind their word counts, you can make a final push, and, nevertheless, you've been doing something unique, don't you dare to feel you have failed, just getting yourself into this makes you all winners, anyway...

Finally, my cheers and best regards to HF writer Scott Oden, who's pushing his Memnon's deadline with us, you can do it as well, Scott!

Kallisti!

The power of what?

$ cat nano/Inaros_advancing_20051128.txt | perl wc.pl
W: 82227 (MP: 328.908, PP: 164.454), %: 68.5225

According to the on-line, official validator, I'm 41,525 words into the Nano... This throws a grand totale of 8,475 words left. Will I get there? I'm pushing for it! We'll see, anyway...

As for the story, after a really nice Gymnopaideia ceremony, and a meeting with one of the Ephoros of Sparta, I fell exhausted, and decided to skip the rest of the story for the time being... A big jump ahead, two years, and we are back in Sidunnu (Sidon), where preparations for the final assault are being conducted.

I currently have the army leaving southwards. Artabazos has contributed with 10,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 1,000 engineers, while Megabyzos has put into the field some 6,000 cavalry and 16,000-18,000 infantry, plus another division (1,000) of engineers, food, and so on... The fleet has settled in 30 trirremes and 50 pentekonterae, because a bigger one to fight the yaunâ (Greek) fleet would be too much a nurden in terms of training and food (specially). My calculations are, anyway conservative. Total numbers, thus, run about this:

* 28,000 infantry
* 8,000 cavalry
* 8,500 sailors

Far from the half million assembled at Memphis, I know, but those numbers are simply impossible, and I won't pay more attention to them. I will join the Eastern army, sited in the East river bank fortress and Heliopolis with this army, I may try to get some more troops off Pelusion once is re-taken, though I'm not sure about it, and I may manage, probably, to get the Memphis army out for the final battle as well, but I'm not sure about it... No way near 300,000-500,000, but a pretty big army anyway, and I pre-visualize a huge battle, jay! :-)

Original numbers I attempted were closer to the 44,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, but moving that huge army through the desert down the Way of Horus is unthinkable, even if the whole of the fleet is devouted to carrying the food, which it is anyway.

Army size in ancient armies was not limited by the amount of men or food you could gather, but by the amount of food available in the places your army moved and were deployed. Not having any ways of refrigerating food, or maintaining fresh water, licquours and other spirits would have been mixed with the water to avoid corruption, and food should be mostly dried fruits, hard bread and fish, but a good part of the Way of Osiris runs away from the sea, I need the army to move and not die, therefore I must make it smaller... Even then, reducing the slaves to the minimum, the final size of the army with those numbers given above raises over 40,000 people, plus well over 10,000 animals, which is an unthinkable amount of daily water. I shudder only thinking about it.

Anyway, we'll start sweetly, warming up the less experimented troops by pacifying Syria and Judea (at this moment in the novel, I have most of what's south Dor in rebellion, or taken over by the Greeks, which means Dor, Samaria, Gaza, Jerusalem, and most of the important sites north the Sinai. If my calculations are OK, I'll have to pay a visit to byblical administrator Ezra, in order to put things into perspective, (hehe) before moving down to the full desert, and finally Pelusion.

The more I think about the size and complexity of all the operations I'm writing about, the more I get astonished by what was performed by our distant ancestors... Just incredible.

Well, back to work, still lots to write and think as well... Sparta will wait until Nano-pressure is a bit off and I can set my mind into political games mode...

Power to the Nanoers!

Kallisti!

Almost there, but not quite yet (grrr)

$ cat Inaros_advancing_20051127_utf8.txt | perl wcutf8.pl
W: 79732 (MP: 318.928, PP: 159.464), %: 66.4433333333333

Nano-counter: 38,606 words

Sigh, yesterday was not a bad day, but it could be better... Today's a huge last opportunity for brilliant performance, but it has started badly (headache), let's try a boost... 3 days, 11,400 words, it's hard but not impossible...

Cheer me up (please)! :-)

Kallisti!

Party!

$ cat nano/Inaros_advancing_20051125.txt | perl wc.pl
W: 74415 (MP: 297.66, PP: 148.83), %: 62.0125

It's Summer (maybe even the Summer Solstice) and the Spartans have wild party, with nude, young warriors dancing arround the agorê (yeah, wild party!)... I have several classical authors talking about this festivity to Apollo, but I haven't managed to know if it was in the Solstice, and at night or when...

Ah, the fun of research, indeed...

Well, I'm heavily behind my Nano-counter, let's see if I can manage to give it a jump this afternoon (I love Fridays, don't you?)

Laters and cheers for the Nanoers, we are getting closer to the end!

Kallisti!