This paper comments on two Mesopotamian bricks belonging to collections of the Asia and Pacific Museum and the National Museum in Warsaw. Both bricks bear cuneiform inscriptions. The first was fashioned during the reign of the Ur king Amar-Suen (c. 2046–2038 BC) while the second is to be dated to the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC). They commemorate building projects commissioned by these two Mesopotamian kings.

The Karatepe inscriptions contain an intriguing image of a woman walking fearlessly with spindles. This image builds on the symbolism of the spindle in the ancient Near East as an emblem of femininity and highlights the gendered language of the passage in which it occurs. In the context, the figure of the woman with spindles is contraposed with the image of the fearful man. The contrast between them portrays the magnitude of the positive changes accomplished by Azitawada, the ruler who commissioned the inscriptions.

There is no agreement on the etymology and meaning of Phoen. ḥsp in the Aḥirom sarcophagus inscription, but the corresponding Egyptian verb ḥsb, “to break”, may help to resolve both issues. In support, several other words where Eg. /b/ corresponds to Semitic /p/ are discussed.

The paper offers a reappraisal of the Puławy collection’s display through a detailed analysis of Virgilian evocations within the complex. The choice of inscriptions and ancient imagery framing the exposition’s narrative, as well as the surviving reception testimonies towards such strategies within Pulavian pavilions, demonstrate an ongoing questioning of chronological sequences, the primacy of authenticity, and aestheticising exhibits. Such anachronic distancing from a historicizing temporality would take place in favour of an intimate experience of familial-cum-national memorabilia, in accordance with the contemporaneously emerging category of the fetish.

A common feature of ancient Near Eastern written tradition is the curse formula, i.e. a threat issued against an individual or group of individuals who might commit some infraction, be it the violation of a treaty, an armed rebellion against an overlord, or the removal and/ or destruction of an inscription or other monument. Typically, curse formulae invoke a divine force or forces as the agent(s) that would, if need be, carry out the punishment of anyone guilty of committing any of the aforementioned infractions. Although curse formulae from various ancient civilizations have been the subject of multiple studies over the years, one civilization that has been overlooked is the kingdom of Aksum that dominated northern Ethiopia from around the turn of the Common Era to the seventh century. This article seeks to rectify this situation by systematically presenting and analysing all known curse formulae in Aksumite inscriptions and pointing out analogies with other ancient societies in which curse formulae are attested, as well as, where relevant, ethnographic analogies with modern societies. Aksumite curse formulae are limited to royal inscriptions and are concerned exclusively with the destruction of monuments erected by kings. Their thematic content, however, sheds light on concepts of crime and collective guilt in Aksumite society more broadly.

The article discusses the principles of composing inscriptions which might have been familiar to the inhabitants of 18th century Gdańsk. Johann Gottlieb Heinecke’s textbook on Latin stylistics, “Fundamenta stili cultioris”, was one of the most well-known sources of theoretical knowledge on this matter. There are testimonies of the use of the textbook by professors of the Academic Gymnasium: Gottfried Lengnich (1689-1774) and Gottlieb Wernsdorf (1717-1774). Johann Gottlieb Heinecke proposed that inscriptions be primarily divided into ones made in the old style and ones made in the new style. The old style was referred to as lapidaris, while the new one was called stilus recentior. The former assumed brevity and simplicity of expression, while the latter allowed more freedom in terms of the form adopted. The inscriptions made in this latter style also had a more complex and varied vocabulary. According to Heinecke, the optimal structure of an inscription should be tripartite. This universal pattern could have been used everywhere, e.g. in inscriptions on buildings, or on tombstones. This tripartite structure is also present in the extant epitaph of the aforementioned Gottlieb Wernsdorf himself.