Agency in Ancient Writing

Agency in Ancient Writing PDF Author: Joshua Englehardt
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1607322099
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book Here

Book Description
Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record. Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems. Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.

Agency in Ancient Writing

Agency in Ancient Writing PDF Author: Joshua Englehardt
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1607322099
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book Here

Book Description
Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record. Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems. Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.

Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia

Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia PDF Author: Charles Halton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110705205X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
This anthology translates and discusses texts authored by women of ancient Mesopotamia.

The Materiality of Texts from Ancient Egypt

The Materiality of Texts from Ancient Egypt PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004375279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Get Book Here

Book Description
The volume The Materiality of Texts from Ancient Egypt contains nine contributions from well-known papyrologists, Egyptologists, archaeologists and technical specialists. They discuss the materiality of ancient writing and writing supports in various ways through methodological considerations and through practical case studies from the early Pharaonic to the Late Antique periods in Egypt, including Greek and Egyptian papyri and ostraca, inscriptions and graffiti. The articles in this volume present new approaches to the study of textual material and scribal practice, especially in the light of the ongoing development of digital techniques that uncover new information from ancient writing materials. The aim of the book is to encourage researchers of ancient texts to consider the benefits of using these new methods and technological resources.

Visualizing Knowledge and Creating Meaning in Ancient Writing Systems

Visualizing Knowledge and Creating Meaning in Ancient Writing Systems PDF Author: Shai Gordin
Publisher: PeWe-Verlag
ISBN: 3689850452
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ancient writing systems employ logographic and logophonetic principles playing on the relationship between writing, script and scribal learning. The workshop proceedings published in this volume explore the way these relationships encode knowledge and meaning reflected in the social, historical and cultural mentality of the early peoples of East Asia (China and Japan), Anatolia, the Aegean, Egypt and Mesoamerica. The meeting was organized in the FU Berlin on the fall of 2010 by the editor and Dr. Renata Landgrafova (now Charles University, Prague) in the frame of the DFG research training group 1458 "Notational Iconicity" ("Schriftbildlichkeit") headed by Prof. Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum and Prof. Sybille Kramer. The premise of our meeting was that script and the organization of texts can reveal how knowledge is transformed and transmitted among different social groups across time and space, and eventually standardized as written tradition. Its multidisciplinary approach follows recent trends in the attempt to arouse debate between scholars of disparate systems of writing - be it Cuneiform, Hieroglyphic or Linear in nature - and to discuss their elements independent of origin or cultural context. A broad perspective on ancient writing and its visual elements was established with the contributions delving into the aspects of generating knowledge and meaning (J. Janak, M. Weeden), categorizing knowledge (E. Boot, T. W. Kwan, H. Tomas), diffusion and transformation of knowledge (Sh. Gordin, R. Landgrafova) and rationalizing knowledge (E. Birk).

Writing and Power in the Roman World

Writing and Power in the Roman World PDF Author: Hella Eckardt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108418058
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book focuses on the material practice of ancient literacy through a contextual examination of Roman writing equipment.

Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life

Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life PDF Author: Anne Kolb
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110594064
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 438

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume explores the significance of literacy for everyday life in the ancient world. It focuses on the use of writing and written materials, the circumstances of their use, and different types of users. The broad geographic and chronologic frame of reference includes many kinds of written materials, from Pharaonic Egypt and ancient China through the early middle ages, yet a focus is placed on the Roman Empire.

Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies

Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies PDF Author: Geoffrey Yeo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042962008X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book Here

Book Description
Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies provides a concise and up-to-date survey of early record-making and record-keeping practices across the world. It investigates the ways in which human activities have been recorded in different settings using different methods and technologies. Based on an in-depth analysis of literature from a wide range of disciplines, including prehistory, archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology, and Chinese and Mesoamerican studies, the book reflects the latest and most relevant historical scholarship. Drawing upon the author’s experience as a practitioner and scholar of records and archives and his extensive knowledge of archival theory and practice, the book embeds its account of the beginnings of recording practices in a conceptual framework largely derived from archival science. Unique both in its breadth of coverage and in its distinctive perspective on early record-making and record-keeping, the book provides the only updated and synoptic overview of early recording practices available worldwide. Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students engaged in the study of archival science, archival history, and the early history of human culture. The book will also appeal to practitioners of archives and records management interested in learning more about the origins of their profession.

Biblical Exegesis without Authorial Intention?

Biblical Exegesis without Authorial Intention? PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900437955X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Biblical Exegesis without Authorial Intention? Interdisciplinary Approaches to Authorship and Meaning, Clarissa Breu offers interdisciplinary contributions to the question of the author in biblical interpretation with a focus on “death of the author” theory. The wide range of approaches represented in the volume comprises mostly postmodern theory (e. g. Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Paul de Man, Julia Kristeva and Gilles Deleuze), but also the implied author and intentio operis. Furthermore, psychology, choreography, reader-response theories and anthropological studies are reflected. Inasmuch as the contributions demonstrate that biblical studies could utilize significantly more differentiated views on the author than are predominantly presumed within the discipline, it is an invitation to question the importance and place attributed to the author.

Writing and the Ancient State

Writing and the Ancient State PDF Author: Haicheng Wang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107785871
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Get Book Here

Book Description
Writing and the Ancient State explores the early development of writing and its relationship to the growth of political structures. The first part of the book focuses on the contribution of writing to the state's legitimating project. The second part deals with the state's use of writing in administration, analyzing both textual and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the state used bookkeeping to allocate land, police its people, and extract taxes from them. The third part focuses on education, the state's system for replenishing its staff of scribe-officials. The first half of each part surveys evidence from Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Maya lowlands, Central Mexico, and the Andes; against this background the second half examines the evidence from China. The chief aim of this book is to shed new light on early China (from the second millennium BC through the end of the Han period, ca. 220 AD) while bringing to bear the lens of cross-cultural analysis on each of the civilizations under discussion.

Writing and Society in Ancient Cyprus

Writing and Society in Ancient Cyprus PDF Author: Philippa M. Steele
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107169674
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first book to explore the development and importance of writing in ancient Cypriot society over 1,500 years.