| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
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The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’
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Detailed documentation of life in the Valley of Oaxaca were written only after the Spanish conquest in the 1520s.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Written records were introduced by colonial authorities and missions.
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“The question as to the manner in which a record of the age of these children was kept by a people who had no writing, poses itself here.”
[1]
[1]: HERSKOVITS, M. J. (1932). POPULATION STATISTICS IN THE KINGDOM OF DAHOMEY. Human Biology, 4(2), 252–261: 258. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/8T74FM7D/collection |
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“Since the end of the 15th century, a great deal of material about Benin has been supplied by sailors, traders, etc., returning to Europe. However, information on the Edo people before this date is very difficult to obtain, as there was no written record and the oral record is at best rather fragmentary.”
[1]
“The theme of this study presses the sources for the reconstruction of Benin military history to its limits because written documents scarcely exist, except for the reports and accounts of European visitors.”
[2]
[1]: Bondarenko, Dmitri M., and Peter M. Roese. ‘Benin Prehistory: The Origin and Settling down of the Edo’. Anthropos 94, no. 4/6 (1999): 542–52: 542. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Y4V3D623/collection [2]: Osadolor, O. B. (2001). The Military System of Benin Kingdom, c.1440–1897. University of Hamburg, Germany: 27–28. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/N4RZF5H5/collection |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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“Although the ancient people of the Southwest didn’t have a written language, they had effective ways to communicate.”
[1]
[1]: (“Chaco Culture - Communication”) “Chaco Culture” NPS Museum Collections, accessed May 8, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/chcu/index6.html. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NMRVDA5I |
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"The Indus civilization flourished for around five hundred to seven hundred years, and in the early second millennium it disintegrated. This collapse was marked by the disappearance of the features that had distinguished the Indus civilization from its predecessors: writing, city dwelling, some kind of central control, international trade, occupational specialization, and widely distributed standardized artifacts. [...] Writing was no longer used, though occasionally signs were scratched as graffiti on pottery."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 91-92) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Civilization. Oxford; Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. |
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The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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Possehl states that there was no writing before the urban phase in the Indus valley.
[1]
While seals have been found in Mehrgarh III layers, these show no evidence of script or writing.
[2]
[1]: Gregory L. Possehl. The Indus Civilization. A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, Altamira, 2002, p. 51. [2]: , C. A. (in press) Chapter 11, Case Study: Mehrgarh. In, Barker, G and Goucher, C (eds.) Cambridge World History, Volume 2: A World with Agriculture, 12,000 BCE - 500 CE. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. |
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"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words."
[1]
Languages spoken in this polity were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[2]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. [2]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’ Some native officials may have handled more complex administrative texts than lists. Feedback is needed on the matter.
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Literate Hmong made use of the Farmers’ Almanac,
[1]
and Christian missionaries published educational materials,
[2]
but here we are mostly interested in documents produced by the Hmong themselves.
[1]: Mickey, Margaret Portia 1947. “Cowrie Shell Miao Of Kweichow”, 30a [2]: Diamond, Norma 1993. “Ethnicity And The State: The Hua Miao Of Southwest China”, 68 |
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"None of the native peoples developed a system of writing comparable to that of the Mayas, and much less would the Spaniards encounter a native empire such as that of either the Aztecs or Incas. By 1500 A.D., the most advanced of the indigenous peoples were two Chibcha groups: the Taironas and the Muiscas."
[1]
[1]: (Hudson 2010, 5) |
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None of the native peoples developed a system of writing comparable to that of the Mayas, and much less would the Spaniards encounter a native empire such as that of either the Aztecs or Incas. By 1500 A.D., the most advanced of the indigenous peoples were two Chibcha groups: the Taironas and the Muiscas."
[1]
[1]: (Hudson 2010, 5) |
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The earliest phonetic hieroglyphic writing was found in the tomb J at the Abytos Cemetary U - on the pottery vessels and small bone/ivory labels
[1]
. They are dated to Naqada IIIA. But it should be noticed that already in Naqada I, signs similar to hieroglyphs have been found, especially on the pottery vessels (pot marks). However "none of these signs hints at the existence of phonograms, phonetic complements or detenninatives" and "the absence of an important component of the hieroglyphic writing system does not allow us to designate these signs as "hieroglyphic writing""
[2]
. It can be rather treated as an abstract symbolic system
[3]
[1]: Köhler, E. C. "Theories of State Formation". [in:] Wendrich, W. [ed.]. Egyptian Archaeology. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing. pg: 41. [2]: Kahl, J. "Hieroglyphic Writing During the Fourth Millennium BC: an Analysis of Systems". Archeo-NiI 11 (2001); 122, 124. [3]: Meza, A. 2012. ANCIENT EGYPT BEFORE WRITING: From Markings to Hieroglyphs. Bloomington: Xlibris Corporation. pg: 25. |
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The earliest phonetic hieroglyphic writing was found in the tomb J at the Abytos Cemetary U - on the pottery vessels and small bone/ivory labels
[1]
. They are dated to Naqada IIIA. But it should be noticed that already in Naqada I, signs similar to hieroglyphs have been found, especially on the pottery vessels (pot marks). However "none of these signs hints at the existence of phonograms, phonetic complements or detenninatives" and "the absence of an important component of the hieroglyphic writing system does not allow us to designate these signs as "hieroglyphic writing""
[2]
. It can be rather treated as an abstract symbolic system
[3]
[1]: Köhler, E. C. "Theories of State Formation". [in:] Wendrich, W. [ed.]. Egyptian Archaeology. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing. pg: 41. [2]: Kahl, J. "Hieroglyphic Writing During the Fourth Millennium BC: an Analysis of Systems". Archeo-NiI 11 (2001); 122, 124. [3]: Meza, A. 2012. ANCIENT EGYPT BEFORE WRITING: From Markings to Hieroglyphs. Bloomington: Xlibris Corporation. pg: 25. |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’.
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’
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Languages spoken in this polity were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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The following quote characterises the people of Tanganyika (the broader region of which Karagwe formed part) as "pre-literate" in the early 19th century. "We do not know what inland Tanganyikans believed in the early nineteenth century. They were pre-literate, and the religions of pre-literate peoples not only leave little historical evidence but are characteristically eclectic, mutable, and unsystematic."
[1]
[1]: (Iliffe 1979: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection. |
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Islamic texts. "Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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The following quote characterises the people of Tanganyika (the broader region of which Buhaya formed part) as "pre-literate" in the early 19th century. "We do not know what inland Tanganyikans believed in the early nineteenth century. They were pre-literate, and the religions of pre-literate peoples not only leave little historical evidence but are characteristically eclectic, mutable, and unsystematic."
[1]
[1]: (Iliffe 1979: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection. |
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"Documentary sources also become very scarce."
[1]
[1]: (Beaulieu 2017, 7Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 2017. A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/5T3ZBRQT. |
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There are lack of evidences suggesting that the writing system has been already invented.
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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No references found in the consulted literature to a written form of Nri that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet. “If these are the problems to be faced in languages that have written form hundreds of years ago one cannot imagine what problems there are in dealing with languages whose written forms are yet to be established.”
[1]
[1]: Onwuejeogwu, M. A. (1975). Some Fundamental Problems in the Application of Lexicostatistics in the Study of African Languages. Paideuma, 21, 6–17: 10. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/IISK3KCM/collection |
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Certainly absent.
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"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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Islamic texts. "Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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“In Allada the local people, it was noted in 1670, in the absence of writing used knotted strings to keep records of various matters, including commercial transactions (“the price of goods”).”
[1]
[1]: Austin, Gareth, et al. “Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, 2001, p. 144: 33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SPXH2IUW/collection |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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’There were essays on how to write in Icelandic. There are many little known texts, some collected in ‘Alfræði íslenzk’. These include instructions in medicine and how to make religious statues (líkneski).’
[1]
[1]: Árni Daniel Júlíusson and Axel Kristissen 2017, pers. comm. to E. Brandl and D. Mullins |
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probably unknown
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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The following quote characterises the people of Tanganyika (the broader region of which the Fipa formed part) as "pre-literate" in the early 19th century. "We do not know what inland Tanganyikans believed in the early nineteenth century. They were pre-literate, and the religions of pre-literate peoples not only leave little historical evidence but are characteristically eclectic, mutable, and unsystematic."
[1]
[1]: (Iliffe 1979: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection. |
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No writing system in Allada the year before Whydah became independent, so likely the same in Whydah: “Another question arising from the incidence of credit in both the local economy and the overseas trade is the nature of the indigenous system of recordkeeping. In Allada the local people, it was noted in 1670, in the absence of writing used knotted strings to keep records of various matters, including commercial transactions (“the price of goods”). Several later accounts allude to other mechanical devices for keeping financial (and fiscal) records in Dahomey.”
[1]
[1]: Austin, Gareth, et al. “Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, 2001, p. 144: 33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SPXH2IUW/collection |
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For example manuals on agriculture, military, cooking, etc
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"According to the Sanguo zhi [Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms], because Kebineng’s lands were near the Chinese border, many Chinese people (Zhongguo ren 中國人) fled the warlord depredations of late Han and Three Kingdoms China to join Kebineng, teaching the Xianbei how to make Chinese-style arms and armor, and even introducing some literacy."
[1]
[1]: (Holcombe 2013, 7-8) |
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"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
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"Notably, none of these documents is a poem, a hymn, a collection of sayings, a mythological narration, a chronicle, a manual, or indeed any other sort of literary or technical composition."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 92) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www-oxfordscholarship-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.001.0001/acprof-9780199654529-chapter-3. |
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"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
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"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
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"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
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"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
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Scholars use oral tradition to help reconstruct life in the Segou kingdom.
[1]
The polity may not have used written documents but there were written documents in the semi-autonomous, Islamic ’marka’ towns, populated by Soninke and other Mande-speakers.
[1]: (Monroe and Ogundiran 2012) J Cameron Monroe. Akinwumi Ogundiran. Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa. J Cameron Monroe. Akinwumi Ogundiran. eds. 2012. Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives.Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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"Notably, none of these documents is a poem, a hymn, a collection of sayings, a mythological narration, a chronicle, a manual, or indeed any other sort of literary or technical composition."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 92) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZMFH42PE. |
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The first written records in the Valley of Oaxaca are from the Rosario phase (700-500 BCE).
[1]
[2]
Written records are therefore coded as absent for this period.
[1]: Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1983). "The Cloud People." New York. [2]: Marcus, J. and K. V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, Thames and Hudson London. |
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"Notably, none of these documents is a poem, a hymn, a collection of sayings, a mythological narration, a chronicle, a manual, or indeed any other sort of literary or technical composition."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 92) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www-oxfordscholarship-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.001.0001/acprof-9780199654529-chapter-3. |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Genealogical registers of noble ancestry (including important marriages, and sometimes important life events of individuals) were recorded in stone during this period. Also carved glyphs denoting calendrical dates. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Spencer, C. S. and E. M. Redmond (2004). "Primary state formation in Mesoamerica." Annual Review of Anthropology: 173-199, p179 [2]: Marcus, J. and K. V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, Thames and Hudson London, p130 |
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The first written records in the Valley of Oaxaca are from the Rosario phase (700-500 BCE).
[1]
[2]
Written records are therefore coded as absent for this period.
[1]: Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1983). "The Cloud People." New York. [2]: Marcus, J. and K. V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, Thames and Hudson London. |
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"In 1851, the first modern institution of higher education was founded. Dar ul-Funun, a polytechic institute, was founded by Amir Kabir, the Prime Minister from 1848 to 1851, better known as Iran’s first reformer, to educate students in medicine, engineering, geology, and military sciences."
[1]
[1]: (Maranlou 2016, 144-145) Sahar Maranlou. Modernization Prospects For Legal Education In Iran. Mutaz M Qafisheh. Stephen A Rosenbaum. eds. 2016. Experimental Legal Education in a Globalized World: The Middle East and Beyond. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Newcastle upon Tyne. |
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Cookbooks from the period have survived
[1]
[2]
[1]: Sussan Babaie, Isfahan and Its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi’ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008). [2]: (Mitchell 2009) Mitchell, Colin P. 2009. Practice of Politics in Safavid Iran, The: Power, Religion and Rhetoric. I.B. Tauris. London. |
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"There were several handbooks in Pahlavi dealing with institutions, court manners and ceremonies, the duties of the various social classes, the rules of battle, the arts of warfare (horsemanship and shooting), and games and entertainments (such as polo, chess and backgammon."
[1]
[1]: (Tafazzoli 1996, 85-86) Tafazzoli, A. and Khromov, A. L. Sasanian Iran: Intellectual Life. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.82-105. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf |
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Manuals for games, like chess (translated from India).
[1]
"There were several handbooks in Pahlavi dealing with institutions, court manners and ceremonies, the duties of the various social classes, the rules of battle, the arts of warfare (horsemanship and shooting), and games and entertainments (such as polo, chess and backgammon."
[2]
[1]: (Daryaee 2009, 27-37) Daryaee, Touraj. 2009. Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. I.B. Tauris. London. [2]: (Tafazzoli 1996, 85-86) Tafazzoli, A. and Khromov, A. L. Sasanian Iran: Intellectual Life. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.82-105. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf |
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In the 11th century and after "the genre of writing treatises on statecraft in Persian develops, such treatises usually containing advice on the organizing of armies and on the art of war."
[1]
the Siār al-moluk or Siyāsat-nāma, a treatise on statecraft
[2]
[1]: (Bosworth 2011) Bosworth, C E. 2011. ARMY ii. Islamic, to the Mongol period. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/army-ii [2]: Daniela Meneghini ’SALJUQS v. SALJUQID LITERATURE’ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/saljuqs-v |
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used to train scribes in bureaucracies
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"The reigns of the Elamite sukkal-mah continued to be characterised by a strong political, military and cultural interest in Mesopotamia. Therefore, despite its peripheral location near the border of Elam, Susa became the political centre of this composite kingdom. Similar, Akkadian became the main language used in administrative texts."
[1]
"Susa’s scribes used Akkadian not only for diplomatic correspondence, but also for local legal texts, a large number of which have been found in Susa and some in Malamir (possibly ancient Huhnur), along the route from Susiana to Fars."
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 195-196) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 254) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The reigns of the Elamite sukkal-mah continued to be characterised by a strong political, military and cultural interest in Mesopotamia. Therefore, despite its peripheral location near the border of Elam, Susa became the political centre of this composite kingdom. Similar, Akkadian became the main language used in administrative texts."
[1]
"Susa’s scribes used Akkadian not only for diplomatic correspondence, but also for local legal texts, a large number of which have been found in Susa and some in Malamir (possibly ancient Huhnur), along the route from Susiana to Fars."
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 195-196) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 254) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"everything points to the direct influence of Mesopotamian accounting procedures on Susa in Late Susa II times."
[1]
"documents".
[2]
literature relating to accounting in the temple complexes, such as metrological systems. "A number of different numeration and metrological systems were used depending on the objects counted."
[3]
Lake Uruk phase (second half fourth millennium BCE) administrative tablets show land management records.
[4]
[1]: (Potts 2016, 66) Potts, D T. 2016. The Archaeology of Elam Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Amiet, Chevalier and Carter 1992, 4) Amiet, Pierre. Chevalier, Nicole. Carter, Elizabeth. in Harper, Prudence O. Aruz, Joan. Tallon, Francoise. eds. 1992. The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre. Metropolitan Museum of Art. [3]: (Joseph 2011, 135) Joseph, George Gheverghese. The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics (Third Edition). Princeton University Press. [4]: (Leverani 2014, 78) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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literature relating to accounting in the temple complexes, such as metrological systems. "A number of different numeration and metrological systems were used depending on the objects counted."
[1]
"Proto-Elamite influence even spread across the great eastern desert of Lut to Shahr-i Sokhta, where the Proto-Elamite accounting system is found in use by people whose cultural affinities lay not with the Proto-Elamite world but with the inhabitants of Turkmenia and the region south of the Hindu Kush mountain range."
[2]
Lake Uruk phase (second half fourth millennium BCE) administrative tablets show land management records.
[3]
[1]: (Joseph 2011, 135) Joseph, George Gheverghese. The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics (Third Edition). Princeton University Press. [2]: (Amiet, Chevalier and Carter 1992, 4) Amiet, Pierre. Chevalier, Nicole. Carter, Elizabeth. in Harper, Prudence O. Aruz, Joan. Tallon, Francoise. eds. 1992. The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre. Metropolitan Museum of Art. [3]: (Leverani 2014, 78) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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’There were essays on how to write in Icelandic. There are many little known texts, some collected in ‘Alfræði íslenzk’. These include instructions in medicine and how to make religious statues (líkneski).’
[1]
[1]: Árni Daniel Júlíusson and Axel Kristissen 2017, pers. comm. to E. Brandl and D. Mullins |
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Cassiodorus, movement for the preservation of manuscripts and learning.
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Mahmud al-Kashgari: "Eleventh-century author of A Compendium of the Turkic Dialects, a comprehensive guide to the Turkic languages and their oral literature."
[1]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. |
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’More recently, the reconstruction of the interior plan has led Gaucher (2004) to identify its features with Indian texts on the ideal layout of a city, particularly those of Kautilya, an Indian minister who wrote the Arthasastra, a Sanskrit treatise on statescraft, under the reignt of the Mauryan king Candragupta Maurya (about 325-297 BCE). It provides an appreciation of the philosophical and organisational basis for a state that identified seven vital elements: the king, the territorial boundaries, a fortified capital, taxation and the accumulation of surpluses, control of the means of defense and destruction, the maintenance of alliances and bureaucracy. His prescriptions for the fortified city capital are in many ways, replicated at Angkor Thom [...].’
[1]
’The Indian combat manual Kautiliya Arthashastra gives an idea of the ideal battle array, specifying ’three combat foot-soldiers per horsemen, fifteen per chariot (which in fact were not in combat use in Cambodia) or for an elephant plus five horse.’ The same proportions applied to the ’foot-guards’ who were probably grooms attending to the animals. So the ideal combat unit consisted of sixty warriors for an elephant and five calvary. [...] The same Indian military manual relates that on the eve of a battle the chaplain would make offerings to the Fire.’
[2]
’
[1]: (Higham 2014b, p. 386) [2]: (Jacques and Lafond 2007, p. 34) |
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’The Indian combat manual Kautiliya Arthashastra gives an idea of the ideal battle array, specifying ’three combat foot-soldiers per horsemen, fifteen per chariot (which in fact were not in combat use in Cambodia) or for an elephant plus five horse.’ The same proportions applied to the ’foot-guards’ who were probably grooms attending to the animals. So the ideal combat unit consisted of sixty warriors for an elephant and five calvary. [...] The same Indian military manual relates that on the eve of a battle the chaplain would make offerings to the Fire.’
[1]
’
[1]: (Jacques and Lafond 2007, p. 34) |
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|
’The Indian combat manual Kautiliya Arthashastra gives an idea of the ideal battle array, specifying ’three combat foot-soldiers per horsemen, fifteen per chariot (which in fact were not in combat use in Cambodia) or for an elephant plus five horse.’ The same proportions applied to the ’foot-guards’ who were probably grooms attending to the animals. So the ideal combat unit consisted of sixty warriors for an elephant and five calvary. [...] The same Indian military manual relates that on the eve of a battle the chaplain would make offerings to the Fire.’
[1]
’
[1]: (Jacques and Lafond 2007, p. 34) |
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|
’The Indian combat manual Kautiliya Arthashastra gives an idea of the ideal battle array, specifying ’three combat foot-soldiers per horsemen, fifteen per chariot (which in fact were not in combat use in Cambodia) or for an elephant plus five horse.’ The same proportions applied to the ’foot-guards’ who were probably grooms attending to the animals. So the ideal combat unit consisted of sixty warriors for an elephant and five calvary. [...] The same Indian military manual relates that on the eve of a battle the chaplain would make offerings to the Fire.’
[1]
’
[1]: (Jacques and Lafond 2007, p. 34) |
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|
’All that remains, apart from all-important inscriptions on stone or metal, are those texts that were regularly recopied. These were mainly religious texts, the copying of which generated spiritual merit, various technical treatises on such subjects as agriculture, astrology and law, and court chronicles. In few of these, even the last, can be found any references, however, to political or even economic relations with China.’
[1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 35) |
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|
’All that remains, apart from all-important inscriptions on stone or metal, are those texts that were regularly recopied. These were mainly religious texts, the copying of which generated spiritual merit, various technical treatises on such subjects as agriculture, astrology and law, and court chronicles. In few of these, even the last, can be found any references, however, to political or even economic relations with China.’
[1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 35) |
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Astronomical and star tables were intended for practical use.
[1]
[1]: Beatrice Forbes Manz, ‘The Rule of the Infidels: The Mongols and the Islamic World’, in David O. Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds), The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3. The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 155. |
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Late 16th century: “Tümen Jasaghtu Khan tried to unify the country administratively and so included in his government not only Abtai, Altan and Khutughtai Sechen, but also other influential nobles from all the tümens and from the Oirat regions. He compiled a new code that was supposed to be based on Chinggis Khan’s Great Ya ̄sa ̄ or Jasaq (see Volume IV, Part One). Subsequently, Altan Khan, Abtai Khan and, most likely, several others followed his example and adopted their own laws and codes in their respective tümens. But only some of these have been preserved, whether wholly or partially. They were written in the old Mongol script, which had been borrowed from the Uighur, and adopted under Chinggis Khan as the official script of the Mongols. »
[1]
[1]: (Ishjamts 2003, 214) |
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Political manifestos. "As the manifestos recorded in inscriptions dating from the kaghanate show, there were frequent appeals for unity between the begs and the people and for obedience to the kaghan."
[1]
"Further inscriptions of this kind are known to us; these historical and biographical texts are memorials or eulogies for the living, and they tell of the deeds of Türk kaghans and their retainers. They combine descriptions of events that involved the hero of the inscription (or his ancestors) with an exposition of the political beliefs and ideas of the author of the text; they may be seen as ‘declarations of intent’ and to some extent were used as propaganda (Figs. 3 and 4). Even more common were memorial inscriptions on rock faces, some of which proclaimed the author’s right to use the adjacent pasture or site (Figs. 5 and 6).9"
[2]
[1]: (Klyashtorny 1996, 332) [2]: (Klyashtorny 1996, 340-341) |
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Literate Muslims likely to have had practical literature, such as works of translation, since they also worked for the king as translators.
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’There were essays on how to write in Icelandic. There are many little known texts, some collected in ‘Alfræði íslenzk’. These include instructions in medicine and how to make religious statues (líkneski).’
[1]
[1]: Árni Daniel Júlíusson and Axel Kristissen 2017, pers. comm. to E. Brandl and D. Mullins |
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Newspapers; magazines; academic journals; literary reviews; periodicals; almanacs. “Greater numbers of people in the 1830s and 1840s participated in policy debates thanks also to a rapid rise in literacy rates and to the dizzying increase in newspapers and magazines. Although heavily censored by the regime, these publications nevertheless promoted interregional discussions about many economic and social issues. While Hungary’s first newspaper had appeared in 1705 (in Latin) and its first German language newspaper in 1764, the first Hungarian- language newspaper debuted in 1780, followed by a Slovak- language newspaper in 1783… The spectrum of publications included scientific and academic journals, literary reviews, specialty journals in fields ranging from medicine to agriculture, almanacs, and fashion magazines. Some were published monthly or weekly, a few appeared as many as four times a week, and most appeared in the rapidly expanding town of Pest. In 1847, 103 of a total of 191 newspapers, periodicals, and magazines published in Hungary, appeared in Pest alone while another eighteen appeared across the Danube in Buda. Th ese numbers both reflected and produced a vibrant urban public culture of discussion and debate in these towns in the 1840s.”
[1]
“The world of newspapers changed radically in density after 1870 and especially after 1880. Newspaper penetration of households increased enormously between 1880 and 1910: in 1880 27% of all households in Vienna and the Alpine Länder received a daily newspaper, but this increased to over 70% by 1910.”
[2]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 145-146) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW [2]: (Boyer 2022: 117) Boyer, John W. 2022. Austria, 1867–1955. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CG3P4KKD |
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e.g. used in governor’s administration
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e.g. 《務本新書》、《士農必用》were the major agriculture literature
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The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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Islamic texts. "Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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Advice books for subjects such as agriculture and farming. Travel books. Military strategy. Architecture
[1]
[2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 372) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [2]: (Marshall 2006: 1170-2) Marshall, P. J. ed. 2006. The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume II The Eighteenth Century. Vol. 2, 5 vols. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HGG2PPQQ |
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"Domostroi" : A comprehensive guide to household management, religious life, and family ethics.
[1]
[1]: “Домострой,” accessed December 18, 2023, https://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/domostr.htm. Zotero link: KEUFJJ2S |
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Instructional literature. Formal legal instruments of property transfers, and letters are also known. There are also temple accounts on papyrus known. "as early as 3000 BCE official reference standards of length, volume, and weight were being maintained in temples and royal palaces in Egypt"
[1]
[1]: (Willard 2008, 2244) |
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Present in Ramesside period.
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example: Tomás de Mercado’s Suma de tratos y contratos (On deals and contracts) (1571)
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Daniel de Priézac (1590-1662 CE) writer and jurist, founding member French Academy.
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Rule books, manuals.
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Rule books? Maintenance manuals?
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"One of these proud professionals even wrote a treatise on management, in which he included details of the various registers in which state salaries and financial transactions should be recorded and a glossary of the most frequently used technical terms in the fields of public administration and finance."
[1]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. |
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In the 11th century and after "the genre of writing treatises on statecraft in Persian develops, such treatises usually containing advice on the organizing of armies and on the art of war."
[1]
[1]: (Bosworth 2011) Bosworth, C E. 2011. ARMY ii. Islamic, to the Mongol period. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/army-ii |
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Lots of administrative activity.
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Machiavelli’s Art of War is an example of military literature.
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Government related instructional literature?
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e.g. used by government
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’All that remains, apart from all-important inscriptions on stone or metal, are those texts that were regularly recopied. These were mainly religious texts, the copying of which generated spiritual merit, various technical treatises on such subjects as agriculture, astrology and law, and court chronicles. In few of these, even the last, can be found any references, however, to political or even economic relations with China.’
[1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, 35) |
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c582 CE: "The First Turkic Khaganate officially split into the Western and the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. In the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, the Sogdian language and script was used for chancellery purposes and inscriptions."
[1]
[1]: (Hosszú 2012, 285) Hosszú, G. 2012. Heritage of Scribes: The Relation of Rovas Scripts to Eurasian Writing Systems. Rovas Foundation. |
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Within bureaucracy.
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"These archives, comprising many thousands of tablets, contain every kind of royal chancellery document: annals; edicts, treaties and laws; verdicts, protocols and administrative texts; letters; and a large number of religious texts, rituals and festivals."
[1]
[1]: (Hawkins 2000, 2) John David Hawkins. 2000. Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions. Volume I. Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin. |
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government + literacy
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Legal statements were made in inscriptions on tombs, concerning the tomb, and it was probably standard practice for papyrus copies to be stored in an official archive at a temple.
[1]
[1]: (Hoyland 2001, 126) Robert G Hoyland. 2001. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge. London. |
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"Literary and artistic activities under the Ghurids likewise followed on from those of the Ghaznavids. The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan"
[1]
[1]: (Bosworth 2012) Bosworth, Edmund C. 2012. GHURIDS. Encyclopaedia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ghurids |
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"the former nomadic invaders came into possession of vast territories inhabited by settled agricultural peoples with a culture and traditions dating back many centuries, just as had been the case with the Tokharians ... who created the Kushan Empire. It seems likely that the administrative and government structure created by the Kushans was left largely intact under the Kidarites."
[1]
[1]: (Zeimal 1996, 132) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf |
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"the Western Jin, at least before 300, was a period of remarkable intellectual, scholarly, and literary activity."
[1]
Guo Pu (276-324 CE) commentaries to works.
[2]
Zhang Hua (232-300 CE) statesman and author "Treatise on Manifold Subjects".
[3]
[1]: (Knechtges 2010, 183) Knechtges, David R. in Chang, Kang-i Sun. Ownen, Stephen. 2010. The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. [2]: (Knechtges 2010, 184) Knechtges, David R. in Chang, Kang-i Sun. Ownen, Stephen. 2010. The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. [3]: (Knechtges 2010, 184-185) Knechtges, David R. in Chang, Kang-i Sun. Ownen, Stephen. 2010. The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. |
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Inferred from the fact that immediately preceding polities had produced practical literature, e.g. Shanghsu (Book of Documents), Yi Zhoushu (Zhou documents).
[1]
However, Spring and Autumn polities wrote on perishable materials such as silk
[2]
, which means that texts are less likely to be preserved
[1]: (Keay 2009, 54) [2]: (Cook and Major 1999, viii) Cook, Constance A. Major, John S. eds. 1999. Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China. University of Hawai’i Press. Honolulu. |
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* 1394 CE: Network of Routes Connecting the Realm (Hyanyu tongue): The Ministry of War produced a guide, Network of Routes Connecting the Realm (Hyanyu tongue). This cheaply printed handbook, first published in 1394 CE, lists all courier routes in the country along with the 1,706 station serving them.
[1]
[1]: (Brook, 2010, p.31) |
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e.g. Records of Everyday Learning, including details of the organizational structure of political powers and their advantages or disadvantages, information of the selection of government officials, and the function of social customs, as well as raised suggestions about the political issues that plagued the late Ming Dynasty.
[1]
[1]: (Zheng 2015, p.380) |
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"On the contrary, the assertion of continuity with older tradition is combined with the exercise of considerable invention and originality both in materials and iconography, producing some of the most remarkable sculpture in the entire pharaonic corpus. For other spheres of cultural activity there is sometimes an unnerving lacuna in extant material—there are, for example, no literary texts securely dated to this period. For all that, close analysis of such evidence as we do possess confirms that Egyptian society and civilization as a whole were characterized by the same traits as the visual arts. We routinely encounter features with which the student of earlier periods will be completely familiar."
[1]
[1]: (Lloyd 2000, 383) |
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The ’Testament of Amenemhet’, included in the Milligan Papyrus and the Papyrus Sallier II, defined royal obligations and the needs of the people.
[1]
11th Dynasty, literature flourished. Admonitions of Ipuwer. Instructions for King Merikare.
[2]
[1]: (http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/history12-17.htm#amenemheti) [2]: (Stearns 2001, 30) |
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e.g. instructional, within government Petitions.
[1]
"standardization of all private documents pertaining to family income" implied by Heredotus’s claim that Saites (under Amasis) taxed household income and assets. At this very time demotic Egyptian replaced abnormal hieratic at Thebes.
[2]
[1]: (Pagliari 2012, 189) Pagliari, Giulia. 2012. Function and significance of ancient Egyptian royal palaces from the Middle Kingdom to the Saite period: a lexicographical study and its possible connection with the archaeological evidence. Ph.D. thesis. University of Birmingham. [2]: (Agut-Labordere 2013, 1008-1009) Agut-Labordere, Damien. "The Saite Period: The Emergence of A Mediterranean Power." in Garcia, Juan Carlos Moreno ed. 2013. Ancient Egyptian Administration. BRILL. |
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"Aksumite rulers who often spoke and read in Greek, put great store in written documents and in libraries to keep them".
[1]
"The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, around 50 CE, "describes the ruler of the region, King Zoscales, as ’well versed in Hellenic sciences’. This would naturally require fluency in Greek, the lingua-franca of the ancient economy."
[2]
No data on written documents but it is likely that they existed, especially in Greek along the parts associated with trade on the coast, if not also in Ge’ez or its precursor language with documents relating to the local religion and the state further inland at the capital Aksum.
[1]: (Murray 2009) Stuart A P Murray. 2009. The Library: An Illustrated History. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. [2]: (Glazier and Peacock 2016) Darren Glazier. David Peacock. Historical background and previous investigations. David Peacock. Lucy Blue. eds. 2016. The Ancient Red Sea Port of Adulis, Eritrea: Results of the Eritro-British Expedition, 2004-5. Oxbow Books. Oxford. |
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6th century: letter-collections: Ruricius of Limoges, Avitus of Vienne, Ferreolus of Uzes, Ennodius of Pavia (originally from Provence).
[1]
Dynamius
[2]
;(rhetoric), advisor to Theudebert I.
[3]
; Epistulae Austrasiacae - collection of 48 letters, 460-c590 CE
[2]
[1]: (Wood 1994, 24) [2]: (Wood 1994, 26) [3]: (Wood 1994, 25) |
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The Wisdom of Ben Sirach devotes much of its text to practical advice on commerce, social relationships, and ethical living. It was studied and popularly referenced for centuries, as the Talmud notes with some disapproval (see Sanhedrin 100b).
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The Arthaśāstra, which "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks" includes instructions for the proper layout of cities, including "public edifices such as treasuries, storehouses for material and food, arsenals, and prisons".
[1]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. |
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|
The Arthaśāstra, which "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks" includes instructions for the proper layout of cities, including "public edifices such as treasuries, storehouses for material and food, arsenals, and prisons".
[1]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. |
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The Arthaśāstra, which "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks" includes instructions for the proper layout of cities, including "public edifices such as treasuries, storehouses for material and food, arsenals, and prisons".
[1]
Referring to other practical texts: "Yet the works which embodied these findings were framed with such Sanskritic refinement as to make them incomprehensible to all but the initiated. The craftsman remained ignorant of them, and the mathematician remained jealous of them. [...] Clearly ’the artists and masons went their own way’."
[2]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. [2]: (Keay 2010, 154) Keay, John. 2010. India: A History. New Updated Edition. London: HarperPress. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/HSHAKZ3X. |
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|
The Arthaśāstra, which "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks" includes instructions for the proper layout of cities, including "public edifices such as treasuries, storehouses for material and food, arsenals, and prisons".
[1]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. |
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Kautilya’s Arthasastra contains a chapter title "Measurement of Space and Time."
[1]
The Arthaśāstra "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks".
[2]
[1]: (Subramaniam 2001, 79) Subramaniam, V. in Farazmand, Ali. ed. 2001. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration. CRC Press. [2]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. |
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|
The Arthaśāstra, which "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks" includes instructions for the proper layout of cities, including "public edifices such as treasuries, storehouses for material and food, arsenals, and prisons".
[1]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. |
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|
The Arthaśāstra, which "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks" includes instructions for the proper layout of cities, including "public edifices such as treasuries, storehouses for material and food, arsenals, and prisons".
[1]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. |
||||||
|
The Arthaśāstra, which "probably arose in the first half of the first millennium AD" but probably largely "derive[s] from older handbooks" includes instructions for the proper layout of cities, including "public edifices such as treasuries, storehouses for material and food, arsenals, and prisons".
[1]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. |
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Examples include Descriptive and practical manuals, didactic treaties for the training and guidance of secretaries. Furthermore, biographical materials and collections of anecdotes on viziers and secretaries were also produced.
[1]
[1]: Young, M. J. L., John Derek Latham, and Robert Bertram Serjeant, eds. Religion, learning and science in Abbasid period pp. 155-163 |
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With the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258 CE "the culture, science and learning for which Baghdad had been known for centuries simply disappeared in a period of a week."
[1]
[1]: (DeVries 2014, 209) DeVries, Kelly in Morton, N. John, S. eds. 2014. Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages: Realities and Representations. Essays in Honour of John France. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. |
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"Literate governors belonged to a small, proud elite of school graduates who could write the elegant Akkadian hand, quote lightly literature they had studied in class, read and write their own sometimes florid letters, and understand the technical details of measuring land, estimating crops, and apportioning taxes and income."
[1]
"This suggests that during the reign of Naram-Sin there was a drive for uniformity and consistency in the planning of administrative structures, parallel to the reforms of metrology, record-keeping and self-presentation in prose and art."
[2]
[1]: (Foster 2016, 41) Foster, Benjamin R. 2016. The Age of Agade. Inventing Empire In Ancient Mesopotamia. Routledge. London. [2]: (Foster 2016, 54) Foster, Benjamin R. 2016. The Age of Agade. Inventing Empire In Ancient Mesopotamia. Routledge. London. |
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|
"A growing body of literature, composed now in Akkadian instead of Sumerian, accumulated through the later second and first millennia. These included new versions of earlier stories, such as Ishtar in the Netherworld, and new stories, such as Enuma elish and The Story of Erra, as well as new compositions in old and new genres of religious literature and other branches of literary composition such as disputations, fables, and love poems, and the time-honored Sumerian lexical texts, now translated and greatly expanded and developed. Epic poems about historical monarchs began to appear, including fictive “autobiographies.” On the practical side, there was a growing body of “scientific” literature: compilations of omen and divination observations, treatments for illnesses, recipes and other treatises, as well as mathematical tables and exercises."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 291) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"A growing body of literature, composed now in Akkadian instead of Sumerian, accumulated through the later second and first millennia. These included new versions of earlier stories, such as Ishtar in the Netherworld, and new stories, such as Enuma elish and The Story of Erra, as well as new compositions in old and new genres of religious literature and other branches of literary composition such as disputations, fables, and love poems, and the time-honored Sumerian lexical texts, now translated and greatly expanded and developed. Epic poems about historical monarchs began to appear, including fictive “autobiographies.” On the practical side, there was a growing body of “scientific” literature: compilations of omen and divination observations, treatments for illnesses, recipes and other treatises, as well as mathematical tables and exercises."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 291) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"A growing body of literature, composed now in Akkadian instead of Sumerian, accumulated through the later second and first millennia. These included new versions of earlier stories, such as Ishtar in the Netherworld, and new stories, such as Enuma elish and The Story of Erra, as well as new compositions in old and new genres of religious literature and other branches of literary composition such as disputations, fables, and love poems, and the time-honored Sumerian lexical texts, now translated and greatly expanded and developed. Epic poems about historical monarchs began to appear, including fictive “autobiographies.” On the practical side, there was a growing body of “scientific” literature: compilations of omen and divination observations, treatments for illnesses, recipes and other treatises, as well as mathematical tables and exercises."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 291) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"There were other, more practical, compositions, such as the equally classic, but shorter, ana ittišu series. This was a handbook of legal formulas developed for the writing of legal contracts. Then, there were numerical texts (with multiples, multiplications, reciprocals and so on) to facilitate calculations."
[1]
[1]: (Liverani 2014, 202) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7DRZQS5Q/q/liverani. |
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"land register, a text recording the measures of individual administrative districts, their borders, gods and imperial functionaries."
[1]
"Scribal culture already existed in earlier temple-cities in a more or less developed way. Now, however, the pan-Mesopotamian unification of the state made scribal culture more uniform and of a better quality. ... Sign lists and lexical lists became almost like ’encyclopaedias’, organising all the knowledge of the period in a canonical way."
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 159) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 166) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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The Achaemenid period "witnessed major developments in art, philosophy, literature, historiography, religion, exploration, economics, and science, and those developments provided the direct background for the further changes, along similar lines, that made the Hellenistic period so important in history."
[1]
[1]: T. Cuyler Young, Jr. Achaemenid Society and Culture http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/achaemenid_society_culture.php#sthash.wxVBVuth.dpuf |
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Example: Piero de Crescenzi (c. 1233-1320) wrote a treatise on gardening and landscaping; he was Bolognese and spent much of his life in Bologna, part of the Papal States (in theory, at least).
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Accounting documents. "The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase was from 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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Constitution. "The advent of the Parthians did not mark a break in the cultural history of the Greek cities, which retained their constitutions and magistrates, their schools, language, and law, long after the decline of Seleucid power."
[1]
[1]: (Neusner 2008, 10) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. |
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In the 11th century and after "the genre of writing treatises on statecraft in Persian develops, such treatises usually containing advice on the organizing of armies and on the art of war."
[1]
Treatise on government finance written by the scholar Tusi.
[2]
[1]: (Bosworth 2011) Bosworth, C E. 2011. ARMY ii. Islamic, to the Mongol period. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/army-ii [2]: Morgan, David. The Mongols. 2nd ed. The Peoples of Europe. Malden, MA ; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p.134 |
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"Administrative tablets and a monumental stele from Haft Tepe name as king Tepti-ahar. Inscribed seal impressions provide his full title, "king of Susa and Anzan". Tepti-ahar was known from three previously published texts: a brick inscription that, like the published Haft Tepe stele, regulates the conduct and support of a local cult; and two legal texts, formerly presumed to date to the late sukkalmah period."
[1]
[1]: (Carter and Stopler 1984, 33-34) |
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"Anshan was the capital of the eastern part of the state. Several administrative texts and palace workshops, with remains of flint and semi-precious stones, have been found there."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 460) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government"
[1]
.
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27) |
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Manuals for the proper conduct of women--both conservative and progressive: "Suphasit son ying (’Saying for ladies’), a mid-19th century manual probably authored by Sunthon Phu, differed from earlier such manuals which taught wives how to minister submissively to their husbands. It recognized that more upper-class women wanted a say in selecting a husband, and advised them how to choose wisely. It instructed them in how to contribute to the family business activity, which was increasingly important for women of this class."
[1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 44) |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
encyclopaedias such as agricultural manuals.
[2]
Military manuals such as Tactica by or for Leo VI(r.886-912 CE) - this particular work compiled 903 CE or 907 CE - which offered advice such as "it is easier and less costly to wear out a Frankish army by skirmishes, protracted operations in desolate districts, and the cutting off of its supplies, than to attempt to destroy it at a single blow."
[3]
[1]: (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haussig 1971, 176) Haussig, H W.trans Hussey, J M. 1971. History of Byzantine Civilization. Thames and Hudson. [3]: (O’Rourke 2010, 7-10) O’Rourke, M. 2010. The Land Forces of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire in the 10th Century. Canberra. |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
Encyclopaedias such as agricultural manuals.
[2]
Military manuals such as Tactica by or for Leo VI (886-912 CE) - this particular work compiled 903 CE or 907 CE - which offered advice such as "it is easier and less costly to wear out a Frankish army by skirmishes, protracted operations in desolate districts, and the cutting off of its supplies, than to attempt to destroy it at a single blow."
[3]
The ’Book of the Eparch’ under Leo VI (886-912 CE) "provided rules and regulations for trade and trade organizations in Constantinople.
[4]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haussig 1971, 176) Haussig, H W.trans Hussey, J M. 1971. History of Byzantine Civilization. Thames and Hudson. [3]: (O’Rourke 2010, 7-10) O’Rourke, M. 2010. The Land Forces of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire in the 10th Century. Canberra. [4]: (Gregory 2010, 254) Gregory, Timothy E. 2010. A History of Byzantium. Second Edition. Wiley-Blackwell. Chichester. |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
encyclopaedias such as agricultural manuals.
[2]
Military manuals such as Tactica by or for Leo VI(r.886-912 CE) - this particular work compiled 903 CE or 907 CE - which offered advice such as "it is easier and less costly to wear out a Frankish army by skirmishes, protracted operations in desolate districts, and the cutting off of its supplies, than to attempt to destroy it at a single blow."
[3]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haussig 1971, 176) Haussig, H W.trans Hussey, J M. 1971. History of Byzantine Civilization. Thames and Hudson. [3]: (O’Rourke 2010, 7-10) O’Rourke, M. 2010. The Land Forces of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire in the 10th Century. Canberra. |
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Laws. From the Aegean region, which includes Greek cities of Lydia on the coast of Western Asia Minor: "By the 6th century BC, writing was widespread there and, thanks to the later reverence for Greek culture, huge amounts survive in transmission beyond that on archaeologically durable media. In addition to poetry, dedications, laws, mathematics and philosophy ... historians"
[1]
[1]: (Broodbank 2015, 536) Broodbank, Cyprian. 2015. The Making of the Middle Sea. Thames & Hudson. London. |
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Literate society: "The first Ottoman college was established in Iznik in 1331, when scholars were invited from Iran and Egypt to augment Muslim instruction in the new territories."
[1]
The Ottomans integrated the traditions of classical Arabic and Persian literature - but original own works start mostly in the later period.
[2]
[1]: (Lapidus 2012, 440) [2]: Personal communication. Johannes Preiser-Kapeller. 2016. Institute for Medieval Research. Division of Byzantine Research. Austrian Academy of Sciences. |
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Piri Reis geography, first map 1511 CE. The Book of Bahriye (Book of Navigation). Admiral Seydi Ali Reis (d. 1562) maritime geography.
[1]
"Legal and financial records."
[2]
[1]: (http://www.theottomans.org/english/art_culture/science.asp) [2]: (Imber 2002, 149) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke. |
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Piri Reis geography, first map 1511 CE. The Book of Bahriye (Book of Navigation). Admiral Seydi Ali Reis (d. 1562) maritime geography.
[1]
"Legal and financial records."
[2]
[1]: (http://www.theottomans.org/english/art_culture/science.asp) [2]: (Imber 2002, 149) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke. |
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letters
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"Direct and remarkably vivid evidence of the past is provided by the ‘ Ancient Sogdian Letters’ from Dunhuang (probably written at the beginning of the fourth century) and the documents from Mount Mug on the upper reaches of the Zerafshan (Figs. 26 and 27). The ‘Ancient Letters’ describe the life of Sogdian settlers in China, while the Mug papers show Sughd at the time of the Arab conquest. These letters were found with legal and economic documents in a castle that served as the last refuge of Divashtich, the ruler of Panjikent, who was captured by the Arabs in 722."
[1]
[1]: (Marshak 1996, 259) |
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In the 11th century and after "the genre of writing treatises on statecraft in Persian develops, such treatises usually containing advice on the organizing of armies and on the art of war."
[1]
On government, e.g. Counsels for Shahrukh by Al-Qayini "a prominent Hanafite jurist, traditionalist, and preacher in Timurid Herat."
[2]
[1]: (Bosworth 2011) Bosworth, C E. 2011. ARMY ii. Islamic, to the Mongol period. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/army-ii [2]: (Subtelny 2007, 109) Subtelny, Maria. 2007. Timurids in Transition: Turko-Persian Politics and Acculturation in Medieval Iran. BRILL. |
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Legal statements were made in inscriptions on tombs, concerning the tomb, and it was probably standard practice for papyrus copies to be stored in an official archive at a temple.
[1]
[1]: (Hoyland 2001, 126) Robert G Hoyland. 2001. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge. London. |
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Surveying, anatomy etc. Account from 1472 AD ‘Then after the Qur’an I studied the Quranic readings, individually and collectively, under my maternal uncle ... Then I studied Arabic under my maternal uncle and others. I studied also in particular under him arithmetic, algebra, anatomy, surveying, God’s ordinances and fiqb with the result that I derived benefit from all these disciplines’
[1]
[1]: G. REX SMITH, ‘THE TAHIRID SULTANS OF THE YEMEN (858-923/1454-1517) AND THEIR HISTORIAN IBN AL-DAYBA’, ‘’Journal of Semitic Studies’’, Volume XXIX, Issue 1, 1 March 1984, p. 151 |
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"In the field of religion and culture, the nineteenth century is said to have witnessed the golden age of Islam in the Futa Jalon. It was the century of great scholars and the growth of Islamic culture. All the disciplines of the Quran were known and taught: translation, the hadiths, law, apologetics, the ancillary sciences such as grammar, rhetoric, literature, astronomy, local works in Pular and Arabic, and mysticism. Nineteenth-century European visitors were highly impressed by the extent of the Islamization, which was visible in the large number of mosques and schools at all levels, the degree of scholarship, the richness of the libraries, and the widespread practice of Islamic worship. All this seems to have been facilitated by the use of the local language, Pular, as a medium of teaching and popularization of Islamic rules and doctrine."
[1]
[1]: (Barry 2005: 539) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/6TXWGHAX/item-list |
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"At the same time, though, the actual contact with the non-European outside world led to the publication of the first exploratory, often very practical guidelines, such as the Itinerario by Jan Huygen van Linschoten and the Toortse der Zee-vaert by Dierick Ruiters. The desire to conduct trade based on a better understanding of the facts led to a need among the first VOC rulers for more business-oriented, practical information about the geographical, cultural, political and economic circumstances of specific regions. This sparked a series of more or less standardised, bureaucratic country descriptions and market studies that often remained within the trading organisation, but partly, directly or via all kinds of detours, reached the press and the public at large, such as the beschryvingen of Pieter de Marees about Guinea, François Caron about Japan or Joris Schouten about Siam."
[1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 81) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection. |
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“Agriculture is an art, wrote Jovellanos in 1795, and like other arts ‘draws its principles from science’. Early modern Spain produced a number of distinguished writers, whose work is at once a reflection of the scientific orientation of their society and of the practical challenges facing the farmer.”(Casey 2002: 45) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT “Inculcating self-discipline was of increasing concern to writers during the early modern period, and those who discussed the well-ordered commonwealth found it useful to devote at least some of their attention to the family. Some of the leading Spanish humanists—Luis Vives, Fray Luis de León—devoted entire books to aspects of the topic. But in their case, as in others of the Renaissance period, advice on family matters tended to be addressed directly to women, whereas for men it figured usually as one part of a wider treatise on good citizenship. Alternatively, as in the case of the famous Cordoban Jesuit Tomás Sánchez, whose ‘Ten Books of Controversy on the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony’ (1592) became a cornerstone of marriage law throughout Catholic Europe, the clergy wrote in Latin for confessors. Admittedly, things were changing in this respect, and the Jesuits—like Sánchez’s contemporary Gaspar Astete—played a key role in Spain as elsewhere in bringing the family forward as a topic of discussion in books and preaching. By the eighteenth century—certainly rather later, one may feel, than in Protestant Europe—the household was seen as a major source of moral formation of the individual, and the Jesuit Matías Sánchez’s treatise of 1740 could now carry the significant title: ‘The Father of a Family Briefly Instructed in his Many Obligations’.”(Casey 2002: 192) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT
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“The last category is what I have termed "secular" writing, not because it is in any sense neutral towards the discourse of religion, but because the disciplines treated in this literature do not belong to the religious sciences of Islam. The disciplines concerned are the cognitive sciences, logic, and history. In the sciences, while there has been a little writing on mathematical calculation, especially as it relates to the horology (lilm al-mawaqit), and a few works of astronomy or astrology,26 there has been more interest in, and knowledge about, medicine. The earliest work in this category is a small work on the treatment of hemorrhoids by al-Tahir b. Ibrahim al-Fallati of Bornu (fl. 1745), a medical problem also discussed by Muhammad Bello, who wrote as well on the treatment of intestinal worms and on the use of senna as a purgative.”
[1]
[1]: Hunwick, John. “The Arabic Literary Tradition of Nigeria.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 28, no. 3, 1997, pp. 210–23: 217. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XKK8AVBT/collection |
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-
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The following quote refers to the Sangam literary work of Tolkappiyam. “The linguistic and philological evidence and the evidence of the picture of social life conveyed by the treaties indulging in several themes of primitive love and marriage customs, as also the picture of the division of land according to the natural regions Kurinimullai, neydal and marudum with indications of different cultures in every such region, these point to the fact that the Tolkappiyam proceeds in point of time to the extant Sangam works, especially Purananuru and Ahananuru.”
[1]
[1]: (Dikshitar 1941, 155-15) Dikshitar, Ranachandra. 1941. ‘The Sangam Age’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. 5. Pp 152-161. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/FG8Q2SFG/collection |
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“In his Maratha Rule in the Carnatic, C.K. Srinivasan lists the various famous writers who enriched literature and philosophy with their works. There was an enormous literary output in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil, and it embraced every form of composition: epics, drama, romantic pieces, burlesques, treatise on medicine, astrology and music.
[1]
[1]: (Appasamy 1980, 11) Appasamy, Jaya. 1980. Thanjavur Painting of the Maratha Period. Vol. 1. New Delhi. Abhinav Publications. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/35BU75NG/collection |
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The following quote refers to the Sangam literary work of Tolkappiyam. “The linguistic and philological evidence and the evidence of the picture of social life conveyed by the treaties indulging in several themes of primitive love and marriage customs, as also the picture of the division of land according to the natural regions Kurinimullai, neydal and marudum with indications of different cultures in every such region, these point to the fact that the Tolkappiyam proceeds in point of time to the extant Sangam works, especially Purananuru and Ahananuru.”
[1]
[1]: (Dikshitar 1941, 155-15) Dikshitar, Ranachandra. 1941. ‘The Sangam Age’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. 5. Pp 152-161. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/FG8Q2SFG/collection |
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“In the 1450s, the Fulani came to Hausaland from Mali, bringing ’books on divinity and etymology’ (formerly only books on law and the traditions had been known); the end of the century witnessed the arrival of a number of rif (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad ) and the vigorous Muslim cleric, al-Maghîlï.”
[1]
[1]: Niane, D. T., & Unesco (Eds.). (1984). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. Heinemann; University of California Press: 272. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ERZKPETN/collection |
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Works on a variety of subjects were produced, including management guides for animal husbandry, agricultural work, land and estate management, guides for the duties and performances of servants, and the same for state officials
[1]
[1]: (Prestwich 2005: 429) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI |
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“Beginning with the second half of the 14th century and until the 16th century, a number of ‘guidances’ (advice given to a new ruler on how to govern, often as parables) made their appearance in the Czech lands. Under Wenceslas IV, Smil Flaška of Pardubice published his New Guidance, the first of all animal guidances of Czech provenience. Flaška imagined the summoned animals at a diet advising their king—a lion, and this was an opportunity to spell out the principles and approaches the ruler was expected to observe for his reign to be just and effective. In the early 1th century, Jan (Johannes) Dubravius reshaped Flaška’s New Guidance into his own work, Theriobulia, which he wrote for King Louis II of Hungary. The Guidance of Beasts and Birds for Man, a work attributed to Jan Mantuan-Fencl, was apparently written as a reply to Dubravius’ Theriobulia. All three works are extremely important for the interpretation of the sovereign ideal and its development in medieval thought, and I will return frequently to them in the following chapters. Besides animal guidances, this genre also includes The Guidance of a Father to a Son, attributed also to Smil Flaška, the Administrative Office by Pavel Židek (Paulus de Praga), Marini’s Guidance to King George on Improving Trade in Bohemia, a work by Jan Hasištejnsky of Lobkowicz entitled Report and Teaching to My Son Jaroslav on What to Do and What to Avoid, and The Teaching of Lord Albrecht of Oušava to His Sons. All those treatises are particularly interesting, because they were written at a time that Humanism had just started to spread across the Alps, into Central Europe.”
[1]
“Besides such sources, there are also princely mirrors created in the Czech lands during the second half of the 14th as well as in the 15th century. The treatise De quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus pro eruditione principum by Michal, the vicar of the Smichov Carthusians, was written in 1387 in the form of a conversation with Rupert II, Elector Palatine, to whom it is dedicated. Michal and deals with the four cardinal virtues, as each of the four books of his work is dedicated to one of them, and deals with questions of behaviour and princely obligations in relation to each specific virtue (De prudentia, De temperantia, De iustitia and De fortitude).”
[1]
“Ondřej z Dube wrote his Bohemian Land Law (Práva zemská česká) in a complex legal culture filled with a variety of laws and jurisdictions, among them ecclesiastical (canon) law, royal law, customary law, urban law, and land law.”
[2]
“Preceding Ondřej’s lawbook existed several kinds of legal texts: unsystematic compilations of law by individuals legal scholars call “officials’ memoirs”; collections of models for documents, complaints, oaths, etc., called either “Formae querelarum” or “Formulae juramentorum”; as well as systematic lawbooks similar to Ondřej’s. Scholars generally associate Ondřej’s The Bohemian Land Law with three other lawbooks from the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries: the Rosenberg book (Latin: Liber domini a Rosenberg; Czech: Kniha starého pána z Rožmberka), written, in Czech, around the turn of the fourteenth century, contains remedial and proprietary laws for the nobility; the Ordo judicii terrae (Řád práva zemského), written in Latin and then translated into Czech during the reign of Charles iv; and the Officium circa tabulas terrae, written near the end of the fourteenth century.”
[3]
“
[1]: (Antonín 2017: 44) Antonín, Robert. 2017. The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia, trans. Sean Mark Miller, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G2S9M8F6 [2]: (Grant 2014: 31) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ [3]: (Grant 2014: 35-36) Grant, Jeanne E. 2014. For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution, East Central and Eastern in the Middle Ages, 450–1450. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GCJGUZZZ |
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Books on cemeteries, headstones, emblems and their meanings were popular. Manuals for young women on how to behave, dress, socialise, mourn etc, such as Godey’s Lady’s Book() and Martine’s Hand-Book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness (), as well as books specifically for mothers, such as Lydia Child’s Mother’s Book () and housekeepers, Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt-Book. Amelia Simmons was the first American author to write a cookbook, American Cookery, in 1796. Directions for Cookery, written by Eliza Leslie and published in 1837 was the most successful cookbook of the nineteenth century with sixty editions published.
[1]
[1]: Volo and Volo 2004: 34, 36, 124, 178. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SIB5XSW97. |
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Books on cemeteries, headstones, emblems and their meanings were popular. Manuals for young women on how to behave, dress, socialise, mourn etc, such as Godey’s Lady’s Book() and Martine’s Hand-Book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness (), as well as books specifically for mothers, such as Lydia Child’s Mother’s Book () and housekeepers, Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt-Book. Amelia Simmons was the first American author to write a cookbook, American Cookery, in 1796. Directions for Cookery, written by Eliza Leslie and published in 1837 was the most successful cookbook of the nineteenth century with sixty editions published.
[1]
[1]: Volo and Volo 2004: 34, 36, 124, 178. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SIB5XSW97. |
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Newspapers; advice books; essays; almanacs; travel books. “More occasional work – newspapers, essays, almanacs, political broadsides, advice books, travel books, true crime narratives – was churned out by an army of hack writers who congregated in the area around Moorfields, London, known as “Grub Street.” In particular, the late Stuart period saw the rise of the regular newspaper. There had been newspapers from before the Civil Wars, but most had ceased publication after a few issues, and the Cromwellian regime shut down all but pro-government newspapers in the 1650s. The Restoration regime continued this policy of censorship with the Licensing Act of 1662 (see chapter 9). In 1665 it established the Gazette as its official mouthpiece still published today. Licensing lapsed briefly during the Exclusion Crisis and several partisan newspapers flourished.”
[1]
“Ordinary people sang carols in church – indeed, the Reformation encouraged lay participation – and folk songs and printed ballads in taverns and out-of-doors. The ability of ordinary people to read and sing from ballad sheets reminds us that literacy was rising in late Tudor and early Stuart England. With the increasing number of endowed parish schools, and the printing press, much popular culture was transmitted through cheap, easy-to-read chapbooks and almanacs.”
[2]
“Early in the seventeenth century James I even issued the Book of Sports, noting which recreations and revels could be performed on the Sabbath.”
[3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 372) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 207) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 208) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U |
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Islamic legal texts. A literary work on the introduction to Arabic grammar and language was written by a famous grammarian, al-Zamakhshari around 1141.
[1]
Fakhr al-Din Razi was the author of an encyclopaedia on the Qur’an, Tafsir.
[2]
[1]: Boyle 1968: 141. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CFW8EE6Q [2]: Boyle 1968: 287. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CFW8EE6Q |
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In 1527 and 1537 decrees regarding correct etiquette were issued by Ferdinand I.
[1]
[1]: (Vermeir et al 2021: 11)Vermeir, René, Raeymaekers, Dries, and Hortal Muñoz, José Eloy. 2021. A Constellation of Courts: The Courts and Households of Habsburg Europe, 1555–1665, vol. 15. Leuven University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt14jxsxk. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SRBKH6ZG |
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Advice books for subjects such as agriculture and farming. Travel books. Military strategy. Architecture
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[2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 372) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chicester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [2]: (Marshall 2006: 1170-2) Marshall, P. J. ed. 2006. The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume II The Eighteenth Century. Vol. 2, 5 vols. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HGG2PPQQ |
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"Domostroi" : A comprehensive guide to household management, religious life, and family ethics.
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Mikhail Lomonosov’s Works: Lomonosov, a polymath, wrote extensively on subjects like chemistry, physics, and natural science, making significant contributions to practical scientific knowledge in Russia. [2] [1]: “Домострой,” accessed December 18, 2023, https://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/domostr.htm. Zotero link: KEUFJJ2S [2]: “Научное Наследие — Электронная Библиотека ГНПБУ.” Accessed December 18, 2023. http://elib.gnpbu.ru/sections/0100/lomonosov/. Zotero link: 43PKCEWE |
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The Soviet Union produced a substantial amount of literature that was practical in nature. This included technical manuals, scientific works, educational textbooks, agricultural guides, political pamphlets, and a vast array of other publications that provided practical guidance on numerous topics. This literature served to educate the population, disseminate technical and scientific knowledge, guide industrial and agricultural practices, and promote political ideology. These documents were an essential part of the Soviet Union’s efforts to advance its economic, technological, and scientific goals.
Examples: "Вопросы и Ответы по школьной физике" (Questions and Answers on School Physics) [1] "Решение основных задач физики" (Problems in General Physics) by I.E. Irodov [2] "Уличные бои" (Street Fighting) by Petrov (1942) [3] [1]: Тарасов, Лев Васильевич. Готовимся к Экзамену По Физике, 1968. Zotero link: KZ6QCANA [2]: Irodov, Igor’ E. Zadaci po obscej fizike. Izd. 2e, Pererab. Moskva: Izd. Nauka, 1988. Zotero link: MQNT9BF8 [3]: Н. Петров, Уличные бои, 1942. Zotero link: I5BFVJW6 |
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Guidelines for running a manor, such as the management of land, agricultural information and manorial law. During the Carolingian period capitularies were written as legally binding administrative guides.
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The Mirror of the Saxons was written by a Judge, Eike von Repkow, around 1224 which compiled customs, written law, and the workins of the Empire.
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[1]: Wilson 2016: 403, 605. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/N5M9R9XA [2]: Wilson 2016: 607. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/N5M9R9XA |
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Literacy very low. Were there any readers of literature?
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Prior to the colonial period, the A’chik were illiterate. Were any of the Laskars literate and did they use lists and tables? ’Some of the Garos are of the opinion that they had their own alphabetic system of writing their language in some hoary past but this is not proved till now; it is really doubtful if the Garos had their own alphabet ever. ... the Garos of the interior hills were mostly illiterate who are even now mostly illiterate. After the district came under the administration of the British the foreign missionaries introduced Roman characters of writing and this facilitated them to translate the holy Bible into Garo and preach Christianity there. The Garos now write in Roman characters but even then all the letters of the English alphabet are not necessary to write the language’.
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[1]: Choudhury, Bhupendranath 1958. “Some Cultural And Linguistic Aspects Of The Garos”, 50 |
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Unknown. "The building of monumental architecture and the production of elite objects would have been inconceivable without some sort of systematic management of the city’s resources. ... A similar response to administrative needs at Erlitou is certainly a possibility."
[1]
[1]: (Wang 2014, 178) Wang, Haicheng. 2014. Writing and the Ancient State: Early China in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press. |
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No information found in sources so far.
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The following quote suggests that this era has left behind few written texts. "Historical information on those emerging years of the empire is dim and has to be carefully extracted from the accounts of Arab writers (Levtzion and Hopkins 1981), the scanty internal evidence in the Kanem-Borno king lists (Lange 1977), and the few fragments of internal scripts that have been recorded by the German traveler Heinrich Barth (1857-59; Lange 1987) and the British colonial officer Richmond Palmer (1967; 1970)."
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[1]: (Gronenborn 2002: 103) |
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Unknown. The Shang wrote on perishable materials, such as bamboo and silk.
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[1]: (The Shang Dynasty, 1600 to 1050 BCE. Spice Digest, Fall 2007. http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/117/ShangDynasty.pdf) |
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Correspondence present. Royal letters
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[2]
[1]: Hoffner H. A. (2009) Letters from the Hittite Kingdom, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature [2]: Bryce, T. (2003) Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East-The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 161-177 |
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"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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Literacy very low. Were there any readers of literature?
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e.g. used by government.
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Literate culture.
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