Section: Social Complexity
Subsection: Writing Systems

Written Record

written records are more than short and fragmentary inscriptions, such as found on tombs or runic stones. there must be several sentences strung together, at the very minimum. for example, royal proclamations from mesopotamia and egypt qualify as written records   (See here)
Contributors:

Variable Definition
Polity The Seshat Polity ID
Year(s) The years for which we have the data. [negative = BCE]
Tag [Evidenced, Disputed, Suspected, Inferred, Unknown]
Verified A Seshat Expert has approved this piece of data.

Variable Definition
written_record The absence or presence of written record for a polity.

# Polity Year(s) Written Record Description   Edit
241
(Pre-Maravi)
Full Year Range of Pre-Maravi is assumed.
[1151, 1399]
absent
The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]
242
(Kingdom of Nyinginya)
Full Year Range of Kingdom of Nyinginya is assumed.
[1650, 1897]
absent
None
243
(Pergamon Kingdom)
Full Year Range of Pergamon Kingdom is assumed.
[-282, -133]
present
None
244
(Chaulukya Dynasty)
Full Year Range of Chaulukya Dynasty is assumed.
[941, 1245]
present
EMPTY_COMMENT
245
(Kievan Rus)
Full Year Range of Kievan Rus is assumed.
[880, 1242]
present
EMPTY_COMMENT
246
(Gauda Kingdom)
Full Year Range of Gauda Kingdom is assumed.
[600, 625]
present
Many epigraphic materials including copper plates, short records, fragments of inscriptions and landgrants have been found in sites across the Vanga-Samatata region ranging in date from the 7th to the 13th centuries. [Harunur_Rashid_Haque 2001, pp. 93-224], [Majumdar 2015, pp. 1-27] In a record dated 619 CE, Sasanka is named as the suzerain of Gauda. [Majumdar 1943]
247
(Italian Kingdom Late Antiquity)
Full Year Range of Italian Kingdom Late Antiquity is assumed.
[476, 489]
present
None
248
(Early Maravi)
Full Year Range of Early Maravi is assumed.
[1400, 1499]
absent
The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]
249
(Gurjar-Pratihara Dynasty)
Full Year Range of Gurjar-Pratihara Dynasty is assumed.
[730, 1030]
present
None
250
(Northern Maravi Kingdom)
Full Year Range of Northern Maravi Kingdom is assumed.
[1500, 1621]
absent
EMPTY_COMMENT
Copyright © 2024, Seshat: Global History Databank.
Stay in touch with us: