| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
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With the departure of the Romans, written records went out of use and would not re-emerge until the seventh century.
[1]
[2]
Written records began being kept from the seventh century, including charters, king lists, historical works, and annals. “Kings were the most important benefactors of the religious houses within their kingdoms and naturally figure prominently in the archives of religious communities both through the records of their benefactions and in ‘historical’ records, such as saints’ Lives and annals, produced by individual religious houses. Religious houses might also act as repositories for the archives of their royal families and produce classes of records such as kinglists and genealogies for them.”
[1]
“It is usually accepted that contemporary annals began to be kept in Wessex at some point in the seventh century, and Stenton suggested that the Chronicle entry for 648 marked the beginning of a contemporary record of events. Entries are reasonably regular from 648 until 757 when they become extremely sparse until the accession of Egbert (802).”
[3]
[1]: (Yorke 1990: 20) York, Barbara. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203447307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXTNCWJN [2]: (Hills 1990: 47) Hills, Catherine. ‘Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England’, History Today, 1 October 1990, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1299029206/abstract/974AE2C925154DEBPQ/1. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9P2MJSYJ/ [3]: (Yorke 1990: 128) York, Barbara. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203447307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXTNCWJN |
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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 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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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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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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“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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“When the Huns first crossed over the Straits of Kerch into the Crimea and into the stream of European history they were illiterate. When they finally vanished in the turmoil of the fifth and sixth centuries, they were illiterate still.1 The songs which Priscus heard them singing when the torches had been lit in the banqueting-hall, songs in which they extolled the warlike deeds of Attila, might in time have produced an epic record of some of their achievements. Certainly the Ostrogoths, among whom they lived for so long, remembered their own early history in a cloudy fashion ‘in their ancient songs, in almost historic fashion’, and used to sing of the deeds of their ancestors to the strains of the harp.2 But the Huns vanished so quickly that if such epics began to develop among them they were never written down and did not survive the society which sang them.”
[1]
[1]: (Thompson 2004: 6) Thompson, E.A. 1996. The Huns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/49W8PAAS |
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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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"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 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]
Based on the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether literacy spread from Buganda to Nkore at this time.
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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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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Pat Savage: Barend ter Har distrusted this and other references claiming early origins of writing as being politically motivated to establish early Chinese invention. He says the first true writing isn’t attested until the Shang oracle bone script
[1]
[2]
. "Despite the almost complete absence of other written remains, it is clear that Erligang had a writing system that was in its capabilities at least the equal of the Egyptian writing from tomb U-j ... Both systems come to our notice in a ritual context, where their function was some sort of display, but we must remember that normally it is only after writing comes to be used for display that archaeology begins to find traces of it. Because administrative documents were almost certainly written on perishable materials like bamboo and papyrus, we will probably never find them."
[3]
"The emergence of writing is one of the indicators of civilization, and there is abundant evidence for this from early Shang sites. Inscribed symbols have been found mainly in phase III deposits at Zhengzhou (rank 1), Xiaoshuangqiao (rank 1), and Taixi (rank 2). Several symbols were found at Zhengzhou, as well as some resembling modern characters. These symbols were found mostly on dakou zun (大口尊 “large-mouthed” zun jars). In addition, some vessels from Xiaoshuangqiao have incised symbols under the rim. Some of these symbols seem similar to inscriptions on oracle bones from the late Shang period."
[4]
Other scholars suggest that there was no established writing system before the Late Shang or Anyang period. "Nevertheless, the Anyang period is notable for two important new developments: writing and the introduction of the chariot. The first of these, although possibly having unpreserved antecedents (Keightley 2006; Bagley 2004 but see Smith 2008 for the argument that the script could have developed rapidly), appeared in two forms in the Anyang period."
[5]
[1]: William G. Boltz. The origin and early development of the Chinese writing system. (American Oriental Society, 2003). [2]: Keightley, D. N. The ancestral landscape: Time, space, and community in late Shang China (ca. 1200-1045 B.C.). (University of California Press, 2000). [3]: (Wang 2014, 179) Wang, Haicheng. 2014. Writing and the Ancient State: Early China in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press. [4]: (Yuan 2013, 337) [5]: (Campbell 2014, 130) |
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Barend ter Har distrusted this and other references claiming early origins of writing as being politically motivated to establish early Chinese invention. He says the first true writing isn’t attested until the Shang oracle bone script
[1]
[2]
. However, anything written on perishable materials such as bamboo, for instance, unlikely to be preserved. "so far no writing has been found at the Erlitou site; the only evidence of writing discovered as yet consists of various carved symbols on pottery (fig. 6.11). Nevertheless, because the writing system of the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions is already highly developed, it is possible that there was writing in the Erlitou culture, particularly at the major Erlitou site."
[3]
"Since no writing system has been found at Erlitou, it is unclear how the administration of this archaic state managed the flow of information and material between the core and the periphery."
[4]
"Nevertheless, the Anyang period is notable for two important new developments: writing and the introduction of the chariot. The first of these, although possibly having unpreserved antecedents (Keightley 2006; Bagley 2004 but see Smith 2008 for the argument that the script could have developed rapidly), appeared in two forms in the Anyang period."
[5]
Although we have no evidence of written records we could infer that a writing system would evolve in an environment of perishable written records that do not get preserved rather than in the evolutionary less intensive competition of pottery inscriptions which do survive.
[1]: William G. Boltz. The origin and early development of the Chinese writing system. (American Oriental Society, 2003). [2]: Keightley, D. N. The ancestral landscape: Time, space, and community in late Shang China (ca. 1200-1045 B.C.). (University of California Press, 2000). [3]: (Chang, Xu, Allan and Lu, 2005, 150) Chang, Kwang-chih. Xu, Pingfang. Allan, Sarah. Lu, Liancheng. 2005. The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective. Yale University Press. [4]: (Liu and Chen 2008, 168) [5]: (Campbell 2014, 130) |
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Some shamans used written magic charms: "Among the Chung-chia people the magic charms used for such spiritual purposes are marked with Chinese characters as phonetic symbols and written down as a scripture to be transmitted from master to disciple".
[1]
However, it is not clear that these magic charms included "at least several sentences strung together", as per our definition of "written records". Christian missionaries introduced a Romanized script for the publication of sacred texts and religious literature in the native languages,
[2]
but since we are discounting most other Christian "interventions", it makes sense to discount this one as well.
[1]: Chen, Guojun, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Religious Beliefs Of The Miao And I Tribes In An-Shun Kweichow”, 3 [2]: Che-lin, Wu, Chen Kuo-chün, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Studies Of Miao-I Societies In Kweichow”, 15 |
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Pat Savage: Barend ter Har distrusted this and other references claiming early origins of writing as being politically motivated to establish early Chinese invention. He says the first true writing isn’t attested until the Shang oracle bone script
[1]
[2]
. "Not only did political chiefdoms, hierarchical settlements, and high shamanism begin in this period, but it may have witnessed the invention of true writing as well; many inscribed but yet to be deciphered pottery pieces have come to light (Fig. I.IO)."
[3]
"A recurring characteristic of Longshan walled settlements in Shandong appears to be the presence of incipient forms of writing; at four of the six sites (Chengziyai, Dinggong, Shijia, and ]ingyanggang) excavators have found inscribed pottery or bones."
[4]
"While there is an ongoing debate about the presence of writing in pre-Shang China, archaeological evidence indicates that simple recording systems occurred before the Longshan period, and that by the Longshan era some simple form of writing may have appeared (Dematte 1999). Particularly crucial are the discoveries of pictographic signs structurally similar to later Chinese characters in the area of the eastern coastal cultures (such as Dawenkou, Liangzhu, and Yueshi)."
[5]
However, anything written on perishable materials such as bamboo, for instance, unlikely to be preserved.
[1]: William G. Boltz. The origin and early development of the Chinese writing system. (American Oriental Society, 2003). [2]: Keightley, D. N. The ancestral landscape: Time, space, and community in late Shang China (ca. 1200-1045 B.C.). (University of California Press, 2000). [3]: (Chang 1999, 64) [4]: (Demattè 1999, 127) [5]: (Demattè 1999, 141) |
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ Christian missionaries introduced Latinized characters: ’The Malays before their conversion to Mahomedanism may be presumed to have had no letters of their own. What they have now are made up out of the Arabic alphabet. To suit the tone of their language the letters are named accordingly. With reference to the Sea Dyaks, since the gospel of Christ has been preached to them, letters of the Roman character are used and pronounced accordingly to suit the tones of their pronunciation.’
[1]
The first true mission schools were established in the 1920s (see above). In the 1950s, Freeman claimed no written calendars for the ’pre-literate’ Iban: ’The Iban still attach great importance to their stellar lore. Tungku, a tuai rumah of the Mujong headwaters, put it in these words:“If there were no stars we Iban would be lost, not knowing when to plant; we live by the stars.”(“ Enti nadai bintang tesat ati kami Iban, enda nemu maia nugal; kami idup ari bintang. ”) It must not be thought however that there is any dogma that rituals, etc. should be held on the exact dates given. The Iban are a pre-literate people without a calendar, and the movements of the Pleiades, Orion and Sirius are taken as no more than general indications of the time when the major operations of felling and planting should be embarked upon.’
[2]
Komanyi claims written calendars following the European pattern and literacy in the 1970s: ’Since most people now have western calendars, they know during which month the sowing, weeding or harvesting is to be done. Their “new year” begins after the harvest is completed, which may be some time in May or June. However, June 1st is “Dayak Day,” proclaimed by the government as the official Dayak New Year’s Day.’
[3]
These figures are entirely contradictory. We have chosen to go with the 1921 figure as it is coherent with the establishment of mission schools, but expert feedback is absolutely essential on this matter. Regional variation may explain the difference, but this is in need of confirmation.
[1]: Howell, William 1908-1910. “Sea Dyak”, 3 [2]: Freeman, Derek 1955. “Iban Agriculture: A Report On The Shifting Cultivation Of Hill Rice By The Iban Of Sarawak”, 40 [3]: Komanyi, Margit Ilona 1973. “Real And Ideal Participation In Decision-Making Of Iban Women: A Study Of A Longhouse Community In Sarawak, East Malaysia”, 15 |
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Distant ancestors of the Sakha may have been familiar with writing, but lost that knowledge during past migrations: ’Spindle whorls were made of a kind of hard stone coal (slate?). Of particular interest was one spindle, found in Kurumchinakh, which was covered with writing (letters). In comparing these characters with those of various alphabets, it may readily be observed that many of them are similar, as far as they can be deciphered, to the characters of the Orkhon alphabet. There were thirty-seven symbols of which twenty-one are letters and sixteen indistinct, effaced signs, including perhaps mere scratches. The twenty-one letters appear to be an exact reproduction of the Yenisei-Orkhon characters. There are eighteen consonants and three vowels. Some of the characters are repeated and in all there are ten different symbols. The discovery of these writings so far to the north is of great interest. The ancestors of the Yakut, who, in remote times, emigrated from northern Mongolia, undoubtedly knew the Orkhon alphabet and this may explain the Yakut traditions as to the loss of their writings on the way to Yakutsk Province.’
[1]
The first recent script for the Yakut language was developed by 19th century Russian missionaries: ’The Yakut speak Yakut, a Northeast Turkic language of the Altaic Language Family. It is one of the most divergent of the Turkic languages, closely related to Dolgan (a mixture of Evenk and Yakut sometimes described as a Yakut dialect). The Yakut, over 90 percent of whom speak Yakut as their mother tongue, call their language "Sakha-tyla." Their current written language, developed in the 1930s, is a modified Cyrillic script. Before this, they had several written forms, including a Latin script developed in the 1920s and a Cyrillic script introduced by missionaries in the nineteenth century. Yakut lore includes legends of a written language lost after they traveled north to the Lena valley.’
[2]
’Such was the culture of the Yakut people up to the October Revolution. Particularly important was the cultural assistance which the Yakuts obtained from the fraternal Russian people during the prerevolutionary years. In the 19th century it was mainly the political exiles, beginning with the Decembrists, who spread culture through Yakutiya. There were also other progressive Russian people who diffused the beginnings of a cultivated way of life among the Yakuts. In particular, they laid the foundations of the Yakut written language.’
[3]
Russian administrators communicated in writing and composed clerical documents: ’The people became rapidly impoverished, and the order of the voivode to the clerk Evdokim Kurdiukov in 1685 already mentions the arrears in the treasury and orders the yassak gatherers to treat the people in arrears in the following way: from them who have no cattle take, because of their povetry and extreme need one cherno-cherevyya and one sivodushatyya fox from each, and for a sable, two red foxes from each. This same document orders him to make a census of the people, and their goods and cattle: collect the taxes for the current year, 193 (1685) in full, and collect the arrears for the past years, from each as much as possible. Similar censuses were taken earlier also, and their character may be judged by the census of Grishka Krivogornitsyn in 170 (1671) “for the Meginsk volosts” There we find mentioned not only the taxes and the amounts in arrears, but also the houses, wives, number of workers in the family. There is information about those who have died and those who have run away. Moreover the name and clan of every person is given. The personal and clan nicknames, of course are very much corrupted in these notes, and changed to conform with the Russian style, but it is not hard to determine what they actually are. The yassak books and these censuses were the materials out of which was later created the present system of Yakut self-government.’
[4]
But Yakuts probably had little to no access to these. Illiteracy was widespread: ’In 1942 Yakutiya celebrated the end of illiteracy among the adult population. Over the years of the Soviet regime more than 155,000 illiterate people have been taught to read and write. Work continues with those who are only partially literate in the network of adult schools.’
[5]
We have selected 1800 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Jochelson, Waldemar 1933. “Yakut”, 62 [2]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut [3]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 283 [4]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 780 [5]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 298 |
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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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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’ According to Salazar’s information, written records and literacy became more widespread only in the second half of the 20th century: ’The official publication of the federation is a bilingual Shuar-Spanish newspaper called Chicham, “Message,” which appears irregularly. Chicham is devoted to accounts of the activities of the federation, as well as general information on such varied subjects as acculturation, government policies, and the situation of Indian groups in Ecuador and South America as a whole. The Shuar have already established contact with native American movements throughout the American continent. Furthermore, the federation has sponsored about 30 publications of different kinds, including scientific subjects (technology, social structure, and mythology of the Shuar), school books (literacy booklets and school texts), and religious works (prayer books, gospel translations). Particular attention must be drawn to the publication of the Mundo Shuar booklets, which represents the greatest effort so far to diffuse Shuar culture in printed form. The collection includes seven series of publications, each series covering a broad aspect of Shuar culture (e.g. ethnohistory, technology, linguistics). Authors include missionaries, white teachers, and Shuar intellectuals who contribute to the recently established Center for Documentation and Research on Shuar Culture. The collection as a whole is printed at the Salesian Publishing House in Quito, and is also directed by a Salesian priest, Father Juan Botasso. Mundo Shuar thus appears as a Salesian effort to rescue what is left of a rich culture that almost disintegrated as a result of more than half a century of Salesian administration of the Shuar people. The works so far published show, as could be expected, a varying degree of scholarship, but on the whole Mundo Shuar has been well accepted in the country, and promises to be an indispensable research tool for anthropologists interested in Shuar culture.’
[1]
[1]: Salazar, Ernesto 1981. “Federación Shuar And The Colonization Frontier”, 601 |
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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’ According to Salazar’s information, written records and literacy became more widespread only in the second half of the 20th century: ’The official publication of the federation is a bilingual Shuar-Spanish newspaper called Chicham, “Message,” which appears irregularly. Chicham is devoted to accounts of the activities of the federation, as well as general information on such varied subjects as acculturation, government policies, and the situation of Indian groups in Ecuador and South America as a whole. The Shuar have already established contact with native American movements throughout the American continent. Furthermore, the federation has sponsored about 30 publications of different kinds, including scientific subjects (technology, social structure, and mythology of the Shuar), school books (literacy booklets and school texts), and religious works (prayer books, gospel translations). Particular attention must be drawn to the publication of the Mundo Shuar booklets, which represents the greatest effort so far to diffuse Shuar culture in printed form. The collection includes seven series of publications, each series covering a broad aspect of Shuar culture (e.g. ethnohistory, technology, linguistics). Authors include missionaries, white teachers, and Shuar intellectuals who contribute to the recently established Center for Documentation and Research on Shuar Culture. The collection as a whole is printed at the Salesian Publishing House in Quito, and is also directed by a Salesian priest, Father Juan Botasso. Mundo Shuar thus appears as a Salesian effort to rescue what is left of a rich culture that almost disintegrated as a result of more than half a century of Salesian administration of the Shuar people. The works so far published show, as could be expected, a varying degree of scholarship, but on the whole Mundo Shuar has been well accepted in the country, and promises to be an indispensable research tool for anthropologists interested in Shuar culture.’
[1]
[1]: Salazar, Ernesto 1981. “Federación Shuar And The Colonization Frontier”, 601 |
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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]
Still they can be precursors of "real" hieroglyphs.
[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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John Baines confirmed that these should not count as true written records until Naqada III. 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]
Still they can be precursors of "real" hieroglyphs.
[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 Iroquois initially relied on wampum records: ’The laws explained at different stages of the ceremonial, were repeated from strings of wampum, into which they “had been talked” at the time of their enactment. In the Indian method of expressing the idea, the string, or the belt can tell, by means of an interpreter, the exact law or transaction of which it was made, at the time, the sole evidence. It operates upon the principle of association, and thus seeks to give fidelity to the memory. These strings and belts were the only visible records of the Iroquois; and were of no use except by the aid of those special personages who could draw forth the secret records locked up in their remembrance.’
[1]
The Handsome Lake Code was canonized in the 19th century, around two decades after the end date of our data sheet: ’The present form of the Gai[unknown] wiio` was determined by a council of its preachers some fifty years ago. They met at Cold Spring, the old home of Handsome Lake, and compared their versions. Several differences were found and each preacher thought his version the correct one. At length Chief John Jacket, a Cattaraugus Seneca, and a man well versed in the lore of his people, was chosen to settle forever the words and the form of the Gai[unknown] wiio`. This he did by writing it out in the Seneca language by the method taught by Rev. Asher Wright, the Presbyterian missionary. The preachers assembled again, this time, according to Cornplanter, at Cattaraugus where they memorized the parts in which they were faulty. The original text was written on letter paper and now is entirely destroyed. [Page 8] Chief Jacket gave it to Henry Stevens and Chief Stevens passed it on to Chief Cornplanter who after he had memorized the teachings became careless and lost the papers sheet by sheet. Fearing that the true form might become lost Chief Cornplanter in 1903 began to rewrite the Gai[unknown] wiio` in an old minute book of the Seneca Lacrosse Club. He had finished the historical introduction when the writer discovered what he had done. He was implored to finish it and give it to the State of New York for preservation. He was at first reluctant, fearing criticism, but after a council with the leading men he consented to do so. He became greatly interested in the progress of the translation and is eager for the time to arrive when all white men may have the privilege of reading the “wonderful message” of the great prophet.’
[2]
Christian missionaries translated parts of the Bible into Iroquois languages and also published newspapers: ’At the time, those Whites having business with Indians needed interpreters, and the missionaries and teachers in the mission schools were no exception. Nevertheless, with the help of interpreters, a few of them did translate hymns and parts of the Bible into Seneca. This work of translation was greatly expanded by the most noted missionary to the Senecas, Asher Wright. His translations included those of the four Gospels into Seneca. He also established a press to publish materials such as a newspaper, The Mental Elevator, in both Seneca and English (Pilling1888:175-178). Wright went to the Buffalo Creek reservationas a missionary in 1831 and spent the next 15 years there. When this reservation was sold, he and his wife moved to Cattaraugus where Wright died.’
[3]
We have assumed 1831 as a provisional date of transition. Expert feedback is needed on the spread of literacy among the Iroquois.
[1]: Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 114 [2]: Parker, Arthur C. 1913. “Code Of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet”, 7 [3]: Abler, Thomas S., and Elisabeth Tooker 1978. “Seneca”, 510 |
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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 Akan languages did not receive a script until the late colonial period: ’Twi is a tonal language and, since missionary work during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, has been written in Roman script’
[1]
’Akan languages started to be written down, mainly in religious publication, by Danish, German and British missionaries during the 17th and 18th centuries.’
[2]
’Towards the end of the century the use of written records and communications had made some headway. Europeans like the Frenchman Bonnat were absorbed, albeit briefly, into the system, and Asantes like the Owusu Ansa brothers, mission educated, were fully literate. Written messages were sent: for example, in 1889 Prempe 1 received a written account of the fate of a force dispatched against recalcitrant Ahafo towns. The writer described himself as ‘Chief Miner’, possibly an Elminan. The year before the King received a letter from a Muslim divine, Abu Bakr B. Uthman Kamaghatay, setting out terms for his return to Kumase. Both letters were kept until removed from Kumase by British forces in 1896.’
[3]
[1]: (Gilbert, Michelle, 1994:11; Literacy Database) [2]: (Ager, Simon 2013; Literacy Database [3]: McLeod, M. D. (Malcolm D.) 1981. “Asante”, 88 |
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“Although the ancient people of the Southwest didn’t have a written language, they had effective ways to communicate. Cultures worldwide have used rock art to transmit ideas and beliefs. There are two types of rock art, petroglyphs and pictographs.”
[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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There are no 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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Prior to the colonial period, the A’chik were illiterate: ‘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. Before the district of the Garo Hills was taken over by the British, the people living in the areas bordering Goalpara and Kamrup used to write in Assamese character while those living in the borders of the Mymensing and the Sylhet districts used to write in Bengali character; 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.’
[1]
’In the Garo Hills the percentage of literacy was only 0.85 percent in 1901. It went upto 2.65 percent in 1931. Prior to Independence, the literacy was only 7.31 percent (1951 census). Between 1951 and 1961 there was a spectacular increase. In 1991 the literacy percentage in the Garo Hills was recorded as 37.04 percent, much below the national average as well as the overall state average of 48.26 percent. In the Garo Hills there is a positive cor-relation between the level of literacy and the extent of participation in the active economic life.’
[2]
[1]: Choudhury, Bhupendranath 1958. “Some Cultural And Linguistic Aspects Of The Garos”, 50 [2]: Pandey, M. C. 1995. “Demographic Profile Of The Garo Hills”, 27 |
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Certainly absent.
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"The earliest parts of the Rig-Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, may have been composed as early as, or even earlier than, 1700 BCE, but was written down only after 500 BC. For forty generations and more it was handed down by word of mouth by bards and poets, who chanted the sacred hymn and the ritual prayers."
[1]
[1]: Avari, B. (2007) India: The Ancient Past: A history of the India sub-continent from c. 7,000 BC to AD 1200. Routledge: London and New York. p76 |
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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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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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"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]
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]
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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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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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 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 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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“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 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 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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Literacy existed before latinization, but was associated with social authority and written records are sparse: ’It is usually forgotten that literacy had existed in Norse culture, of which Icelandic culture was a late offshoot, long before the year 1000. Actually, literacy was introduced with the runic alphabet as early as the second or third century A.D. Literacy seems, however, to have been the prerogative of the aristocratic class. It seems that the secrets were jealously guarded by the leading social stratum. Runic inscriptions are generally short, and mainly commemorate family relationships. The Tune stone runic inscription from Østfold in eastern Norway (from around A.D. 200) may serve as an example. Although there is some disagreement regarding interpretation, it is commonly believed that the inscription relates a number of inheritors to an ancestor (Grønvik 1981), and that it was connected to the inheritors’ claims to exclusive rights to property. Runes were shrouded in magic and sorcery, imbuing the text with sacrality. Writing constituted authority. That writing of runes was associated with people of authority is also manifested in Norse mythology. In the poem Rígsþula, written in Iceland in the thirteenth century, but commonly [Page 126] believed to belong to the Viking period, the god Heimdallr teaches the prince Jarl (Earl) to write runes. In some of the stanzas of Hávamál the high god Óðinn sacrifices himself in order to obtain the powerful knowledge of the runes (138-141). Óðinn was above all the god of the aristocratic warriors. In these and similar cases the basic message is that rune writing was an exclusive right of the aristocratic class.’
[1]
The introduction of the Latin alphabet expanded the spectrum of written genres beyond the badly preserved Runic tradition: ’At the time of settlement, the Icelanders spoke Old Norse (a Germanic language, in the large Indo-European group of languages), which was then common throughout Scandinavia. By the beginning of the twelfth century linguistic conservatism on the remote island society had introduced significant differences between Icelandic and its Scandinavian neighbors resulting in a distinct Icelandic. Prior to the conversion to Christianity in 1000 A.D., Old Norse was written in a runic alphabet. Runes had a restricted use and few runic inscriptions have survived from Iceland. With Christianity came the Roman alphabet and the expansion of written genres, which thrived in Iceland.’
[2]
We have selected 1100ce as a potential date of transition following expert advice. Early Icelanders then developed a rich literary tradition: ’One of the remarkable legacies of early Iceland is its wealth of literary production. Icelandic literary production encompassed continental chivalrous, hagiographic, and historical traditions, in addition to the autochthonous development of the saga. Among other topics, Icelandic sagas depict events from the early years of Icelandic society, the colonization of Greenland and the discovery of North America, and the civil wars that characterized the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Iceland. The medieval manuscripts also preserve an artistic tradition in illumination. The literary levels achieved in Iceland, to some degree, developed from strong oral traditions of poetry and narrative. Much of the material culture of early Iceland has not been preserved but a strong tradition in artistic woodcarving is evident.’
[2]
The introduction of Christianity was an important factor in this process: ’By the end of the 10th century, the Norwegians were forced by their king, Olaf I Tryggvason, to accept Christianity. The king also sent missionaries to Iceland who, according to 12th-century sources, were highly successful in converting the Icelanders. In 999 or 1000 the Althing made a peaceful decision that all Icelanders should become Christians. In spite of this decision, the godar retained their political role, and many of them probably built their own churches. Some were ordained, and as a group they seem to have closely controlled the organization of the new religion. Two bishoprics were established, one at Skálholt in 1056 and the other at Hólar in 1106. Literate Christian culture also transformed lay life. Codification of the law was begun in 1117-18. Later the Icelanders began to write sagas, which were to reach their pinnacle of literary achievement in the next century.’
[3]
’While literacy became widespread in Iceland during the two centuries prior to the writing of the sagas, the evidence suggests that writing continued to be connected to chieftains and landowners. As literacy was taught by the Church, most chieftains had clerical training, and many of them were ordained priests (Sveinsson 1953). Although the international outlook of Christianity was inimical to the kin-based and locally-based Icelandic civilization, at that time it was probably not regarded as too radical. Actually, when Christianity was first introduced to Iceland, it was probably considered to be a resource which the chieftains could exploit [Page 127] to their own benefit, and literacy was part of it. At the turn of the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, when they began to write sagas, relations between the lay and Church authorities became strained. The literature of the twelfth century is half-secular, half-ecclesiastic (Sveinsson 1953:103). The tension between the Church and the chieftains created an independent secular literature in Iceland in the thirteenth century (Lönnroth 1991). Increasingly, people turned to the oral literature which existed in the secular social environment. The context of literacy continued to be closely associated to the dominant social class.’
[4]
The Roman alphabet was adapted to the Norse vernacular: ’When they started writing, Icelanders wrote about secular as well as religious matters. They adapted the Roman alphabet to their own tongue and wrote in the vernacular because they had something to write for one another. This process of writing started just about a hundred years after seasonal labor became available, when landowners could expand their holdings and the distribution of wealth, land, and power began to shift in a continuous process of revaluing the social and political variables.’
[5]
[1]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 125 [2]: Bolender, Douglas James and Beierle, John: eHRAF Cultural Summary for Early Icelanders [3]: http://www.britannica.com/place/Iceland/Government-and-society#toc10088 [4]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 126 [5]: Durrenberger, E. Paul 1992. “Dynamics Of Medieval Iceland: Political Economy And Literature”, 106 |
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Inferred from the fact that "most [Italian peoples before the Romans] were not even literate"
[1]
, although some writing has been found in association with elite graves
[2]
.
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 37 [2]: G. Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (2006), pp. 53-58 |
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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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Inferred from the fact that "most [Italian peoples before the Romans] were not even literate"
[1]
, although some writing has been found in association with elite graves
[2]
.
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 37 [2]: G. Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (2006), pp. 53-58 |
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Western alphabet developed c800 BCE and by 700 BCE had arrived in Italy.
[1]
However, "most [Italian peoples before the Romans] were not even literate"
[2]
, although some writing has been found in association with elite graves
[3]
[1]: (Cornell 1995, 103) [2]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 37 [3]: G. Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (2006), pp. 53-58 |
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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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"To all appearances, writing as such, in the form of Chinese Classics, was introduced into Japan early in the fifth century as part of the great cultural influx from Paekche."
[1]
"The earliest Japanese imperial chronicles, that is, the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki, were completed in AD 712 and 720, and included compilations of various historical records as well as ancestral legends dating back to ancient times"
[2]
[1]: (Frellesvig 2010, 11) [2]: (Mizoguchi 2013, 32) Mizoguchi, Koji. 2013. The Archaeology of Japan: From the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State. Cambridge University Press. |
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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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"To all appearances, writing as such, in the form of Chinese Classics, was introduced into Japan early in the fifth century as part of the great cultural influx from Paekche."
[1]
"The earliest Japanese imperial chronicles, that is, the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki, were completed in AD 712 and 720, and included compilations of various historical records as well as ancestral legends dating back to ancient times"
[2]
[1]: (Frellesvig 2010, 11) [2]: (Mizoguchi 2013, 32) Mizoguchi, Koji. 2013. The Archaeology of Japan: From the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State. Cambridge University Press. |
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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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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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"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]
We are inferring presence for the kingdom of Nkore due to likely spread of literacy from the Buganda polity.
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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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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"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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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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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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"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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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 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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"Historical sources report that by A.D. 500 the Jujan were actively adopting a variety of Chinese influences, including the use of written Chinese for official records. "
[1]
c500 CE and after: "It may be assumed that by then some of the Juan-juan already lived a settled life and practised agriculture. The original sources repeatedly mention that their khagans obtained ‘seed millet’ from China (some 10,000 shi each time). This shows that the Juan-juan society and state had gradually developed from nomadic herding to a settled agricultural way of life, from yurts to the building of houses and monumental architecture, from the nomadic district to towns. They had invented their own system of writing and developed their own local culture and Buddhist learning flourished."
[2]
"the early steppe peoples would not have been a promising vehicle for the diffusion of complicated, textually based knowledge; according to the Northern Wei dynastic history, the Rouran were illiterates whose leaders at first kept records of their troop numbers by piling up sheep turds as counters but eventually graduated to scratching simple marks onto pieces of wood. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence of the transmission of Chinese military theories and texts to the West by way of the Avars, other steppe nomads, Silk Road caravans, or any other channel prior to the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."
[3]
[1]: (Rogers 2012, 224) [2]: (Kyzlasov 1996, 317) [3]: (Graff 2016, 146) David A Graff. 2016. The Eurasian Way of War. Military practice in seventh-century China and Byzantium. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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"The main sources on Xianbei history are three Chinese chronicles: the Hou Han shu, chapter 90; the Wei shu [History of the Wei Dynasty, hereafter WS], chapter 30; and the Sanguo zhi [Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms]. These texts have been translated into Russian (Bichurin 1950 [1851]: 149-159; Taskin 1984: 70-86) and others European (Schreiber 1947; Mullie 1969) languages. For a long time, archaeological sites of Xianbei were not known. It is only recently that cemeteries of Xianbei culture have been excavated in China and the Eastern Baikal area (Su Bai 1977; Gan Chigeng and Sun Suzcng 1982; Mi Wenping 1994; Yu Suhua 2002; Yaremcuk 2004; 2005 etc.)."
[1]
"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."
[2]
Kebineng’s reign started in 230 CE. "the early steppe peoples would not have been a promising vehicle for the diffusion of complicated, textually based knowledge; according to the Northern Wei dynastic history, the Rouran were illiterates whose leaders at first kept records of their troop numbers by piling up sheep turds as counters but eventually graduated to scratching simple marks onto pieces of wood. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence of the transmission of Chinese military theories and texts to the West by way of the Avars, other steppe nomads, Silk Road caravans, or any other channel prior to the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."
[3]
[1]: (Kradin 2014, 131) [2]: (Holcombe 2013, 7-8) [3]: (Graff 2016, 146) David A Graff. 2016. The Eurasian Way of War. Military practice in seventh-century China and Byzantium. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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Coded inferred present for later Xiongnu Imperial Confederation: "In several supercomplex chiefdoms the elite attempted to introduce written records (e.g. Hsiung-nu and Turks)"
[1]
When did this transition occur? The written records in Later Xiongnu times were mainly Chinese. "Since even the elite groups of the Xiongnu society were not particularly knowledgeable in the Chinese writing (it would be enough to mention the well known episode with the substitution of a Chanyu stamp by the order of Wang Mang), the common nomads could hardly be more literate than their leaders. Thus we may presume that the inscriptions on items from the Ivolga were made not by the Xiongnu, but by the people of the sedentary-agricultural origin and, most likely, by the immigrants or the prisoners of war from China."
[2]
"the early steppe peoples would not have been a promising vehicle for the diffusion of complicated, textually based knowledge; according to the Northern Wei dynastic history, the Rouran were illiterates whose leaders at first kept records of their troop numbers by piling up sheep turds as counters but eventually graduated to scratching simple marks onto pieces of wood. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence of the transmission of Chinese military theories and texts to the West by way of the Avars, other steppe nomads, Silk Road caravans, or any other channel prior to the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."
[3]
[1]: (Kradin 2002, 373) [2]: (Kradin 2014, 90) [3]: (Graff 2016, 146) David A Graff. 2016. The Eurasian Way of War. Military practice in seventh-century China and Byzantium. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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"Despite many problems in assessing the textual sources, archaeologists working on this period in the northern steppe zone are extremely fortunate to have historical accounts of the early nomads as seen through the eyes of state historians in China. Some textual information, no matter how problematic, is still better than none at all."
[1]
Note that Chinese written records do not count as records for the Xiongnu. "In several supercomplex chiefdoms the elite attempted to introduce written records (e.g. Hsiung-nu and Turks)",
[2]
but the use of the word ’attempted’ here seems to imply that they were unsuccessful. "the early steppe peoples would not have been a promising vehicle for the diffusion of complicated, textually based knowledge; according to the Northern Wei dynastic history, the Rouran were illiterates whose leaders at first kept records of their troop numbers by piling up sheep turds as counters but eventually graduated to scratching simple marks onto pieces of wood. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence of the transmission of Chinese military theories and texts to the West by way of the Avars, other steppe nomads, Silk Road caravans, or any other channel prior to the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."
[3]
[1]: (Honeychurch 2015, 223) [2]: (Kradin 2002, 373) [3]: (Graff 2016, 146) David A Graff. 2016. The Eurasian Way of War. Military practice in seventh-century China and Byzantium. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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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’ Written records were introduced by colonial authorities and missions.
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"Despite many problems in assessing the textual sources, archaeologists working on this period in the northern steppe zone are extremely fortunate to have historical accounts of the early nomads as seen through the eyes of state historians in China. Some textual information, no matter how problematic, is still better than none at all."
[1]
Note that Chinese written records do not count as records for the Xiongnu. "In several supercomplex chiefdoms the elite attempted to introduce written records (e.g. Hsiung-nu and Turks)",
[2]
but the use of the word ’attempted’ here seems to imply that they were unsuccessful. "the early steppe peoples would not have been a promising vehicle for the diffusion of complicated, textually based knowledge; according to the Northern Wei dynastic history, the Rouran were illiterates whose leaders at first kept records of their troop numbers by piling up sheep turds as counters but eventually graduated to scratching simple marks onto pieces of wood. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence of the transmission of Chinese military theories and texts to the West by way of the Avars, other steppe nomads, Silk Road caravans, or any other channel prior to the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."
[3]
[1]: (Honeychurch 2015, 223) [2]: (Kradin 2002, 373) [3]: (Graff 2016, 146) David A Graff. 2016. The Eurasian Way of War. Military practice in seventh-century China and Byzantium. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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"The Achaemenids brought writing to Sogdiana, and the written language long remained the Aramaic of the Achaemenid Empire."
[1]
A possibility since administrative institutions use and store documents: "Reflecting the major social and political development of the region, this monumental architecture is evidence of a strong local state organization. The inner buildings of these courtyards are at present difficult to reconstruct. Although this question has still to be resolved, it would seem that the courtyards of Koktepe housed earlier religious and administrative institutions."
[2]
[1]: (De la Vaissière 2005, 17) [2]: (Rapin 2007, 35) Rapin, Claude. "Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia: from the Early Iron Age to the Kushan Period." in Cribb, Joe. Herrmann, Georgina. 2007. After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. British Academy. |
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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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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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Literacy existed before latinization, but was associated with social authority and written records are sparse: ’It is usually forgotten that literacy had existed in Norse culture, of which Icelandic culture was a late offshoot, long before the year 1000. Actually, literacy was introduced with the runic alphabet as early as the second or third century A.D. Literacy seems, however, to have been the prerogative of the aristocratic class. It seems that the secrets were jealously guarded by the leading social stratum. Runic inscriptions are generally short, and mainly commemorate family relationships. The Tune stone runic inscription from Østfold in eastern Norway (from around A.D. 200) may serve as an example. Although there is some disagreement regarding interpretation, it is commonly believed that the inscription relates a number of inheritors to an ancestor (Grønvik 1981), and that it was connected to the inheritors’ claims to exclusive rights to property. Runes were shrouded in magic and sorcery, imbuing the text with sacrality. Writing constituted authority. That writing of runes was associated with people of authority is also manifested in Norse mythology. In the poem Rígsþula, written in Iceland in the thirteenth century, but commonly [Page 126] believed to belong to the Viking period, the god Heimdallr teaches the prince Jarl (Earl) to write runes. In some of the stanzas of Hávamál the high god Óðinn sacrifices himself in order to obtain the powerful knowledge of the runes (138-141). Óðinn was above all the god of the aristocratic warriors. In these and similar cases the basic message is that rune writing was an exclusive right of the aristocratic class.’
[1]
The introduction of the Latin alphabet expanded the spectrum of written genres beyond the badly preserved Runic tradition: ’At the time of settlement, the Icelanders spoke Old Norse (a Germanic language, in the large Indo-European group of languages), which was then common throughout Scandinavia. By the beginning of the twelfth century linguistic conservatism on the remote island society had introduced significant differences between Icelandic and its Scandinavian neighbors resulting in a distinct Icelandic. Prior to the conversion to Christianity in 1000 A.D., Old Norse was written in a runic alphabet. Runes had a restricted use and few runic inscriptions have survived from Iceland. With Christianity came the Roman alphabet and the expansion of written genres, which thrived in Iceland.’
[2]
We have selected 1100ce as a potential date of transition following expert advice. Early Icelanders then developed a rich literary tradition: ’One of the remarkable legacies of early Iceland is its wealth of literary production. Icelandic literary production encompassed continental chivalrous, hagiographic, and historical traditions, in addition to the autochthonous development of the saga. Among other topics, Icelandic sagas depict events from the early years of Icelandic society, the colonization of Greenland and the discovery of North America, and the civil wars that characterized the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Iceland. The medieval manuscripts also preserve an artistic tradition in illumination. The literary levels achieved in Iceland, to some degree, developed from strong oral traditions of poetry and narrative. Much of the material culture of early Iceland has not been preserved but a strong tradition in artistic woodcarving is evident.’
[2]
The introduction of Christianity was an important factor in this process: ’By the end of the 10th century, the Norwegians were forced by their king, Olaf I Tryggvason, to accept Christianity. The king also sent missionaries to Iceland who, according to 12th-century sources, were highly successful in converting the Icelanders. In 999 or 1000 the Althing made a peaceful decision that all Icelanders should become Christians. In spite of this decision, the godar retained their political role, and many of them probably built their own churches. Some were ordained, and as a group they seem to have closely controlled the organization of the new religion. Two bishoprics were established, one at Skálholt in 1056 and the other at Hólar in 1106. Literate Christian culture also transformed lay life. Codification of the law was begun in 1117-18. Later the Icelanders began to write sagas, which were to reach their pinnacle of literary achievement in the next century.’
[3]
’While literacy became widespread in Iceland during the two centuries prior to the writing of the sagas, the evidence suggests that writing continued to be connected to chieftains and landowners. As literacy was taught by the Church, most chieftains had clerical training, and many of them were ordained priests (Sveinsson 1953). Although the international outlook of Christianity was inimical to the kin-based and locally-based Icelandic civilization, at that time it was probably not regarded as too radical. Actually, when Christianity was first introduced to Iceland, it was probably considered to be a resource which the chieftains could exploit [Page 127] to their own benefit, and literacy was part of it. At the turn of the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, when they began to write sagas, relations between the lay and Church authorities became strained. The literature of the twelfth century is half-secular, half-ecclesiastic (Sveinsson 1953:103). The tension between the Church and the chieftains created an independent secular literature in Iceland in the thirteenth century (Lönnroth 1991). Increasingly, people turned to the oral literature which existed in the secular social environment. The context of literacy continued to be closely associated to the dominant social class.’
[4]
The Roman alphabet was adapted to the Norse vernacular: ’When they started writing, Icelanders wrote about secular as well as religious matters. They adapted the Roman alphabet to their own tongue and wrote in the vernacular because they had something to write for one another. This process of writing started just about a hundred years after seasonal labor became available, when landowners could expand their holdings and the distribution of wealth, land, and power began to shift in a continuous process of revaluing the social and political variables.’
[5]
[1]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 125 [2]: Bolender, Douglas James and Beierle, John: eHRAF Cultural Summary for Early Icelanders [3]: http://www.britannica.com/place/Iceland/Government-and-society#toc10088 [4]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 126 [5]: Durrenberger, E. Paul 1992. “Dynamics Of Medieval Iceland: Political Economy And Literature”, 106 |
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"In the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum mentioned above, of the 6058 Phoenician inscriptions listed, only about one hundred of these had been found in the Phoenician Levantine homeland."
[1]
"The Phoenician alphabetic script was easy to write on papyrus or parchment sheets, and the use of these materials explains why virtually no Phoenician writings - no history, no trading records - have come down to us. In their cities by the sea, the air and soil were damp, and papyrus and leather moldered and rotted away. Thus disappeared the literature of the people who taught a large portion of the earth’s population to write."
[2]
[1]: Dixon (2013:32). [2]: Lipiński (1995:1321-1322) |
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The Iroquois initially relied on wampum records: ’The laws explained at different stages of the ceremonial, were repeated from strings of wampum, into which they “had been talked” at the time of their enactment. In the Indian method of expressing the idea, the string, or the belt can tell, by means of an interpreter, the exact law or transaction of which it was made, at the time, the sole evidence. It operates upon the principle of association, and thus seeks to give fidelity to the memory. These strings and belts were the only visible records of the Iroquois; and were of no use except by the aid of those special personages who could draw forth the secret records locked up in their remembrance.’
[1]
The Handsome Lake Code was canonized in the 19th century, around two decades after the end date of our data sheet: ’The present form of the Gai[unknown] wiio` was determined by a council of its preachers some fifty years ago. They met at Cold Spring, the old home of Handsome Lake, and compared their versions. Several differences were found and each preacher thought his version the correct one. At length Chief John Jacket, a Cattaraugus Seneca, and a man well versed in the lore of his people, was chosen to settle forever the words and the form of the Gai[unknown] wiio`. This he did by writing it out in the Seneca language by the method taught by Rev. Asher Wright, the Presbyterian missionary. The preachers assembled again, this time, according to Cornplanter, at Cattaraugus where they memorized the parts in which they were faulty. The original text was written on letter paper and now is entirely destroyed. [Page 8] Chief Jacket gave it to Henry Stevens and Chief Stevens passed it on to Chief Cornplanter who after he had memorized the teachings became careless and lost the papers sheet by sheet. Fearing that the true form might become lost Chief Cornplanter in 1903 began to rewrite the Gai[unknown] wiio` in an old minute book of the Seneca Lacrosse Club. He had finished the historical introduction when the writer discovered what he had done. He was implored to finish it and give it to the State of New York for preservation. He was at first reluctant, fearing criticism, but after a council with the leading men he consented to do so. He became greatly interested in the progress of the translation and is eager for the time to arrive when all white men may have the privilege of reading the “wonderful message” of the great prophet.’
[2]
Christian missionaries translated parts of the Bible into Iroquois languages and also published newspapers: ’At the time, those Whites having business with Indians needed interpreters, and the missionaries and teachers in the mission schools were no exception. Nevertheless, with the help of interpreters, a few of them did translate hymns and parts of the Bible into Seneca. This work of translation was greatly expanded by the most noted missionary to the Senecas, Asher Wright. His translations included those of the four Gospels into Seneca. He also established a press to publish materials such as a newspaper, The Mental Elevator, in both Seneca and English (Pilling1888:175-178). Wright went to the Buffalo Creek reservationas a missionary in 1831 and spent the next 15 years there. When this reservation was sold, he and his wife moved to Cattaraugus where Wright died.’
[3]
We have assumed 1831 as a provisional date of transition. Expert feedback is needed on the spread of literacy among the Iroquois.
[1]: Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 114 [2]: Parker, Arthur C. 1913. “Code Of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet”, 7 [3]: Abler, Thomas S., and Elisabeth Tooker 1978. “Seneca”, 510 |
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e.g ’Manghal un Niuca Tobca’an (The Secret History of the Mongols). A Chinese version the Sheng-wu ch’in-chneg lu was also produced.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Leeming, David. "Secret History of the Mongols." In The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press, 2005 [2]: Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, P.11. |
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"The main sources on Xianbei history are three Chinese chronicles: the Hou Han shu, chapter 90; the Wei shu [History of the Wei Dynasty, hereafter WS], chapter 30; and the Sanguo zhi [Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms]. These texts have been translated into Russian (Bichurin 1950 [1851]: 149-159; Taskin 1984: 70-86) and others European (Schreiber 1947; Mullie 1969) languages. For a long time, archaeological sites of Xianbei were not known. It is only recently that cemeteries of Xianbei culture have been excavated in China and the Eastern Baikal area (Su Bai 1977; Gan Chigeng and Sun Suzcng 1982; Mi Wenping 1994; Yu Suhua 2002; Yaremcuk 2004; 2005 etc.)."
[1]
"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."
[2]
Kebineng’s reign started in 230 CE. "the early steppe peoples would not have been a promising vehicle for the diffusion of complicated, textually based knowledge; according to the Northern Wei dynastic history, the Rouran were illiterates whose leaders at first kept records of their troop numbers by piling up sheep turds as counters but eventually graduated to scratching simple marks onto pieces of wood. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence of the transmission of Chinese military theories and texts to the West by way of the Avars, other steppe nomads, Silk Road caravans, or any other channel prior to the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."
[3]
[1]: (Kradin 2014, 131) [2]: (Holcombe 2013, 7-8) [3]: (Graff 2016, 146) David A Graff. 2016. The Eurasian Way of War. Military practice in seventh-century China and Byzantium. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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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’ Written records were introduced by colonial authorities and missions, but Schwimmer’s later material suggests a significant time-lag in the spread of literacy: ’For the rest, the skills acquired by Orokaiva over the last 15 years are largely concerned not directly with village development but rather with an increase of understanding of the world outside. While before the war, only a small minority had school education, the Anglican Mission spread its operations to several new stations, including Sasembata, after the war. After the eruption, the scope of education was again greatly extended and it could be said that the eruption marked the beginning of universal school education in the majority of Orokaiva villages. The Sasembata station began to draw virtually the entire child population of the surrounding villages, and most students now follow a five or six year course. While this development had been planned ever since the war, it may be significant that regular school attendance of all the villages in the district was experienced for the first time at Ilimo, where a school was conducted for the whole evacuee child population, and adult classes as well. It is the objective of present school programmes, as far as I can see, to make the population literate and the increase of literacy is a major aspect of acculturation over the period. Literacy has certainly progressed to a point where letters written in Orokaiva to any family in Sivepe can be read and understood with the help of at least a junior member of the family; and can be replied to. While I could see no evidence that people have acquired mathematical knowledge of any sophistication, I was struck by a strong quantitative orientation. In the Orokaiva language, there are no numerals higher than 2; hence, it is the invariable practise to use English numerals when speaking the Orokaiva language. The numerals are, in fact, among the main English linquistic features that have been borrowed. They are used with remarkable frequency; the number of coffee trees, the value in pounds of trade goods included in a bride price, the calculation of money prices, even the number of brothers or men who together played some role in a mythological tale (a distinctly contemporary touch, this)-all these phenomena show that “numbers” have become an integral part of Orokaiva culture. The Orokaiva use the English word “number” for a variety of quantitative concepts, including price. Finally, one must regard as an aspect of acculturation, the introduction of many [Page 80] concepts drawn from the scene of world affairs. While among the Orokaiva, I heard talk about Vietnam, Indonesia, Africa, India. The political orientation displayed was a mild kind of nationalism, and a sense of closeness to newly independent non-white states. But the information, derived from radio broadcasts and speeches by councillors, introduced an acculturative kind of perspective. Its dissemination is being actively encouraged by the Australian authorities.’
[1]
[1]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1969. “Cultural Consequences Of A Volcanic Eruption Experienced By The Mount Lamington Orokaiva”, 79 |
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Distant ancestors of the Sakha may have been familiar with writing, but lost that knowledge during past migrations: ’Spindle whorls were made of a kind of hard stone coal (slate?). Of particular interest was one spindle, found in Kurumchinakh, which was covered with writing (letters). In comparing these characters with those of various alphabets, it may readily be observed that many of them are similar, as far as they can be deciphered, to the characters of the Orkhon alphabet. There were thirty-seven symbols of which twenty-one are letters and sixteen indistinct, effaced signs, including perhaps mere scratches. The twenty-one letters appear to be an exact reproduction of the Yenisei-Orkhon characters. There are eighteen consonants and three vowels. Some of the characters are repeated and in all there are ten different symbols. The discovery of these writings so far to the north is of great interest. The ancestors of the Yakut, who, in remote times, emigrated from northern Mongolia, undoubtedly knew the Orkhon alphabet and this may explain the Yakut traditions as to the loss of their writings on the way to Yakutsk Province.’
[1]
The first recent script for the Yakut language was developed by 19th century Russian missionaries: ’The Yakut speak Yakut, a Northeast Turkic language of the Altaic Language Family. It is one of the most divergent of the Turkic languages, closely related to Dolgan (a mixture of Evenk and Yakut sometimes described as a Yakut dialect). The Yakut, over 90 percent of whom speak Yakut as their mother tongue, call their language "Sakha-tyla." Their current written language, developed in the 1930s, is a modified Cyrillic script. Before this, they had several written forms, including a Latin script developed in the 1920s and a Cyrillic script introduced by missionaries in the nineteenth century. Yakut lore includes legends of a written language lost after they traveled north to the Lena valley.’
[2]
’Such was the culture of the Yakut people up to the October Revolution. Particularly important was the cultural assistance which the Yakuts obtained from the fraternal Russian people during the prerevolutionary years. In the 19th century it was mainly the political exiles, beginning with the Decembrists, who spread culture through Yakutiya. There were also other progressive Russian people who diffused the beginnings of a cultivated way of life among the Yakuts. In particular, they laid the foundations of the Yakut written language.’
[3]
Russian administrators communicated in writing and composed clerical documents: ’The people became rapidly impoverished, and the order of the voivode to the clerk Evdokim Kurdiukov in 1685 already mentions the arrears in the treasury and orders the yassak gatherers to treat the people in arrears in the following way: from them who have no cattle take, because of their povetry and extreme need one cherno-cherevyya and one sivodushatyya fox from each, and for a sable, two red foxes from each. This same document orders him to make a census of the people, and their goods and cattle: collect the taxes for the current year, 193 (1685) in full, and collect the arrears for the past years, from each as much as possible. Similar censuses were taken earlier also, and their character may be judged by the census of Grishka Krivogornitsyn in 170 (1671) “for the Meginsk volosts” There we find mentioned not only the taxes and the amounts in arrears, but also the houses, wives, number of workers in the family. There is information about those who have died and those who have run away. Moreover the name and clan of every person is given. The personal and clan nicknames, of course are very much corrupted in these notes, and changed to conform with the Russian style, but it is not hard to determine what they actually are. The yassak books and these censuses were the materials out of which was later created the present system of Yakut self-government.’
[4]
But Yakuts probably had little to no access to these. Illiteracy was widespread: ’In 1942 Yakutiya celebrated the end of illiteracy among the adult population. Over the years of the Soviet regime more than 155,000 illiterate people have been taught to read and write. Work continues with those who are only partially literate in the network of adult schools.’
[5]
We have selected 1800 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Jochelson, Waldemar 1933. “Yakut”, 62 [2]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut [3]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 283 [4]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 780 [5]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 298 |
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Historical records have survived from the time of the Cappadocian kingdom. Polybius and Strabo were the main historians of the time, and although they did not often discuss Cappadocia directly, they to refer to the region in relation to the expansion of the Roman Empire and the politics of the neighbouring polities.
[1]
[1]: Bowder, D. (ed.) (1982) Who was Who in the Greek World, 776 BC - 30 BC. Phaidon: Oxford. p171-172 |
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Remains of the Hittite language were found in excavations of Hattusa. Hittite cuneiform archives have been discovered at Ortaköy (ancient Sapinuwa), Kuşakli (ancient Sarissa) and Maşat (ancient Tapikka).
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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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“The most valuable source of knowledge for scholars probing the legends and historical heritage of Sri Lanka is still the Mahavamsa (Great Genealogy or Dynasty), a chronicle complied in Pali, the language of Theravada Buddhism, in the sixth century. Buddhist monks composed the Mahavamsa, which was an adaptation of an earlier and cruder fourth century epic, the Dipavamsa (Island Genealogy or Dynasty). The latter account was compiled to glorify Buddhism and is not a comprehensive narrative of events. The Mahavamsa, however, related the rise and fall of successive Buddhist kingdoms beginning with Vijaya, the legendary coloniser of Sri Lanka and primogenitor of the Sinhalese migrant group.”
[1]
“On the history of the island up to the end of the first millennium, and indeed for three centuries of the second, there is a wealth of historical data. Of these the first category consists of the Pali chronicles, the Dīpavaṁsa and Mahāvaṁsa with its continuation the Cūlavaṁsa, which together provide scholars with a mass of reliable data, not available for other parts of south Asia for most the period under study. Next come the archaeological remains of the civilizations of Sri Lanka’s dry zone, the magnificent array of religious and secular monuments written about in the chronicles mentioned earlier, and the irrigation works. […] “On the history of the island up to the end of the first millennium, and indeed for three centuries of the second, there is a wealth of historical data. Of these the first category consists of the Pali chronicles, the Dīpavaṁsa and Mahāvaṁsa with its continuation the Cūlavaṁsa, which together provide scholars with a mass of reliable data, not available for other parts of south Asia for most the period under study. Next come the archaeological remains of the civilizations of Sri Lanka’s dry zone, the magnificent array of religious and secular monuments written about in the chronicles mentioned earlier, and the irrigation works.”
[2]
“Although its authorship is unknown, the Dīpavaṃsa is believed to have been compiled in the fourth century CE, while the Mahāvaṃsa has been argued to have been written by various monks of the Mahāvihāra and compiled into a single document by the Buddhist monk Mahānāma in the fifth to sixth century CE. It narrates the history of the island from its colonization by Prince Vijaya through to the reign of King Mahāsena (r. 275–301 ce). The Cūḷavaṃsa was a continuation of this narrative, detailing the island’s history up to the eighteenth century CE. Initially scholars believed these narratives to be legends, but the rediscovery of palm leaf manuscripts by George Turnour at Mullgirigalla near Tangalle led to the serious reconsideration of their contents as historical. Sir James Emerson Tennent, Colonial Secretary of Ceylon between 1845 and 1850 CE, stated that this ‘long lost chronicle... thus vindicated the claim of Ceylon to the possession of an authentic and unrivalled record of its national history’.”
[3]
“Literature for much of the Anurādhapura period was Buddhist, written in the Pāli language. The Buddhist scriptures were preserved on the island, first orally and then in writing. The three main monastic orders added their own commentaries, but only some of the Mahāvihāra texts survive. In the later Anurādhapura period, the production of Pāli literature declined and literary works in Sinhala appear.”
[4]
[1]: (Ross and Savada 2002,98) Ross, Russel R. and Savada, Andrea Matles 2002. Sri Lanka: Current Issues and Historical Background edited by Walter Nubin. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JQ8T59TD/collection [2]: (De Silva 2005, 3) De Silva, K.M. 2005. A History of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka: Vijitha Yapa Publications. Seshat URL:https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/BHJ4G3V7/collection [3]: Coningham et al. 2017, 21) Coningham et al. 2017. ‘Archaeology and cosmopolitanism in early historic and medieval Sri Lanka.’ Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. Edited by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/DCQMW8E3/collection [4]: (Peebles 2006: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/HJG4VBC5/collection. |
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“One of the distinctive features of the literature of the Polonnaruva period was the continued vitality of Pāli as the language of Sinhalese Buddhism. The tradition was still very much in favour of writing in Pāli rather than Sinhalese. The Pāli works of this period were mainly expositions or summaries of the works of the Pāli canon. There were also the tīkās explaining and supplementing the commentaries composed in the Anurādhapura era. The Dāṭhavaṁsa, a history of the tooth relic, was one of the more notable literary in the Pāli language. Its author, Mahānāma, is also credited with the first part Cūlavaṁsa, the continuation of the Mahāvaṁsa. The Pāli literature of this period bears the impression of the strong tonic effect of Sanskrit, which had not a no less significant influence on contemporary Sinhalese writing. The bulk of the Sinhalese works of this period are glossaries and translations from the Pāli canon. There were also two prose works by a thirteenth century author, Gurulugomi, the Amāvatura and the Dharmapradīpikāva, of which the former was more noteworthy; and two poems (of the late twelfth and early thirteenth century), the Sasadāvata and the Muvadevadāta, both based on Jātaka stories, and both greatly influenced by the Sanskrit works of Kālidāsa and Kumāradāsa.”
[1]
“The Vesaturudā Sanne, an exegetical work written in the period of the Polonnaruva kingdom, compares people clad in gold-coloured clothes and wearing golden ornaments to kiṇihiri trees in full bloom. It also states that kiṇihiri trees in bloom looked as if they were covered with golden nets.”
[2]
[1]: (De Silva 1981, 74) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection [2]: (Gunawardana 1990, 61). Gunawardana, R.A.L.H. 1990. ‘The people of the lion: the Sinhala identity and ideology in history and historiography’. Sri Lanka History and the Roots of Conflict. Edited by Jonathan Spencer. London and New York: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B3GVR8EH/collection |
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“Although its authorship is unknown, the Dīpavaṃsa is believed to have been compiled in the fourth century CE, while the Mahāvaṃsa has been argued to have been written by various monks of the Mahāvihāra and compiled into a single document by the Buddhist monk Mahānāma in the fifth to sixth century CE. It narrates the history of the island from its colonization by Prince Vijaya through to the reign of King Mahāsena (r. 275–301 ce). The Cūḷavaṃsa was a continuation of this narrative, detailing the island’s history up to the eighteenth century CE. Initially scholars believed these narratives to be legends, but the rediscovery of palm leaf manuscripts by George Turnour at Mullgirigalla near Tangalle led to the serious reconsideration of their contents as historical. Sir James Emerson Tennent, Colonial Secretary of Ceylon between 1845 and 1850 CE, stated that this ‘long lost chronicle... thus vindicated the claim of Ceylon to the possession of an authentic and unrivalled record of its national history’.”
[1]
“On the history of the island up to the end of the first millennium, and indeed for three centuries of the second, there is a wealth of historical data. Of these the first category consists of the Pali chronicles, the Dīpavaṁsa and Mahāvaṁsa with its continuation the Cūlavaṁsa, which together provide scholars with a mass of reliable data, not available for other parts of south Asia for most the period under study. Next come the archaeological remains of the civilizations of Sri Lanka’s dry zone, the magnificent array of religious and secular monuments written about in the chronicles mentioned earlier, and the irrigation works.”
[2]
“Literature for much of the Anurādhapura period was Buddhist, written in the Pāli language. The Buddhist scriptures were preserved on the island, first orally and then in writing. The three main monastic orders added their own commentaries, but only some of the Mahāvihāra texts survive. In the later Anurādhapura period, the production of Pāli literature declined and literary works in Sinhala appear.”
[3]
[1]: Coningham et al. 2017, 21) Coningham et al. 2017. ‘Archaeology and cosmopolitanism in early historic and medieval Sri Lanka.’ Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. Edited by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/DCQMW8E3/collection [2]: (De Silva 2005, 3) De Silva, K.M. 2005. A History of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka: Vijitha Yapa Publications. Seshat URL:https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/BHJ4G3V7/collection [3]: (Peebles 2006: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/HJG4VBC5/collection. |
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"The country’s relative press freedom attracted authors and engravers from all parts of Europe. Besides Latin, which was the main language for scholarly works, more and more works were printed in the regional languages, in the first instance in Dutch, but also in French and other European languages – even in Hebrew and Arabic."
[1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 80) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection. |
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Written Arabic genealogies of Somali lineage were held by Sheikhs. “Only the Shaykhs maintained written Arabic manuscripts that recorded the genealogical connections at the highest levels, among various clan founders.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 129) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library |
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Rich literary corpus.
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Written records in Arabic have a long scholarly tradition in Yemen.
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The Ziyad state, ruled by a Sunni dynasty, was a breakaway state from the Abbasid Empire and so retained the tradition of Arabic literacy.
[1]
[1]: (Stookey 1978, 45, 57) Stookey, Robert W. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Boulder: Westview Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GIDWD7R3. |
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“On the history of the island up to the end of the first millennium, and indeed for three centuries of the second, there is a wealth of historical data. Of these the first category consists of the Pali chronicles, the Dīpavaṁsa and Mahāvaṁsa with its continuation the Cūlavaṁsa, which together provide scholars with a mass of reliable data, not available for other parts of south Asia for most the period under study. Next come the archaeological remains of the civilizations of Sri Lanka’s dry zone, the magnificent array of religious and secular monuments written about in the chronicles mentioned earlier, and the irrigation works.”
[1]
“Literature for much of the Anurādhapura period was Buddhist, written in the Pāli language. The Buddhist scriptures were preserved on the island, first orally and then in writing. The three main monastic orders added their own commentaries, but only some of the Mahāvihāra texts survive. In the later Anurādhapura period, the production of Pāli literature declined and literary works in Sinhala appear.”
[2]
[1]: (De Silva 2005, 3) De Silva, K.M. 2005. A History of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka: Vijitha Yapa Publications. Seshat URL:https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/BHJ4G3V7/collection [2]: (Peebles 2006: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/HJG4VBC5/collection. |
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Before Harar became the Adalite capital in the early fourteenth century, it was still an important trading town in the Adal Sultanate interior. “Some of the Arabic inscriptions on tombstones collected between the modern towns of Harar and Dire Dawa bear thirteenth-century dates, and show the existence of fairly well-developed Muslim communities in the region of Harar, which probably was an important centre of dispersal for many of the founders of other Muslim settlements further inland.”
[1]
[1]: (Tamrat 2008, 140) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list |
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In Barawa (also known as Brava) on the Benadir coast, there are various examples of Arabic inscriptions from the early 12th Century. “Cerulli reports an Arabic inscription from Brava, commemorating the death of a Muslim resident in 1104/5, which certainly indicates the existence of a highly developed Muslim community there in the eleventh century.”
[1]
[1]: (Tamrat 2008, 137) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/search/tam/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list |
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Written Arabic genealogies of Somali lineage were held by Sheikhs. “Only the Shaykhs maintained written Arabic manuscripts that recorded the genealogical connections at the highest levels, among various clan founders.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 129) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library |
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Written Arabic genealogies of Somali lineage were held by Sheikhs. “Only the Shaykhs maintained written Arabic manuscripts that recorded the genealogical connections at the highest levels, among various clan founders.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 129) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library |
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“A Muslim community was also indicated by the recovery of 2 undated Arabic inscriptions, one part on an inscription from the Quran 48:31-1, which if complete would read ‘In the name of the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful’ and on the second line, ‘We have given you a glorious victory’, the other only bearing the words ‘on God’”.
[1]
[1]: (Insoll 2017, 209) Insoll, Timothy. 2017. ‘First Footsteps in Archaeology of Harar, Ethiopia’. Journal of Islamic Archaeology. Vol 4:2. Pp 189-215. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/VQ38B374/collection |
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“In the meantime, the sons and grandsons of Yekunno-Amlak were deeply involved in bitter wars of succession, and a valuable Arabic document for 1299 reports what seems to have been a considerable territorial concession to an Ifat leader by one of the sons of Yekunno-Amlak.”
[1]
[1]: (Tamrat 2008, 143-144) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list |
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“The liturgical language of the Orthodox Church and the name for the Tigrinya writing system [Ge’ez]. Ge’ez developed as the language of the Aksumite Empire, derived from the merger of a Semitic South Arabian language and one or more Cushitic languages, but there is some dispute as to whether it was the original root of all the Ethiopic Semitic languages, (including Tigre, Tigrinya, and Amharic) or simply a regional dialect that acquired political predominance during the Aksumite period.”
[1]
[1]: (Connell and Killion 2011, 269) Connell, Dan and Killion, Tom. 2011. Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Second Edition. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/24ZMGPAA/collection |
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“Ancient Harari literature is mostly religious. The author of at least one text is known and can be dated in the middle of the eighteenth century. It is not impossible, however, that some texts are even older. In written texts the ancient form of the language was used until the second half of the nineteenth century.”
[1]
[1]: (Wagner 1997, 486) Wagner, Ewald. 1997. ‘Harari’ In The Semitic Languages. Edited by Robert Hetzron. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/V9HWX5VP/collection |
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“The Tamil silver-plate inscription of the Maratha Prince Ekoji (A.D. 1676) confirms the above lease to the Dutch.”
[1]
[1]: (Menon 2001, 303) Menon. A.G. 2001. ‘Copper Plates to Silver Plates: Cholas, Dutch and Buddhism’ In Fruits of Inspiration: Studies in Honour of Prof. J.G. de Caparis. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/FU8TFSTT/collection |
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“No written records of the Ọyọ themselves survive from the period before the collapse of the Ọyọ empire in the 1830s, though it is likely that some once existed. The Ọyọ empire was certainly not a wholly illiterate society. It is known that Islam began to spread among the Ọyọ from countries to the north as early as the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and individual Ọyọ could well have acquired literacy in Arabic along with the Islamic religion. The Ọyọ also imported numbers of slaves from the Muslim countries to the north. Some of these were certainly literate in Arabic, and some Ọyọ probably used literate northern slaves as secretaries. The French trader Landolphe records that a party of Ọyọ ambassadors whom he met in the Benin area in c. 1787 were literate in Arabic: such ambassadors would probably have been royal slaves, and those met by Landolphe may well have been northerners. […] If the existence of written records in the Ọyọ capital during the imperial period is somewhat speculative, there can be no question that such records were kept in Ilọrin, the subordinate town of the Ọyọ kingdom whose revolt in the late eighteenth century played a crucial role in the collapse of the Ọyọ empire. […] To date, however, the only Ilọrin document which has come to light from this period is a letter to ‘Abd al-Salām, the Emir of Ilọrin, from Abdullāh, the Emir of Gwandu, written in 1829, which deals with the illegality of castration.”
[1]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 12–13. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection |
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The following quote suggests that written records in the Oromo language were likely present. “Over the years, the language [Oromo] has been written in the Latin, Sabaean, and Arabic scripts.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 319) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
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Written records of all kinds were employed during this period. Examples include the documents produced by the Council of Constance (1418) from early in the period, and the writings of Guicciardini and Machiavelli from the end of the period.
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“The Sokoto Caliphate was certainly the largest, most territorially extensive and literate state in African History.”
[1]
“In the city of Sokoto there was a small bureaucracy headed by the vizier who in his own house had some scribes to receive and write short (one-page) letters in classical Arabic to those emirs he was in charge of overseeing (Last 1967:190-97) . Imported paper and local ink were used, and letters from the Amir al-mu’minin had his personal stamp on them (the vizier and the emirs had no stamp of their own). The letters were never dated, but they were folded in a precise way and carried in a pouch by a messenger; it could take a week or more for a letter to reach the addressee, since fifteen miles a day was a good speed and distances were huge.”
[2]
[1]: Okene, Ahmed Adam, and Shukri B. Ahmad. “Ibn Khaldun, Cyclical Theory and the Rise and Fall of Sokoto Caliphate, Nigeria West Africa.” International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol. 2, no. 4, 2011, pp. 80–91: 81. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/H7J2NC37/collection [2]: Last, Murray. “Contradictions in Creating a Jihadi Capital: Sokoto in the Nineteenth Century and Its Legacy.” African Studies Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–20: 6. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5RUPN5VI/collection |
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“Available records reveal that Ochalla Angna and Olimamu Attah both [had] Islamic clerics served as court scribes (what is today known as court clerks) and records of proceedings were written and kept in Arabic.”
[1]
[1]: Jacob, Audu. “Pre-Colonial Political Administration in the North Central Nigeria: a Study of the Igala Political Kingdom.” European Scientific Journal, vol. 10, no. 19, 2014, pp. 392–402: 399. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5AN8R7UW/collection |
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“The history of Kano is undoubtedly the best known, thanks to its chronicles and the wealth of oral tradition.20”
[1]
“[Footnote] 20. The Kano Chronicle, written in Arabic, was apparently composed about 1890, but it is based upon earlier, pre-djihäd records. It gives an account of 48 Hausa (after 1807, Fulani) sarakuna or kings, from Bagauda to Muhammad Bello.”
[1]
[1]: Niane, D. T., & Unesco (Eds.). (1984). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. Heinemann; University of California Press: 271. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ERZKPETN/collection |
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“One of the most famous episodes of Bornoan history was the correspondence between mai Idriss Alooma and the Ottoman Sultan Murad III during the 1570s, as Mai Idriss desired to renew an alliance with the Ottomans.”
[1]
“Furthermore, the practice of recording orally the names and genealogies of the kings of Kanem seems to have existed since the 9th century. The introduction of Islam and the Arabic script codified this tradition by making it possible to write down the names of the kings. This list or chronicle of kings, the diwan or girgam, was written from the 13th or 16th century until the19th and contained the names of 67 kings from the 9th to the 19th century. It constitutes one of the most important sources for the history of Kanem-Bornu and has been extensively used by historians of the empire. This is a rare type of document in sub-Saharan Africa, because of the lack of precise written sources but also because of the period that the document covered.”
[2]
[1]: Hiribarren, Vincent. “Kanem-Bornu Empire.” The Encyclopedia of Empire, edited by Nigel Dalziel and John M MacKenzie, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2016, pp. 1–6: 2. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/KNHK5ANQ/collection [2]: Hiribarren, Vincent. “Kanem-Bornu Empire.” The Encyclopedia of Empire, edited by Nigel Dalziel and John M MacKenzie, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2016, pp. 1–6: 3. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/KNHK5ANQ/collection |
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Communications between Senegambian groups and the French and English colonists were made in Arabic and French. “There was a series of treaties, frequently negotiated with great care and written up in French and Arabic.”
[1]
[1]: (Klein 1972, 425) Klein, Martin A. 1972. ‘Social and Economic Factors in the Muslim Revolution in Senegambia.’ The Journal of Africa History. Vol. 13:3. Pp 419-441. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ZJRN8UJ8/collection |
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Cicero’s (born Arpinum, 106 BC) letters, Caesar’s speeches.
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“But more interesting and important are the numerous Brahmi Tamil inscriptions and Brahmi script found on pot sherds of the period. They have been found in more or less the same type of script in Arikamedu, Kanchi, Karur, Uraiyur, Korkai etc. i.e., in a vast territory in Tamilnadu.”
[1]
[1]: (Raman 1976, 55) Raman, K.V. 1976. ‘Archaeology of the Sangam Age’. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol 37. Pp 50-56. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/M3ZPI56I/collection |
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The following quote refers to ‘state documents’ only; it seems reasonable to assume that non-governmental written records existed before the eighteenth century, given the time period and the fact that Islam is a religion of the book. “Only in the eighteenth century did state documents appear in Arabic.”
[1]
[1]: (Lapidus 2002, 429) Lapidus, Ira M. 2002. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QW9XHCIW/collection |
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“A Sanskrit epigraph mentions the name Madhurakavi who belonged to a family of doctors and was a minister under king Parantaka Nedunjadaiyan.”
[1]
[1]: (Kamlesh 2010, 599) Kamlesh, Kapur. 2010. ‘Pandya Dynasty’ In Portraits of a Nation: History of Ancient India. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/3TS5DCT6/collection |
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“But more interesting and important are the numerous Brahmi Tamil inscriptions and Brahmi script found on pot sherds of the period. They have been found in more or less the same type of script in Arikamedu, Kanchi, Karur, Uraiyur, Korkai etc. i.e., in a vast territory in Tamilnadu.”
[1]
[1]: (Raman 1976, 55) Raman, K.V. 1976. ‘Archaeology of the Sangam Age’. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol 37. Pp 50-56. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/M3ZPI56I/collection |
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“The Persian records of the Nawab in the Tamilnad Archives, Madras, contain letters, government orders, accounts, service records of officials. There is also a diary maintained by Kishanchand, a trusted munshi of Mohammed Ali. It covers a period of about two years ending with February 1785.”
[1]
[1]: (Ramaswami 1984, 329) Ramaswami, N.S. 1984. Political History of Carnatic Under the Nawabs. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/PTIS9MB4/collection |
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“A great deal of information about this dynasty and the vast empire that the rulers controlled comes from the inscriptions. These inscriptions are in three languages, Tamil, Sanskrit and Prakrit. Sanskrit was the court language of the Pallavas.”
[1]
[1]: (Kamlesh 2010, 563) Kamelsh, Kapur. 2010. ‘The Pallava Dynasty’ In History of Ancient India: Portraits of a Nation. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/UETBPIDE/collection |
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“The Muttaraiyar and the Kalabhras have equated each other by T.A. Gopinath Rao. The Vaikunt Perumal Temple inscription at Kanci speaks of a Muttaraiyar coming to receive Nandivarman Pallavarnalla II at the latter’s coronation. A mutilated inscription found in the Vaikuta Temple at Kaci styles Suvaran Maran as Kalavara-Kalavan. The word Kalavan (Tamil) perhaps became Kalabhra in Sanskrit.”
[1]
[1]: (Gupta 1989, 24) Gupta, Parmanand. 1989. Geography from Ancient Indian Coins and Seals. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/5Z4TFP7P/collection |
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The following quote discusses an agreement between the Nayak of Thanjavur, Vijayaraghava, and the Dutch. “Apart from the above agreement, there is also an elaborate contract between Vijayaraghava Nayak and the Dutch inscribed on a silver plate in the Dravidian language Telugu. The Dutch ‘translation’ of the silver-plate grant of the Nayak Vijayaraghava, dated 24 December 1658, mentions that the following ten villages, which were originally belonging to the palli of the Portuguese, are given to the Dutch by Vijayaraghava.”
[1]
“Another system followed during the Nayak period was a total tax exemption granted to those who donated their money to the temples. It was applied even to the foreign trading companies. An inscription of seventeenth century from Thiruvaiyaru Temple in Thanjavur district informs that people who donated money to this temple got relieved from state tax.”
[2]
[1]: (Menon 2001, 303) Menon. A.G. 2001. ‘Copper Plates to Silver Plates: Cholas, Dutch and Buddhism’ In Fruits of Inspiration: Studies in Honour of Prof. J.G. de Caparis. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/FU8TFSTT/collection [2]: (Chinnaiyan 2005-2006, 457) Chinnaiyan, S. 2005-2006. ‘Tax Structure in Tanjore Kingdom under the Nayaks and Marathas (A.D. 1532- 1799)’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. 66. Pp 456-459. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/8WJRSDG6/collection |
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“The Pudu Mandapa was built early on in Tirumala’s reign, perhaps around 1626-33. The date of construction and patron are known, not from inscription, but from a number of texts, notably a palm-leaf manuscript in the possession of the temple, the Tiravalavayutaiyarkoyil Tiruppanimalai. This anthology of 106 poems gives details of the additions and renovations carried out in the temple with the names of the patron.”
[1]
[1]: (Branfoot 2001, 192) Branfoot, Crispin. 2001. ‘Tirumala Nayaka’s ‘New Hall’ and the European Study of the South Indian Temple. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol 11:2. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/FE5VZ76M/collection |
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Inferred from reference to "internal scripts" in the following quote. "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)."
[1]
[1]: (Gronenborn 2002: 103) |
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The Ajuran was an Islamic Sharia Sultanate on the Benadir coast of present-day Somalia. As an Islamic Sultanate the religious literature would have been the Quran which was written in Arabic. “The little available records depict that the sultanate was headquartered in Merca, applied Islamic Sharia, established strong standing army, and gave priority to building water supplies and building fortifications.”
[1]
[1]: (Abdullahi 2017, 64) Abdullahi, Abdurahman. 2017. Making Sense of Somali History Vol. 1. London: Adonis and Abbey Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/47CK4M35/library |
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The following quote suggests that written records in the Oromo language were likely present. “Over the years, the language [Oromo] has been written in the Latin, Sabaean, and Arabic scripts.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 319) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
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“A local Arabic chronicle, edited and translated by Enrico Cerulli in 1941, preserves the tradition that the first Mahzumite prince of the so-called ’sultanate of Shoa’ began to rule in the last decade of the ninth century [...] Despite the above tradition of the chronicle, it is improbable that the state was actually formed as early as the ninth century.”
[1]
[1]: (Tamrat 2008, 106) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list |
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The following quote suggests that written records in the Oromo language were likely present. “Over the years, the language [Oromo] has been written in the Latin, Sabaean, and Arabic scripts.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 319) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
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The following quote refers to ‘state documents’ only; it seems reasonable to assume that non-governmental written records existed before the eighteenth century, given the time period and the fact that Islam is a religion of the book. “Only in the eighteenth century did state documents appear in Arabic.”
[1]
[1]: (Lapidus 2002, 429) Lapidus, Ira M. 2002. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QW9XHCIW/collection |
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Writing was widespread. Royal and government documents, literature, letter writing, books, newspapers, periodicals etc. “The English traveller Joseph Townsend found the professional letter-writer busy at his trade in the 1780s: ‘When the market square is not taken over by the preachers, the scribes take up their positions with their tables, near which they sit with ink, quill and paper to draw up and read out letters of all kinds.’”(Casey 2002: 194) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT “A critical periodical press made its appearance in this era. The weekly El Pensador in the 1760’s was typical of the nev/ Journalism, which attacked the foibles of the nobility and the ignorance of the clergy. In the 1780’s the government’s own Imprenta Real published a Correo Literario de Europa to keep the reading public abreast of the latest developments in science and letters. Despite frequent cases of censorship, on balance the government gave its approval to a huge volume of publications, including many key works of the foreign Enlightenment.”(Bergamini 1974: 93) Bergamini, John D. 1974. The Spanish Bourbons: The History of a Tenacious Dynasty. New York: G. P Putnam’s Sons. https://archive.org/details/spanishbourbons00john. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5A2HNKTF
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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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Writing was widespread. “Reports and stories about soldiers and the battles between Mexicans and Americans during the 1846–1848 war abound in newspapers, official military reports, and books and articles.”
[1]
“Writers of novels in nineteenth-century Mexico, beginning, not coincidentally, with the formation of the nation itself, took as some of their main subject matter the description of local customs, seeing in them both the epitome of what was original and particularly Mexican as well as the raw material out of which suitable national beings might be molded.”
[2]
[1]: (Arnold 2011: 262) Arnold, Linda. 2011. “The U.S. Intervention in Mexico, 1846–1848,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 262–72. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MUEUFMU8 [2]: (French 2011: 14) French, William E. 2011. “Living the Vida Local: Contours of Everyday Life,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 13–33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NZBCRB8Z |
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The following quote suggests that Ajami script (see second quote) was used by a high-ranking minority. "In southern Senegambia, where non-Manding populations predominated, Manding was a prestigious language of the pagan aristocracy and, on the other hand, the language of the Muslim merchant network of Jakhanke. The existence of Manding Ajami in that area was already attested in the first half of the 18th century (Labat 1728; cited by Giesing & Costa-Dias 2007: 63), long before the pagan rule of the ñàncoo elite of the Kaabu was definitely smashed by Muslim Fulbe troops from Fuuta Jalon. In any case, the emergence of Ajami is not related to the establishment of a Muslim political power in this area: the main holders of Islamic writing in the area, the Jakhanke merchants, were for centuries integrated into the social system of the Kaabu confederation and often served as advisers and intermediates for the political elites."
[1]
"A number of terms have been used in this volume to refer to the usage of Arabic script for languages other than Arabic. Crosslinguistically, such writing systems are often termed ‘Arabic literature’, ‘Islamic literature’ or ‘Islamic writings’, and locally they are known by a large number of names, such as Wolofal, or Kiarabu. The term Ajami in particular (or variations, such as Äjam, Ajamiya, etc.), derived from the Arabic word ʿaǧam ‘non-Arab; Persian’, has gained some degree of popularity in academic literature and is also encountered as a self-denomination for these writing systems in some languages, such as Hausa."
[2]
[1]: (Vydrin 2014: 201-202) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/E8Z57DNC/collection. [2]: (Mumin and Verstegh 2014: 1) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/PVIK4HGV/collection. |
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A wide variety of legal, economic, administrative, personal and royal records exist.
[1]
Alexander Swereford wrote The Red Book of the Exchequer during his major overhaul of the economic records in 1234-35.
[2]
[1]: Prestwich 2005: 57. [2]: (Prestwich 2005: 59) 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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This quote refers to a 16th century inscription on a feast house. “In one of the oldest feast houses in Kafa, at Baha, Cardinal Massaja found a tabot with an inscription dedicated to ‘St. George, Our Lady Mary and God’ and signed by ‘Dengel’ (possibly referring to Sarsa Dengel of the sixteenth century).”
[1]
[1]: (Orent 1970, 272) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/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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Limited use of Akkadian Cuneiform writing, primarily in diplomatic correspondence and bureaucratic administration.
[1]
The use of Akkadian becomes relatively more frequent in the Late Bronze Age, but still remains quite sparse by comparison to other polities in the Ancient Near East.
[1]: Shai/Uziel (2010). |
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"Examples of the Hephthalite written language have been discovered in East Turkestan, Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. However, these are only insignificant vestiges of the large quantity of written material which, if we are to believe Hsüan-tsang, was to be found in the regions occupied by the Hephthalites and particularly in Tokharistan"
[1]
[1]: Litvinsky B.A.,Guang-da Zhang , and Shabani Samghabadi R. (eds)History of Civilizations of Central Asia p. 151. |
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"The Bactrian script and language were used for a long time after the Kushan age but only small fragments of Bactrian literary works have been discovered so far."
[1]
[1]: (Harmatta 1994, 424) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing. |
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the state chancery used both "Bactrian written in Greek script and Gandhari written in Kharoshthi".
[1]
There also was a "formulae transmitted from the Achaemenians."
[2]
"Bactrian writing was widely used throughout the Kushan Empire both for official purposes and for everyday life."
[3]
Conningham reinforces the code of present by discussing the assortment of leather documents with Bactrian writing.
[4]
[1]: (Grenet 2012, 1-2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University. [2]: (Grenet 2012, 2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University. [3]: (Harmatta 1994, 413) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing. [4]: Conningham, Robin, pers. comm. Interview with Harvey Whitehouse and Christina Collins, Jan 2017 |
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’It is thought that prior to entering Bactria [the Da Yuezhi] were not literate. By the time they invaded northern India in the first century CE, they had become capable administrators, traders and scholars’.
[1]
[1]: (Hill 2009, 319) John E. Hill. 2009. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. An Annotated Translation of the Chronicle on the ’Western Regions’ from the Hou Hanshu. Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing. |
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"Early in the Han and before, writing had been done on wood, bamboo and silk. Wood and bamboo were bulky and cumbersome, and silk was expensive. As papermaking technology improved, it proved to be the most economical and easiest medium on which to write."
[1]
However, older mediums, such as bamboo tablets, remained in use.
[2]
[1]: (Knechtges 2010, 117) 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, 118) 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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Barend ter Har distrusted this and other references claiming early origins of writing as being politically motivated to establish early Chinese invention. He says the first true writing isn’t attested until the Shang oracle bone script
[1]
[2]
. However, anything written on perishable materials such as bamboo, for instance, unlikely to be preserved. "so far no writing has been found at the Erlitou site; the only evidence of writing discovered as yet consists of various carved symbols on pottery (fig. 6.11). Nevertheless, because the writing system of the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions is already highly developed, it is possible that there was writing in the Erlitou culture, particularly at the major Erlitou site."
[3]
"Since no writing system has been found at Erlitou, it is unclear how the administration of this archaic state managed the flow of information and material between the core and the periphery."
[4]
"Nevertheless, the Anyang period is notable for two important new developments: writing and the introduction of the chariot. The first of these, although possibly having unpreserved antecedents (Keightley 2006; Bagley 2004 but see Smith 2008 for the argument that the script could have developed rapidly), appeared in two forms in the Anyang period."
[5]
Although we have no evidence of written records we could infer that a writing system would evolve in an environment of perishable written records that do not get preserved rather than in the evolutionary less intensive competition of pottery inscriptions which do survive.
[1]: William G. Boltz. The origin and early development of the Chinese writing system. (American Oriental Society, 2003). [2]: Keightley, D. N. The ancestral landscape: Time, space, and community in late Shang China (ca. 1200-1045 B.C.). (University of California Press, 2000). [3]: (Chang, Xu, Allan and Lu, 2005, 150) Chang, Kwang-chih. Xu, Pingfang. Allan, Sarah. Lu, Liancheng. 2005. The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective. Yale University Press. [4]: (Liu and Chen 2008, 168) [5]: (Campbell 2014, 130) |
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|
"The Sung was among the most document-driven of all Chinese states and compiled its own history from the plethora of bureaucratic records generated during the course of routine administration. But few of these records survive in their primary form."
[1]
E.g. Sung hui-yao chi-kao (A draft compendium of Sung documents) 19th-Century era compilation that copied from the 1408 CE (Ming dynasty) Yung-lo ta-tien (Yung-lo encyclopedia).
[1]
[1]: (Hartman 2015, 24) |
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|
e.g. continuation of producing official versions of history inherited from the Ming. A textual research method known as Jia Qian Pu Xue evolved during the early Qing and involved the comprehensive and spirited research of documents, texts, and records ranging from history to geography and Confucian Classics.
[1]
[1]: (Zhang 2015, p.380) |
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|
"Shang documents were originally recorded on strips of bamboo and silk that have long since decomposed".
[1]
Written records are preserved instead on non-perishable mediums. Most of what is known of Shang written on 107,000 "oracle" bones.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (The Shang Dynasty, 1600 to 1050 BCE. Spice Digest, Fall 2007. http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/117/ShangDynasty.pdf) [2]: (Roberts 2003, 7) [3]: (Kerr 2013, 20) |
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|
"everything done at court was put in writing: the investitures themselves, ... but also verdicts in legal cases, maps, and so forth."
[1]
[1]: (Shaughnessy 1999, 326) Shaughnessy "Western Zhou History" in Loewe, Michael. Shaughnessy, Edward L. 2009. The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC. Cambridge University Press. |
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|
"early writing preserves specialized information that is of a very cursory nature at this point in cultural development."
[1]
"by Dynasty 0, writing was used by scribes and artisans of the Egyptian state."
[2]
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
[3]
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).
[4]
[1]: (Bard 2000, 64) [2]: (Bard 2000, 74) [3]: Köhler, E. C. "Theories of State Formation". [in:] Wendrich, W. [ed.]. Egyptian Archaeology. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing. pg: 41. [4]: Kahl, J. "Hieroglyphic Writing During the Fourth Millennium BC: an Analysis of Systems". Archeo-NiI 11 (2001); 122, 124. |
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|
[1]
"Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian. During his reign, however, the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians was adapted to fit the Akkadian language, and the resulting records have revealed Akkadian as the oldest known Semitic language. Cuneiform spread with the empire and was adopted in other states, including the kingdom of Elam, located to the west of Akkad."
[2]
)
[1]: Crawford 2004, 197 [2]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge. |
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|
"The earliest eample of accounting, and indeed writing, which dates back to Dynasty Zero (about 3,300 BC), was in the form of tax lists on linen (Davies and Friedman, 1998)."
[1]
"by Dynasty 0, writing was used by scribes and artisans of the Egyptian state."
[2]
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
[3]
. 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).
[4]
"A joint Yale and Royal Museums of Art and History (Brussels) expedition to explore the the ancient Egyptian city of Elkab has uncovered some previously unknown rock inscriptions, which include the earliest monumental hieroglyphs dating back around 5,200 years. These new inscriptions were not previously recorded by any expedition and are of great significance in the history of the ancient Egyptian writing systems, according to Egyptologist John Coleman Darnell, professor in Yale’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale, who co-directs the Elkab Desert Survey Project."
[5]
[1]: (Ezzamel 2002) Ezzamel, Mahmoud. 2002. Accounting working for the state: Tax assessment and collection during the New Kingdom, ancient Egypt. Accounting and business research. Volume 32. Issue 1. pp 17-39. [2]: (Bard 2000, 74) [3]: Köhler, E. C. "Theories of State Formation". [in:] Wendrich, W. [ed.]. Egyptian Archaeology. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing. pg: 41. [4]: Kahl, J. "Hieroglyphic Writing During the Fourth Millennium BC: an Analysis of Systems". Archeo-NiI 11 (2001); 122, 124. [5]: Martell, Bess Connolly. June 20 2017. Yale archaeologists discover earliest monumental Egyptian hieroglyphs. news.yale.edu/2017/06/20/yale-archaeologists-discover-earliest-monumental-egyptian-hieroglyphs |
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|
"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.
[1]
[1]: (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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|
“The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were a golden age in theology and devotional writing as well as politics.”
[1]
[2]
[1]: (Maltby 2009, 91) Maltby, William S. 2009. The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SUSVXWVH [2]: (Cowans 2003, 46) Cowans, John. 2003. Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4MRSP5DU |
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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 of the coast engaged in trade with the Greek-speaking world, if not also further inland at the capital Aksum in Ge’ez - or its precursor language - with documents relating to the local religion and the state.
[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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|
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’ The Japanese administration introduced schooling in the Japanese language: ’The chief subject in the prescribed elementary school curriculum was the Japanese language, spoken and written. Officially language work was supposed to occupy half of the teaching time; arithmetic about a quarter; and miscellaneous subjects, such as gymnastic exercises, singing, handicraft, ethics, and geography, the remainder. According to reports of students the actual emphasis on the Japanese language was if anything even greater than this. While the official curriculum prescribed the teaching of the more common Chinese ideographs as well as the Japanese Kana syllabary, [Page 85] few, if any, native students could be said to be literate in Japanese to the extent of being able to read a newspaper by the end of fifth grade. Certainly none could read the regulations promulgated by the South Seas Government Office; and these regulations were not translated, except sometimes orally and in summary by rather confused native interpreters.’
[1]
Christian missionaries taught writing in the native language: ’The Japanese schools did not try to teach reading or writing in the native language, although some Trukese learned these skills from the Western Protestant and Catholic missionaries. Starting even before German rule, the missionaries had translated parts of the Bible and prepared hymns and other religious materials in Trukese, and continued to teach reading and writing in the native tongue to such children as would come to them.’
[2]
[1]: Fischer, John L. 1961. “Japanese Schools For The Natives Of Truk, Caroline Islands”, 84 [2]: Fischer, John L. 1961. “Japanese Schools For The Natives Of Truk, Caroline Islands”, 85 |
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|
Anything written by the era’s literati.
|
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|
Historians, notaries, and the full range of other record-keepers were active throughout the period.
|
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|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ Akan languages were committed to writing due to the efforts of missionaries and native elites: ’Akan languages started to be written down, mainly in religious publication, by Danish, German and British missionaries during the 17th and 18th centuries.’
[1]
Early native intellectuals were accordingly mostly mission-educated. While elites increasingly used couriers for the transmission of written communication (see below), the majority of the population remained illiterate during the period in question. ’Towards the end of the century the use of written records and communications had made some headway. Europeans like the Frenchman Bonnat were absorbed, albeit briefly, into the system, and Asantes like the Owusu Ansa brothers, mission educated, were fully literate. Written messages were sent: for example, in 1889 Prempe 1 received a written account of the fate of a force dispatched against recalcitrant Ahafo towns. The writer described himself as ‘Chief Miner’, possibly an Elminan. The year before the King received a letter from a Muslim divine, Abu Bakr B. Uthman Kamaghatay, setting out terms for his return to Kumase. Both letters were kept until removed from Kumase by British forces in 1896.’
[2]
’Throughout the nineteenth century Asante remained an essentially preliterate society, memorializing its past in the spoken rather than the written word.’
[3]
[1]: (Ager, Simon 2013; Literacy Database [2]: McLeod, M. D. (Malcolm D.) 1981. “Asante”, 88 [3]: Wilks, Ivor 1993. “Forests Of Gold: Essays On The Akan And The Kingdom Of Asante”, 331 |
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|
The oldest written record is an inscription incised on a large storage jar at Phaistos and dated to the end of 8th century BCE.
[1]
. All written records are inscriptions incised on stone and contain religious texts or cities laws. Others are votive and were incised on pieces of armor. They are dated to the mid 7th century and 6th century BCE.
[1]: Bile, M. 1988. La dialect crétois ancient, Paris, 29 |
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|
Written records were found only at Knossos.
[1]
They consists of clay tablets accidentally baked by the fire that destroyed the complex. The tablets, written in Linear B script, and archaic version of Ancient Greek, record the economic interests of palatial administration.
[2]
[3]
[4]
The contain mostly records of agricultural and animal husbandry products such as olive oil, honey, wine, wheat, figs, condiments, aromatic herbs, crocus (saffron), animal skins and textiles; of these textiles and oil (especially aromatic oil) formed the basis of the palace’s commercial activity. They also record various luxurious goods such as elaborate bull’s head ryhta, silver vases, and sets of metal vases and raw materials used in the palatial workshops. Moreover the texts provide crucial information on the political and social organization of the Mycenaean kingdoms.
[1]: Palmer, L. R. and Boardman, J. On the Knossos Tablets, Oxford; Chadwick, J., Godart, L., Killen, J.T., Olivier, J.P., Sacconi, A., and Sakellarakis, I.A. 1986, 1990, 1997, 1998. Corpus of Mycenaean Inscriptions from Knossos vol. I-IV, Rome. [2]: Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J. 1973. Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Cambridge, 155-381 [3]: Shelmerdine, C. W. and Bennet, J. 2008. "Mycenaean States: Economy and administration," in Shelmerdine, C. W. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age, Cambridge, 289-309 [4]: Boulotis, C. 2008. "The art of Cretan writing," in Andreadaki-Vlazaki, M., Rethemiotakis, G., and Dimopoulou-Rethemiotaki, N. (eds.), From the Land of the Labyrinth. Minoan Crete, 3000-1100 B.C., New York, 76-7. |
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|
Written records during this period were found only at Kydonia (Chania).
[1]
They consists of clay tablets accidentally baked by the fire that destroyed the complex. The tablets, written in Linear B script, record the economic interest of palatial administration. The contain records of agricultural products and animal husbandry.
[1]: Andreadaki-Vlazaki, M. and Hallager, E. 2007. "New and unpublished Linear A and Linear B inscriptions from Khania," Proceeding of the Danish Institute at Athens V, 7-22. |
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Jain, Buddhist and Hindu canons. The Arthaśāstra "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]
"More by good luck than by design and by prominence, a few other texts have come down from the period between the empires. There are, to be sure, such texts of the Śuṅga/Kāṇva and the early Kushana periods, including the older parts of Arthaśāstra (which has additions up to the first century CE), early medicine (Caraka, Suśruta), some early astronomical texts (Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja, ed. Pingree 1978, Paulīṣa, Romaka, etc.), the Bhāratīya Nāṭyaṣāstra (in part, first century CE), and some early Sanskrit poetry such as Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita and Saundarānanda, Bhāsa’s dramas, etc."
[2]
[1]: (Schlingloff 2013: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DAMFF2NV. [2]: (Witzel 2006, 482) Michael Witzel. 2006. ’Brahmanical Reactions to Foreign Influences and to Social and Religious Change’ in Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE, edited by Patrick Olivelle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
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Post-Mauryans in Krishna valley: "Amaravati inscription of this period records the existence of a royal scribe (rajalekhaka). This may indicate that record-keeping started to play an integral part in local political administration as well as in commercial activities in this period."
[1]
In Andhra region post-Mauryans: "This appearance of kingship, currency and writing indicates that the basic infrastructures of a state system, which had been introduced in the Maurayn period, started functioning at the local level and transforming the megalithic/tribal society into proto or early states, basically characterized by centralized administration, stable kingship and social stratification."
[2]
[1]: (Shimada 2012, 118) Shimada, Akira. 2012. Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE). BRILL. [2]: (Shimada 2012, 118-119) Shimada, Akira. 2012. Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE). BRILL. |
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For example: "Only under their son Samudra-Gupta does the dynasty emerge from obscurity. Once again this is mostly thanks to the survival of a single inscription", on what is known as the "Allahabad pillar".
[1]
[1]: (Keay 2010, 136-137) 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 pillar Edicts of Ashoka, the Arthashastra.
[1]
The primary evidence of the writing in use during the period are the inscriptions of Asoka. The two major writing systems seem to have been Brahmi and Kharosthi.
[2]
[1]: Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. New Delhi: Pearson Education. [2]: Salomon, Richard. "On the origin of the early Indian scripts." Journal of the American Oriental Society (1995): 271-279. |
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Vakataka rulers issued "copper plate grants"
[1]
"Deotek is a small village in Chandrapur district, about 50 miles southeast of Nagpur. It contains an old temple and a large inscribed slab (now in Central Museum, Nagpur) bearing two epigraphs. Out of the two inscriptions, one dates back to the time of Asoka and the other to that of the Vakatakas."
[1]
[1]: (Sawant 2009) Reshma Sawant. 2008. ‘State Formation Process In The Vidarbha During The Vakataka Period’. Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute 68-69: 137-162.< |
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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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|
"The definitive removal of the Elamite threat from the Mesopotamian territories happened during the reign of the most important king of the dynasty, Nebuchadnezzar I. The account of the final battle has survived on a kudurru."
[1]
[1]: (Liverani 2014, 462) 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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Sources include official and private documents in Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Aramaic, Greek, Egyptian, Hebrew
[1]
and Akkadian.
[2]
Behistun Inscription of Darius I contains 3,000 words. Combined, the other royal inscriptions amount to 2,600 words. Other inscriptions include two texts from Cyrus the Great (8 words), 44 other texts from Darius I (1500 words), 13 texts from Xerxes (850 words), 7 texts from Artaxerxes I and II (180 words), 1 unassigned fragment (8 words). Persepolis fortification tablets from Darius I is an additional, a magnitude larger,source of text.
[3]
[1]: (Nylander 1971, 50-54) [2]: (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2011, [26]) [3]: (Hallock 1958, 256) |
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Susa III texts c3000 BCE not related to Old Elamite inscriptions c2300 BCE.
[1]
"Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian. During his reign, however, the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians was adapted to fit the Akkadian language, and the resulting records have revealed Akkadian as the oldest known Semitic language. Cuneiform spread with the empire and was adopted in other states, including the kingdom of Elam, located to the west of Akkad."
[2]
)
[1]: (Potts 2016, 71) Potts, D T. 2016. The Archaeology of Elam Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge. |
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Documents from Susa and Dura Europus show "the governments of these places preserved the pattern of the Hellenistic city state."
[1]
[1]: (Debevoise 1938, xli) Debevoise, Neilson C. 1938. A Political History of Parthia. University of Chicago Press Chicago. https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/political_history_parthia.pdf |
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e.g. the writings of Rašid al-Din one of the main sources for Mongolian history as well as the Il-Khans.
[1]
This period is seen as one of flourishing production of illustrated manuscripts sponsored by the court and senior officials. At first Baghdad was the centre of production, before it moved to Tabriz after the court converted to Islam. A Chinese influence is clearly seen on manuscript illustration at this time.
[2]
[1]: REUVEN AMITAI, ’IL-KHANIDS i. DYNASTIC HISTORY’ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/il-khanids-i-dynastic-history [2]: Stefano Carboni, ’IL-KHANIDS iii. Book Illustration’ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/il-khanids-iii-book-illustration |
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: Shutruk-Nahhunte (699-693 BCE) "royal inscriptions reappeared in Susa and in the monumental complex of Malamir, a mountain pass midway between Susa and Esfahan."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 528) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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|
"All the more curious is the fact that the Elamite cuneiform script seems to have had no influence at all on the so-called ’Old Persian’ cuneiform writing."
[1]
"In the late seventh century B.C., when Susa once again became an administrative headquarters, an unidentified prince governed a population consisting of not only Elamites but also Persians, who were new Indo-European immigrants. The individual character of this mixed, literate society was expressed in a new and original art that combined Bablyonian and Assyrian elements with indigenous traditions."
[2]
[1]: Diakonoff 1985, 24) [2]: (Amiet, Chevalier and Carter 1992, 13) 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. |
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|
The Parthians had administrative documents.
[1]
The ’various and heterogeneous’ writing in Parthian times consisted mainly of epigraphic material, including over 2,000 documents written on pot sherds at Nisā.
[2]
The Chinese Shiji notes "To make records they cut leather and write horizontally."
[3]
Pahlavi parchment from Avroman in Kurdistan.
[4]
[1]: (Raschke 1976, 825) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. [2]: Lukonin, V.G., ‘Political, Social and Administrative Institutions: Taxes and Trade’, in The Cambridge history of Iran: the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Part 2, ed. by Ehsan Yar-Shater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), vol. III, p.681. [3]: (Tao 2007) Tao, Wang in Josef in Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh and Stewart, Sarah eds. 2007. The Age of the Parthians. I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. London. [4]: (Debevoise 1938, xxxv) Debevoise, Neilson C. 1938. A Political History of Parthia. University of Chicago Press Chicago. https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/political_history_parthia.pdf |
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|
The Parthians had administrative documents.
[1]
The ’various and heterogeneous’ writing in Parthian times consisted mainly of epigraphic material, including over 2,000 documents written on pot sherds at Nisā.
[2]
The Chinese Shiji notes "To make records they cut leather and write horizontally."
[3]
Pahlavi parchment from Avroman in Kurdistan.
[4]
[1]: (Raschke 1976, 825) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. [2]: Lukonin, V.G., ‘Political, Social and Administrative Institutions: Taxes and Trade’, in The Cambridge history of Iran: the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Part 2, ed. by Ehsan Yar-Shater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), vol. III, p.681. [3]: (Tao 2007) Tao, Wang in Josef in Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh and Stewart, Sarah eds. 2007. The Age of the Parthians. I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. London. [4]: (Debevoise 1938, xxxv) Debevoise, Neilson C. 1938. A Political History of Parthia. University of Chicago Press Chicago. https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/political_history_parthia.pdf |
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e.g. the documents in the Chancery
[1]
"court/diplomatic correspondence and religious endowment (vaqf) documents".
[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), P.8. [2]: (Newman 2009) Newman, Andrew J. 2009. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B. Tauris. New York. |
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"The most widespread languages during the Sasanian era were Middle Persian (or Pahlavi), Parthian, Sogdian, Khwarizmian, Khotanese Saka and Bactrian; various texts in these languages are extant."
[1]
[1]: (Tafazzoli 1996, 91) 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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Many written documents, such as those listed under Kinds of Written Documents. "The most widespread languages during the Sasanian era were Middle Persian (or Pahlavi), Parthian, Sogdian, Khwarizmian, Khotanese Saka and Bactrian; various texts in these languages are extant."
[1]
[1]: (Tafazzoli 1996, 91) 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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|
The administration produced written documents and correspondence, in Persian.
[1]
[1]: Daniela Meneghini ’SALJUQS v. SALJUQID LITERATURE’ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/saljuqs-v |
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|
[1]
"Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian. During his reign, however, the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians was adapted to fit the Akkadian language, and the resulting records have revealed Akkadian as the oldest known Semitic language. Cuneiform spread with the empire and was adopted in other states, including the kingdom of Elam, located to the west of Akkad."
[2]
)
[1]: Potts 1999, 145-6 [2]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge. |
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|
[1]
"Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian. During his reign, however, the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians was adapted to fit the Akkadian language, and the resulting records have revealed Akkadian as the oldest known Semitic language. Cuneiform spread with the empire and was adopted in other states, including the kingdom of Elam, located to the west of Akkad."
[2]
)
[1]: Potts 1999, 172 [2]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge. |
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|
[1]
"Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian. During his reign, however, the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians was adapted to fit the Akkadian language, and the resulting records have revealed Akkadian as the oldest known Semitic language. Cuneiform spread with the empire and was adopted in other states, including the kingdom of Elam, located to the west of Akkad."
[2]
)
[1]: Potts 1999, 172 [2]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge. |
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|
Sumerian in neighbouring Mesopotamia: "Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian."
[1]
"Sometime during the fourth millennium, in the urban center of Uruk (for which the archaeological period is named), southern Mesopotamia acquired a specifically Sumerian historical identity. With the introduction of a system of writing, a gradual development from an earlier accounting system, a radical change occurred in the social organization and in the very foundations of thought."
[2]
"documents"
[2]
"But toward the end of the fourth millennium, when the brilliant civilization of the Uruk period had collapsed in Mesopotamia and at Susa, the population of Fars broke with the prehistoric past and achieved in their turn a kind of historical consciousness, establishing a large center which perhaps had already acquired its name, Anshan (modern Tal-i Malyan). The creativity of this first period of Elamite historical identity is apparent in the development at Susa and Anshan of a form of writing and an art that we call Proto-Elamite."
[2]
[1]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge. [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. |
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|
c1557 texts found at Susa.
[1]
Susa III texts c3000 BCE not related to Old Elamite inscriptions c2300 BCE. "simply indefensible to claim that Malyan was the site at which the Susa III writing system originated." It was a system derived from proto-cuneiform Susa II / Uruk IV.
[2]
[1]: (Potts 2016, 68) Potts, D T. 2016. The Archaeology of Elam Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Potts 2016, 71) Potts, D T. 2016. The Archaeology of Elam Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
Liber Pontificalis
[1]
Constitutum Constantini imperatoris (known as "Donation of Constantine", fictional historical document created to justify paper rule).
[2]
817 CE Ludovicianum, example of Frankish-Papal treaty which assured military protection for the Papal state. There were earlier ones.
[3]
[1]: (Partner 1972, 6) [2]: (Partner 1972, 23) [3]: (Kleinhenz 2004) |
||||||
|
The earliest extant written records from Japan are the 8th century court Japanese chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki
[1]
-- these incorporated even earlier historical records. "The earliest Japanese imperial chronicles, that is, the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki, were completed in AD 712 and 720, and included compilations of various historical records as well as ancestral legends dating back to ancient times"
[2]
"To all appearances, writing as such, in the form of Chinese Classics, was introduced into Japan early in the fifth century as part of the great cultural influx from Paekche."
[3]
[1]: G. Barnes, 1993.The rise of civilization in East Asia : the archaeology of China, Korea and Japan. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 21. [2]: (Mizoguchi 2013, 32) Mizoguchi, Koji. 2013. The Archaeology of Japan: From the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State. Cambridge University Press. [3]: (Frellesvig 2010, 11) |
||||||
|
"To all appearances, writing as such, in the form of Chinese Classics, was introduced into Japan early in the fifth century as part of the great cultural influx from Paekche."
[1]
"The earliest Japanese imperial chronicles, that is, the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki, were completed in AD 712 and 720, and included compilations of various historical records as well as ancestral legends dating back to ancient times"
[2]
[1]: (Frellesvig 2010, 11) [2]: (Mizoguchi 2013, 32) Mizoguchi, Koji. 2013. The Archaeology of Japan: From the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State. Cambridge University Press. |
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|
’it was during the age of Nara that Chinese writing led to the appearance of the first real books produced in Japan, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki chronicles of 712 and 720. These were followed shortly afterwards by the first poetry anthologies, the Kaifuso (Fond Recollections of Poetry) of 751 and the Manyo¯shu¯ (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) of 759. Some documents were even printed - another Chinese influence.
[1]
[1]: Henshall, Kenneth .2012. A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower. Palgrave Macmillan. New York. [Third Edition].p.24-25 |
||||||
|
"To all appearances, writing as such, in the form of Chinese Classics, was introduced into Japan early in the fifth century as part of the great cultural influx from Paekche."
[1]
However, ’now and then Chinese characters appeared on Yayoi pottery, showing a degree of literacy among craftsmen.’
[2]
[1]: (Frellesvig 2010, 11) [2]: Kidder Jr., J. Edward, 2007. Himiko and Japan’s Elusive Kingdom of Yamatai Honolulu: Hawaii University Press. p. 113 |
||||||
|
"The Sogdian contributions to the Türk Empire were important. Chief among them was unquestionably writing. In fact, the Sogdian alphabet, adapted progressively to Turkic phonology, was used throughout the history of the Türk and then Uighur Empires to write Turkic texts, aside from a rather brief period of national xenophobic reaction within the elites at the beginning of the 8th century, during which the runic alphabet was used."
[1]
[1]: (De la Vaissière 2005, 202) |
||||||
|
According to Miriam Stark, ’[i]ndividuals increased their karma for the next life by establishing temples or making donations to extant temple (see also Hagesteijn 1996:189, passim). Entrenched and aspiring elite members recorded their temple offerings in stone. Such activity is clear in the earliest dated Khmer inscription (K. 600) from Angkor Borei in southern Cambodia. This inscription lists donations to the temple/foundation by two elite individuals: nine males, nine females, two children, eighty head of cattle, two buffalo, ten goats, forty coconut trees, and two rice fields (Vickery 1998:227)’,
[1]
and ’most indigenous inscriptions record the beneficence of aspiring elite individuals’
[2]
[1]: (Stark, Miriam 2006, p.160-161) [2]: (Stark, Miriam 2010, p. 144) |
||||||
|
According to Miriam Stark, ’[i]ndividuals increased their karma for the next life by establishing temples or making donations to extant temple (see also Hagesteijn 1996:189, passim). Entrenched and aspiring elite members recorded their temple offerings in stone. Such activity is clear in the earliest dated Khmer inscription (K. 600) from Angkor Borei in southern Cambodia. This inscription lists donations to the temple/foundation by two elite individuals: nine males, nine females, two children, eighty head of cattle, two buffalo, ten goats, forty coconut trees, and two rice fields (Vickery 1998:227)’,
[1]
and ’most indigenous inscriptions record the beneficence of aspiring elite individuals’
[2]
[1]: (Stark, Miriam 2006, p.160-161) [2]: (Stark, Miriam 2010, p. 144) |
||||||
|
“The people of Angkorreplaced Sanskrit with Pali, another India-based language used by the Theravada Buddhists. Pali inscriptions began to appear in Angkor around 1309,33 a date marking the twilight period of Hinduism in Cambodia."
[1]
‘The signally used in the Khmer language is and Indic-based script which dates back about 1500 years. It was used in inscription as far back as the sixth century and remains in use throughout Cambodia. The system is highly complex. Much of the complexity is due to its long history, since the phonology of the language has changed radically while the writing system has remained fairly constant.
[2]
’The contents of Khmer temple libraries which may have been reproduced over the centuries, and the Khmer language royal chronicles, for which we have some evidence, are no longer extant (Jacques and Dumont [1990]1999: 17-18).
[1]: (Dutt 1996, 225) [2]: (Schiller 1996, p.467) |
||||||
|
According to Miriam Stark, ’[i]ndividuals increased their karma for the next life by establishing temples or making donations to extant temple (see also Hagesteijn 1996:189, passim). Entrenched and aspiring elite members recorded their temple offerings in stone. Such activity is clear in the earliest dated Khmer inscription (K. 600) from Angkor Borei in southern Cambodia. This inscription lists donations to the temple/foundation by two elite individuals: nine males, nine females, two children, eighty head of cattle, two buffalo, ten goats, forty coconut trees, and two rice fields (Vickery 1998:227)’,
[1]
and ’most indigenous inscriptions record the beneficence of aspiring elite individuals’
[2]
[1]: (Stark, Miriam 2006, p.160-161) [2]: (Stark, Miriam 2010, p. 144) |
||||||
|
’There can hardly be any doubt that the polities within Cambodia from the 7th to the 13th centuries were mainly agrarian, their development of written records very high for the period, these records largely concerned with economic and administrative matters, and that by the Angkor period temples had political and economic managerial functions. The notable Southeast Asian societies without an impressive epigraphic tradition, such as Funan, Srivijaya, Ayutthaya, and Pregu, were preeminently maritime trading polities.’
[1]
’The archaeological hardware of these vital centuries is provided by the surviving temples, reservoirs and rice fields, but the social software has to be teased out of the surviving inscriptions. Carved onto stone stelae, these were inscribed in Sanskrit and old Khmer languages. Nearly all relate to the foundation and administration of a temple. They regularly refer to a ruler or the title and name of a local grandee associated with the temple foundation and its maintenance. The Khmer text includes information on rice fields, their boundaries, donations of surplus products to the temple, and the number and duties of individuals assigned to its support.’
[2]
’From 550 AD, a network of powerful chiefdoms emerged in the interior of Cambodia, under the generic name Chenla. By this period, paramounts were setting up inscriptions to record their august genealogies and achievements. These were carved in Sanskrit, but some texts were written in Old Khmer. These provide us with a vital glimpse of the religious beliefs under the veneer of Hindu worshi’
[3]
[1]: (Vickery 1998, 99) [2]: (Higham 2014, 830) [3]: (Higham 2011, 475) |
||||||
|
’There can hardly be any doubt that the polities within Cambodia from the 7th to the 13th centuries were mainly agrarian, their development of written records very high for the period, these records largely concerned with economic and administrative matters, and that by the Angkor period temples had political and economic managerial functions. The notable Southeast Asian societies without an impressive epigraphic tradition, such as Funan, Srivijaya, Ayutthaya, and Pregu, were preeminently maritime trading polities.’
[1]
"Taxes are paid in gold, silver, pearls and perfumes. They have books and repositories of archives and other things. Their writing characters resemble those of the Hu (i.e. the Indians)". (Pelliot, ibid, p. 254)
[2]
’There were specialists in engraving and metalworking, and the ordinary people lived in houses raised on piles against the regular threat of flooding. The people kept written records, and a repre- sentative of the Indian Murunda king was present.’
[3]
’We have a detailed description of an early South-east Asian trading state, following a visit to the Mekon Delta by Kang Tai, an an emissary of the Chinese emperor. Sent to explore a maritime trade route in the third century AD, he encountered a state controlled by a ruling dynasty, with its own legal and taxation systems, which kept written records, and defended cities.’
[4]
[1]: (Vickery 1998, p. 99) [2]: (Jacques and Lafond 2007, p. 51) [3]: (Higham 2004, p. 113) [4]: (Higham 2011, pp. 474-475) |
||||||
|
’There can hardly be any doubt that the polities within Cambodia from the 7th to the 13th centuries were mainly agrarian, their development of written records very high for the period, these records largely concerned with economic and administrative matters, and that by the Angkor period temples had political and economic managerial functions. The notable Southeast Asian societies without an impressive epigraphic tradition, such as Funan, Srivijaya, Ayutthaya, and Pregu, were preeminently maritime trading polities.’
[1]
"Taxes are paid in gold, silver, pearls and perfumes. They have books and repositories of archives and other things. Their writing characters resemble those of the Hu (i.e. the Indians)". (Pelliot, ibid, p. 254)
[2]
’We have a detailed description of an early South-east Asian trading state, following a visit to the Mekon Delta by Kang Tai, an an emissary of the Chinese emperor. Sent to explore a maritime trade route in the third century AD, he encountered a state controlled by a ruling dynasty, with its own legal and taxation systems, which kept written records, and defended cities.’
[3]
[1]: (Vickery 1998, p. 99) [2]: (Jacques and Lafond 2007, p. 51) [3]: (Higham 2011, pp. 474-475) |
||||||
|
"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."
[1]
Written language was culture of an urban élite, that did not absorb surrounding cultures and languages
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Conrad 2010, 13) [2]: (Cissoko 1984, 2010) [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
"The inscriptions of the Orkhon, written in Turk in rune-type characters, contain a number of words not common to Turkic but with parallels in Samoyed or Ugric languages from which, directly or indirectly, they had to be borrowed."
[1]
"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."
[2]
[1]: (Sinor 1990, 291) [2]: (Hosszú 2012, 285) Hosszú, G. 2012. Heritage of Scribes: The Relation of Rovas Scripts to Eurasian Writing Systems. Rovas Foundation. |
||||||
|
"Abaoji had two new scripts developed to write Khitan, and the dynasty supported monastic Buddhism, artisanal and agricultural production in the steppes, and established two hundred cities or more in what is now Inner Mongolia."
[1]
"In 920 the first Khitan script (the "large script," an adaptation of the Chinese script to the very different, highly inflected Khitan language) was presented, and by the end of A-pao-chi’s reign this script was widely used. In 925, when Uighur envoys visited the court, the emperor’s younger brother Tieh-la (whom A-pao-chi recognized as the most clever member of his family) was entrusted with their reception and, after learning their script (which was alphabetic), devised a second "small script" for Khitan."
[2]
[1]: (Sneath 2007, 27) [2]: (Twitchett 1994, 67) |
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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) |
||||||
|
"Despite huge interest in its decipherment, the writing of the Harappans still cannot be read, for a number of reasons: the absence of bilingual inscriptions to provide a starting point, the stylized form of the signs, the very limited length and nature of the texts, ignorance of the language that the script was being used to record, and the fact that the script died out instead of giving rise to later scripts. In addition, the number of signs indicates that the script was probably logosyllabic; so the number of components to be deciphered and the complexities of their use and interrelations are much greater than they would be with a syllabic or alphabetic script."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 356) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Valley. Santa Barbara; Denver; Oxford: ABC-CLIO. |
||||||
|
"Historical sources report that by A.D. 500 the Jujan were actively adopting a variety of Chinese influences, including the use of written Chinese for official records. "
[1]
c500 CE and after: "It may be assumed that by then some of the Juan-juan already lived a settled life and practised agriculture. The original sources repeatedly mention that their khagans obtained ‘seed millet’ from China (some 10,000 shi each time). This shows that the Juan-juan society and state had gradually developed from nomadic herding to a settled agricultural way of life, from yurts to the building of houses and monumental architecture, from the nomadic district to towns. They had invented their own system of writing and developed their own local culture and Buddhist learning flourished."
[2]
"the early steppe peoples would not have been a promising vehicle for the diffusion of complicated, textually based knowledge; according to the Northern Wei dynastic history, the Rouran were illiterates whose leaders at first kept records of their troop numbers by piling up sheep turds as counters but eventually graduated to scratching simple marks onto pieces of wood. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence of the transmission of Chinese military theories and texts to the West by way of the Avars, other steppe nomads, Silk Road caravans, or any other channel prior to the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."
[3]
[1]: (Rogers 2012, 224) [2]: (Kyzlasov 1996, 317) [3]: (Graff 2016, 146) David A Graff. 2016. The Eurasian Way of War. Military practice in seventh-century China and Byzantium. Routledge. Abingdon. |
||||||
|
"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. |
||||||
|
Roughly 350 inscribed stones have been found at Monte Albán (including 310 danzantes) assigned to MA I and II.
[1]
Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya, Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec all possessed "a true form of writing: a series of hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns and in many instances combined with numerals. The glyphs were at least indirectly related to a spoken language." Zapotec inscriptions are considered true writing, since the inscriptions had verbs.
[2]
[1]: Spencer, C. S. and E. M. Redmond (2003). "Militarism, resistance, and early state development in Oaxaca, Mexico." Social Evolution & History 2: 25-70, p27 [2]: Joyce Marcus. February 1980. Zapotec Writing. Scientific American. Vol 242. No 2. Scientific American, Nature America, Inc. pp.50-67. URL: http://www.jstor.rg/stable/24966257 |
||||||
|
Roughly 350 inscribed stones have been found at Monte Albán (including 310 danzantes) assigned to MA I and II.
[1]
Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya, Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec all possessed "a true form of writing: a series of hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns and in many instances combined with numerals. The glyphs were at least indirectly related to a spoken language." Zapotec inscriptions are considered true writing, since the inscriptions had verbs.
[2]
[1]: Spencer, C. S. and E. M. Redmond (2003). "Militarism, resistance, and early state development in Oaxaca, Mexico." Social Evolution & History 2: 25-70, p27 [2]: Joyce Marcus. February 1980. Zapotec Writing. Scientific American. Vol 242. No 2. Scientific American, Nature America, Inc. pp.50-67. URL: http://www.jstor.rg/stable/24966257 |
||||||
|
Roughly 350 inscribed stones have been found at Monte Albán (including 310 danzantes) assigned to MA I and II.
[1]
Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya, Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec all possessed "a true form of writing: a series of hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns and in many instances combined with numerals. The glyphs were at least indirectly related to a spoken language." Zapotec inscriptions are considered true writing, since the inscriptions had verbs.
[2]
[1]: Spencer, C. S. and E. M. Redmond (2003). "Militarism, resistance, and early state development in Oaxaca, Mexico." Social Evolution & History 2: 25-70, p27 [2]: Joyce Marcus. February 1980. Zapotec Writing. Scientific American. Vol 242. No 2. Scientific American, Nature America, Inc. pp.50-67. URL: http://www.jstor.rg/stable/24966257 |
||||||
|
Roughly 350 inscribed stones have been found at Monte Albán (including 310 danzantes) assigned to MA I and II.
[1]
Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya, Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec all possessed "a true form of writing: a series of hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns and in many instances combined with numerals. The glyphs were at least indirectly related to a spoken language." Zapotec inscriptions are considered true writing, since the inscriptions had verbs.
[2]
[1]: Spencer, C. S. and E. M. Redmond (2003). "Militarism, resistance, and early state development in Oaxaca, Mexico." Social Evolution & History 2: 25-70, p27 [2]: Joyce Marcus. February 1980. Zapotec Writing. Scientific American. Vol 242. No 2. Scientific American, Nature America, Inc. pp.50-67. URL: http://www.jstor.rg/stable/24966257 |
||||||
|
Genealogical registers of noble ancestry (including important marriages, and sometimes important life events of individuals) were recorded in stone during this period. Some examples have been found in tombs.
[1]
Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya, Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec all possessed "a true form of writing: a series of hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns and in many instances combined with numerals. The glyphs were at least indirectly related to a spoken language." Zapotec inscriptions are considered true writing, since the inscriptions had verbs.
[2]
[1]: 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. p184 [2]: Joyce Marcus. February 1980. Zapotec Writing. Scientific American. Vol 242. No 2. Scientific American, Nature America, Inc. pp.50-67. URL: http://www.jstor.rg/stable/24966257 |
||||||
|
Zapotec writing and counting systems were recorded by the Spanish after the invasion.
[1]
Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya, Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec all possessed "a true form of writing: a series of hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns and in many instances combined with numerals. The glyphs were at least indirectly related to a spoken language." Zapotec and Mixtec belong to the Otomanguean language family while the Aztec and and Maya belong to the Utoaztecan and Macro-Mayan, respectively. Zapotec writing system is considered the oldest (from c600 BCE). Zapotec inscriptions are considered true writing, since the inscriptions had verbs.
[2]
[1]: 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. p92-3 [2]: Joyce Marcus. February 1980. Zapotec Writing. Scientific American. Vol 242. No 2. Scientific American, Nature America, Inc. pp.50-67. URL: http://www.jstor.rg/stable/24966257 |
||||||
|
Books, essays, manuscripts, court records, legal texts, poetry, pamphlets and newspapers, almanacs etc.
[1]
[2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171, 283, 372-73) 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: 231-244, 270-271) 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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|
"Gahadavalas issued a number of inscriptions which constitute a major source for the study of various aspects of their rule."
[1]
[1]: (Yadav 2011: 360) Yadav, D. 2011. ASPECTS OF RURAL SETTLEMENT UNDER THE GAHAAVALA DYNASTY: C. 11 TH CENTURY CE TO 13 TH CENTURY CE (AN INSCRIPTIONAL ANALYSIS). Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2011, Vol. 72, PART-I (2011), pp. 360-367. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F8STV588/library |
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"The Gurjara Pratiharas have long been recognised as the leading royal house of northern India during the ninth and tenth centuries. A considerable number of copper plate and inscriptions have survived from Pratihara times and these have provided the requisitie data for a reconstruction of the dynasty’s political and social history."
[1]
[1]: (Willis 1995, 351) Willis, M. D. 1995. Some Notes on the Palaces of the Imperial Gurjara Pratīhāras. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Nov., 1995, Third Series, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Nov., 1995), pp. 351-360. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/willis/titleCreatorYear/items/S55RV7NG/item-list |
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Census in 766 CE. Written history
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Examples in Kinds of Written Documents.
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Akkadian cuneiform.
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Icelandic scholars copied and translated manuscripts, but fictional literature was present as well: ’But whatever advantages the union with Norway might bring, it produced no new era of development. Intellectual life continuted to flourish, and numerous literary works were written, but but a distinct decline in the quality of literary production becomes noticeable, especially towards the close of the thirteenth century. The old vigor and originality was dwindling, as the growing Christian medieval-time spirit, which was only strengthened throught a closer relation with Norway, was fostering a love for legends and chivalric romances which encouraged copying and translation rather than creative production and original scholarship.’
[1]
Legal codes and royal letters also became an important tool in the exercise of government, as evidenced in the conflicts between laity and clergy and the associated involvement of the Norwegian crown: ’Upon his return to Iceland Bishop Arni, assisted by Bishop Jörund of Hólar, summoned the people of his diocese to a general council at Skálholt, where he proposed several measures of reform, among others that the churches should be made ecclesiastical property under the control of the bishops. As nearly all churches in Iceland were privately owned, this would involve a change in property rights to which the people would not readily consent. [...] the king’s assistance could be invoked. [...] With threats of ban and excommunication he so intimidated the lesser landowners that they suffered to let the smaller churches to pass under ecclesiastical control. But the chieftains who owned the larger churches resolutely resisted. This was especially the case with the churches of Oddi and Hitardal, two of the largest in Iceland. Their owners refused to surrender them; but the bishop caused a decree of transfer to be promulgated at the Althing, threatening the owners with the ban if they resisted. [...] In 1273 King Magnus summoned a council to meet in Bergen to consider a new code of church laws to be proposed by Archbishop Jon of Nidaros, and to deal with other questions touching the relation between church and state. At this council, Bishop Arni, Hrafn Oddsson and the Icelandic chieftains also appeared. In the trial of their case the king as inclined to favor the chieftains, but the archbishop rendered a decision in Arni’s favor. His victory was so complete that upon his return home he began to prepare a new code of church laws for Iceland, based on principles suggested to him by Archbishop Jon. The code was adopted at the Althing in 1275 with the understanding that it was later to be ratified by the king and the archbishop.’
[2]
[1]: Gjerset, Knut [1924]. "History of Iceland", 208p [2]: Gjerset, Knut [1924]. "History of Iceland", 217p |
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[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]: (Hsu 1999, 569) [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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For example, the Memoires of Saint-Simon (1675-1755 CE).
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Anything written by the era’s literati.
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Anything written by the era’s literati.
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Anything written by the era’s literati.
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ Christian missionaries introduced Latinized characters: ’The Malays before their conversion to Mahomedanism may be presumed to have had no letters of their own. What they have now are made up out of the Arabic alphabet. To suit the tone of their language the letters are named accordingly. With reference to the Sea Dyaks, since the gospel of Christ has been preached to them, letters of the Roman character are used and pronounced accordingly to suit the tones of their pronunciation.’
[1]
The first true mission schools were established in the 1920s (see above). In the 1950s, Freeman claimed no written calendars for the ’pre-literate’ Iban: ’The Iban still attach great importance to their stellar lore. Tungku, a tuai rumah of the Mujong headwaters, put it in these words:“If there were no stars we Iban would be lost, not knowing when to plant; we live by the stars.”(“ Enti nadai bintang tesat ati kami Iban, enda nemu maia nugal; kami idup ari bintang. ”) It must not be thought however that there is any dogma that rituals, etc. should be held on the exact dates given. The Iban are a pre-literate people without a calendar, and the movements of the Pleiades, Orion and Sirius are taken as no more than general indications of the time when the major operations of felling and planting should be embarked upon.’
[2]
Komanyi claims written calendars following the European pattern and literacy in the 1970s: ’Since most people now have western calendars, they know during which month the sowing, weeding or harvesting is to be done. Their “new year” begins after the harvest is completed, which may be some time in May or June. However, June 1st is “Dayak Day,” proclaimed by the government as the official Dayak New Year’s Day.’
[3]
These figures are entirely contradictory. We have chosen to go with the 1921 figure as it is coherent with the establishment of mission schools, but expert feedback is absolutely essential on this matter. Regional variation may explain the difference, but this is in need of confirmation.
[1]: Howell, William 1908-1910. “Sea Dyak”, 3 [2]: Freeman, Derek 1955. “Iban Agriculture: A Report On The Shifting Cultivation Of Hill Rice By The Iban Of Sarawak”, 40 [3]: Komanyi, Margit Ilona 1973. “Real And Ideal Participation In Decision-Making Of Iban Women: A Study Of A Longhouse Community In Sarawak, East Malaysia”, 15 |
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Both the "square script" (also called ashurit, "Assyrian") and the older Phoenician-style scripts of Hebrew.
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ A Latinized script was introduced by Christian missionaries: ‘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. Before the district of the Garo Hills was taken over by the British, the people living in the areas bordering Goalpara and Kamrup used to write in Assamese character while those living in the borders of the Mymensing and the Sylhet districts used to write in Bengali character; 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.’
[1]
’In the Garo Hills the percentage of literacy was only 0.85 percent in 1901. It went upto 2.65 percent in 1931. Prior to Independence, the literacy was only 7.31 percent (1951 census). Between 1951 and 1961 there was a spectacular increase. In 1991 the literacy percentage in the Garo Hills was recorded as 37.04 percent, much below the national average as well as the overall state average of 48.26 percent. In the Garo Hills there is a positive cor-relation between the level of literacy and the extent of participation in the active economic life.’
[2]
‘Before Independence, the growth rate of literacy was low. In the post Independence period, the growth rate is high, though Garo Hills is lagging behind other districts of Meghalaya and the national literacy. People are living in nearly 2,400 villages which are mostly small and scattered. The traditional system of shifting cultivation is still in vogue in many villages. Hence, there is serious problem of availability of school facilities, dearth of qualified teachers, motivation of parents and pupils and poor socio-economic conditions that stand in the way of spreading literacy.’
[3]
‘Most of the writings before 1940 had religious intonation though secular form of literature began in 1924. Before this, there were only two journals in Garo language-one was the A’chikni Ripeng or “Friend of the Garos”, a powerful organ of the American Baptist Mission started in 1879. Since the journal was meant for propagation of plans and policies of the American Baptist Mission, articles dealing with one’s freedom of thought and expression were not accepted and published in it. The other journal, which was brought out in October, 1912 by three local leaders, namely Jobang D. Marak, Modhunath G. Momin and Alexander Macdonald Bassamoit, was Phringphrang or “Morning Star”. This journal, which was supposed to be secular in nature, was not very much different from the A’chikni Ripeng as most of the articles there, were connected with religion. The journal had its last publication in December, 1914 after which there were no more secular journals.’
[4]
[1]: Choudhury, Bhupendranath 1958. “Some Cultural And Linguistic Aspects Of The Garos”, 50 [2]: Pandey, M. C. 1995. “Demographic Profile Of The Garo Hills”, 27 [3]: George, Mathew 1995. “Development Of Education In Garo Hills: Continuity And Change”, 194 [4]: Shira, Lindrid D. 1995. “Renaissance In Garo Literature”, 176 |
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The Arthashastra, religious writings.
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"Frequent records of the construction or restoration of city walls reflect the instability of the times and the need for constant defense."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 84) 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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inferred continuity with earlier and later periods
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Written records began being kept from the seventh century.
[1]
[2]
[1]: (Yorke 1990: 20) York, Barbara. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203447307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXTNCWJNs [2]: (Hills 1990: 47) Hills, Catherine. ‘Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England’, History Today, 1 October 1990, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1299029206/abstract/974AE2C925154DEBPQ/1. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9P2MJSYJ |
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"One of the salient features of Yemen (and, to a lesser extent, Arabia) is the substantial quantity of epigraphic documents—texts written on non-perishable materials, such as stone and metal, or on durable media, such as wood—yielded by these regions. [...] The oldest local inscriptions, which originate from Yemen, were carefully carved texts and the work of professionals, and would date from the mid-eighth century BC."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 90-91) 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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"It was quite common in the sedentary regions of Arabia to inscribe texts of a legal nature on stone (see chapter 5 above for examples). The advantage of this was that these texts were then easily available for all to read (or have read for them) and would endure for many lifetimes. The subjects are diverse: commercial ordinances (such as the list of taxes owing on goods sold in Palmyra put up by the city council, and the regulations concerning trade in the market of Timna established by the king of Qataban), sanctions against criminals, hydrological legislation, cultic prescriptions, boundary settlements, property claims and so forth. The issuing authority was most often a deity (whose edicts were effected by means of an oracle and received and transcribed by a religious functionary), a king or his representative, or a city or tribal council. And even individuals might avail themselves of this practice, laying down conditions for use of their tombs, asserting their ownership of houses and the like. A special type of juridical inscription, so far known chiefly from the Jawf region of south Arabia and Raybun in Hadramawt, is the penitential text, in which persons confess their infraction of a law, usually to do with purity, and make an offering in atonement.""
[1]
"One of the salient features of Yemen (and, to a lesser extent, Arabia) is the substantial quantity of epigraphic documents—texts written on non-perishable materials, such as stone and metal, or on durable media, such as wood—yielded by these regions. [...] The oldest local inscriptions, which originate from Yemen, were carefully carved texts and the work of professionals, and would date from the mid-eighth century BC." [2] [1]: (Hoyland 2001, 124) Hoyland, R. 2001. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/hoylan/titleCreatorYear/items/AUHRSTGG/item-list [2]: (Robin 2015: 90-91) 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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Account from 1472 AD by a historian ‘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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Chronicles, literature, autobiographies (Charles IV’s Vita Caroli), royal documents, court documents, legal documents, land records etc etc.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 30-31, 35) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI [2]: (Grant 2014: 26, 33, 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 [3]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 142) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ |
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“Although not one of the richest graves at Tikal in terms of jade or other precious goods, Animal Skull’s Burial 195, embedded within Temple 32 of the North Acropolis, is certainly one of the most fascinating… The wooden hoards feature a damaged but legible date of 9.8.0.0.0 or 593, and go on to provide Animal Skull’s name, titles and Tikal emblem, as well as his status as a 3 K’atun Ajaw (i.e. aged between 39 and 59 years).”
[1]
[1]: (Martin and Grube 2000: 41) Martin, Simon and Grube, Nikolai. 2000. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. London; New York: Thames & Hudson. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5WIIDVRJ |
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Books; essays; manuscripts; court records; legal texts; poetry; pamphlets; newspapers; almanacs etc.
[1]
“Ultimately, the language of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline England may be its most powerful and lasting cultural achievement, for it was during this period that English became eloquent, expressive, and comprehensible in a wide variety of forms of writing. Historians have offered a number of reasons for this development. First, the public controversies over the divorce and the Reformation encouraged publication generally, and directness and refinement of the language in particular. Thomas Cromwell and his successors patronized a torrent of closely argued pamphlets and treatises in support of the royal position. Related to this was the temporary relaxation of censorship under Edward VI and, with it, the increasing use of the printing press. Protestantism was also associated with the growth in schooling and rise in literacy noted above, which fueled a hunger for the books so printed. Where 800 books had been published in the decade 1520–9, that number rose to 3,000 in 1590–1600. Many of these books went to the great libraries of the nobility, gentry, or scholarly community: the mathematician and astrologer John Dee (1527–1609) had a personal library of 4,000 books. But an even greater number seem to have trickled down to the lower levels of society: in the city of Canterbury in the 1560s only 8 percent of household inventories (usually compiled when someone died) listed books. By the 1620s that percentage had risen to 45.”
[2]
“Humanist-classical issues were rarely addressed outside the circles of Court and government, universities, and inns of court. Humanist authors seeking to attract a wider audience assimilated their material to the chivalric traditions of Chaucer, Malory, and the Raman de la rose. In schools and gentry households Erasmus’s New Testament, Paraphrases, Colloquies, and Adages remained favourite reading, supplemented by Sir Thomas North’s edition of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Elyot’s The Boak Named the Governor, and Hoby’s translation of The Courtier. At a more popular level Caxton’s The Golden Legend, Baldwin’s Mirror Jar Magistrates, sensational stories and pamphlets, printed sermons, chronicles, travel books, almanacs, herbals, and medical works were devoured.”
[3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171, 283, 372-73) 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: 209) 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]: (Guy 1988: 415-416) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA |
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Newspapers; magazines; academic journals; literary reviews; periodicals; almanacs; dictionaries. “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]
“In Carniola it was largely members of the clergy who had put together the very first “Alpine Slavic” or “Carniolan- language” grammars, dictionaries, schoolbooks, and songbooks in the period 1815–1848.”
[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]: (Judson 2016: 150) 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 |
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Financial and chancery documents from the Khwarazmian state.
[1]
Manuscripts.
[2]
. Personal and official letters from court dignitaries.
[3]
[1]: Khwarazmshahs I. Descendants of the Line of Anuštigin. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/U9U8ZTYS [2]: Boyle 1968: 141. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CFW8EE6Q [3]: Boyle 1968: 561. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CFW8EE6Q |
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“Registers; government records; letters; books. “The Arabic language thus retained its purity and authenticity in Morocco, and continued to be used for many centuries. The style of Moroccan epistolary literature and of the decrees issued by the king’s ministries remained untainted by any foreign influence. This explains why the texts written during the time of the Sa’âdï and ’Alawites (and up to the reign of Mawlây Hassan I) give the impression of having been written during the glorious age of the Umayyads in Spain and of the Almoravids, Almohads and Marinids in Morocco.”
[1]
“Mawlây Ismâ’ïl bethought himself of this solution when he was organizing the Wadâya militia, as mentioned above. One of the secretaries of the Makhzen was Muhammad ibn al-Kâsim ’Alïlïsh;16 whose father was also secretary to al-Mansür the Sa’âdï. ’The king had a militia of slaves’ he said to Mawlây Ismâ’ïl, ‘and I possess the book in which my father recorded their names’. He showed him this register, and told him that there were still a great many of these slaves in the Marrakesh area and that he would be able to collect them together and enter their names again in a special register in order to make them do military service.”
[2]
“The first letter to which this passage from al-Istiksä refers is part of my family collection. It deals with many repeated questions which may be summarized as follows: the Sultan had thought it necessary and essential to organize an army to defend the territory of Islam. In this long letter he developed his point of view about the institution of this army of slaves, and asked the recipient to distribute it to the ’ulama’ and ask them for their replies. We possess only one letter of reply, from Sïdï M’hammad, in which he says his last word: ’As to the man who cannot be proven to be a slave, scholars are unanimous that he is free and that it is by no means lawful to own him or to dispose of his person either by selling it or in any other way, for men are born free’.”
[3]
[1]: (Ogot 1992: 211) Ogot, B. A. 1992. ed., General History of Africa: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century., vol. V, VII vols. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/24QPFDVP [2]: (Ogot 1992: 225) Ogot, B. A. 1992. ed., General History of Africa: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century., vol. V, VII vols. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/24QPFDVP [3]: (Ogot 1992: 228) Ogot, B. A. 1992. ed., General History of Africa: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century., vol. V, VII vols. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/24QPFDVP |
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The Habsburg authorities took control of the print press in 1585 and a court printer was appointed to print laws, propaganda and government instructions.
[1]
Newspapers were first established from 1605 in Strasbourg.
[2]
[1]: (Golob 2021: 90) Golob, Andreas. 2021. ‘Rural Officials Discover the Printing Press in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy’, in Print and Power in Early Modern Europe (1500–1800), ed. Nina Lamal, Jamie Cumby, and Helmer J. Helmers. Brill. 86–108, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv1v7zbf2.9. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8TKZHDUJ [2]: (Hillgärtner 2021: 134) Hillgärtner, Jan. 2021. ‘Newspapers and Authorities in Seventeenth-Century Germany’, in Print and Power in Early Modern Europe (1500–1800), ed. Nina Lamal, Jamie Cumby, and Helmer J. Helmers. Brill. 134–47, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv1v7zbf2.11. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/57ZGSTKK |
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Stone steles have been found with inscriptions in Aramaic.
[1]
The Greek language has also been found on parchments and rock inscriptions.
[2]
[1]: “Artaxias I,”. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7V7RMBLQ [2]: Hovannisian 2004: 48. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8B4DBDFU |
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The Golden Horde used paper records for all administrative documents. Correspondence both internal and foreign, was via a paper trail. To their allies, the Mamluks, they observed the Islamic diplomacy rules whereby all correspondence was “on paper of the correct size, written in the proper scripts with the right pens and inks and special gold letters, and expressed in elaborate formulas that only poets and scholars could fully master.”
[1]
Chronicles and records were kept by official scholars.
[2]
[1]: Halperin 1987: 27. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VCPWVNM. [2]: Halperin 1987: 34-35. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VCPWVNM. |
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There was a surge in written documents from the ninth century onwards across Europe and the territories of the Holy Roman Empire.
[1]
Religious and administrative documents were originally written in Latin, but from the thirteenth century began to be written in German. .
[2]
Thousands of charters survive from the eleventh-to-thirteenth century and beyond.
[3]
[1]: Wilson 2016: 506. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/N5M9R9XA [2]: Wilson 2016: 54, 259. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/N5M9R9XA [3]: Power 2006: 102. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4V4WE3ZK |
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Books, essays, manuscripts, court records, legal texts, poetry, pamphlets and newspapers, almanacs etc.
[1]
[2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171, 283, 372-73) 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: 231-244, 270-271) 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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Books; newspapers; articles; government documents etc “In February 1873, Gibson launched Nuhou: The Hawaiian News, a bilingual newspaper, later continued monolingually as Ka Nuhou Hawaii, that strongly advocated for the protection of Hawai’I’s independence and denounced schemes that might jeopardize this independence, such as the lease of Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa (Pearl Harbor Lagoon) to the United States proposed by Charles Bishop and his cronies of the Missionary Party (Adler and Kamins Internationalism 1986, 90–95).”
[1]
“The three quotations that open this chapter illustrate the import of these policies. The first, part of an official declaration of the Hawaiian government in 1883, and the second, a guest editorial in a Hawaiian newspaper in 1887, show that, by the 1880s, the vision formulated three decades earlier not only had become official Hawaiian government policy but had also been disseminated through the vernacular media to wider society. The third, by German scholar Haushofer four decades later, puts Hawai’I’s late nineteenth-century pan-Oceanian policy in a geopolitical context of the Pacific peoples’ struggle for self-determination in the longue durée.”
[2]
“In 1857, St. Julian published his second book, an Official Report on Central Polynesia presented to the Hawaiian government, which contained a detailed gazetteer of all Central Polynesian islands and chiefdoms, compiled by Edward Reeve, St. Julian’s chancellor and later successor in office, which should be regarded as one of the most detailed compilations of knowledge of the islands available during the mid-nineteenth century (St. Julian 1857).”
[3]
[1]: (Gonschor 2019: 68) Gonschor, Lorenz. 2019. A Power in the World: The Hawaiian Kingdom in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FB64GREZ [2]: (Gonschor 2019: 89) Gonschor, Lorenz. 2019. A Power in the World: The Hawaiian Kingdom in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FB64GREZ [3]: (Gonschor 2019: 50) Gonschor, Lorenz. 2019. A Power in the World: The Hawaiian Kingdom in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FB64GREZ |
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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]
>
[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 |
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Books on Buddhist teachings, rituals and tantric practices were written by monks.
[1]
“In the first half of the fifteenth century, the historical sources describe the structure of the Four Oirat as follows: ‘the Choros, Torguud (Torghud) and Khoshuud (Khoshud) form one Oirat;2 the Khoid and Baatuud (Baatud) Tümen formed another Oirat;3 the Barga and Buriad (Buriyat) formed an Oirat;4 and the Ör Mongol [probably a term for East Mongols] formed one Oirat’.”
[2]
[1]: Dorj 2020: 53. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/AH2RCMNY [2]: (Natsagdorj and Ochir 2010: 524) Natsagdorj,Sh. and Ochir, A. 2010. “Six Tümen,” in The History of Mongolia: Volume II, Yuan and Late Medieval Period, ed. David Sneath, vol. 2, 3 vols. Kent: Global Oriental. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SVB2D3XK |
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Glyphs on a stone slab (Monument 3) may refer to the name of the captive depicted there and calendric dates.
[1]
[2]
Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya, Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec all possessed "a true form of writing: a series of hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns and in many instances combined with numerals. The glyphs were at least indirectly related to a spoken language." Zapotec and Mixtec belong to the Otomanguean language family while the Aztec and and Maya belong to the Utoaztecan and Macro-Mayan, respectively. Zapotec writing system is considered the oldest (from c600 BCE). Zapotec inscriptions are considered true writing, since the inscriptions had verbs.
[3]
[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 [3]: Joyce Marcus. February 1980. Zapotec Writing. Scientific American. Vol 242. No 2. Scientific American, Nature America, Inc. pp.50-67. URL: http://www.jstor.rg/stable/24966257 |
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Remains of the Hittite language were found in excavations of Hattusa. Hittite cuneiform archives have been discovered at Ortaköy (ancient Sapinuwa), Kuşakli (ancient Sarissa) and Maşat (ancient Tapikka).
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The Indo-Greeks straddled a crossroads of writing systems and written language traditions. Inscriptions written with the Greek alphabet, use of cuneiform in legal documents and exposure to records in Prakrit are all recorded. Further evidence is found in the Kharosthi inscriptions and the Asokan edicts. Further evidence exist of a transmissions of writing systems to other groups in the North Indian area.
[1]
[1]: Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Vol. 2. Brill, 2010, pp. 98-107 |
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"Despite huge interest in its decipherment, the writing of the Harappans still cannot be read, for a number of reasons: the absence of bilingual inscriptions to provide a starting point, the stylized form of the signs, the very limited length and nature of the texts, ignorance of the language that the script was being used to record, and the fact that the script died out instead of giving rise to later scripts. In addition, the number of signs indicates that the script was probably logosyllabic; so the number of components to be deciphered and the complexities of their use and interrelations are much greater than they would be with a syllabic or alphabetic script."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 356) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Valley. Santa Barbara; Denver; Oxford: ABC-CLIO. |
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[1]
All texts are written in Old Assyrian dialect of Akkadian and they refer mostly to economic transactions and resemble private correspondence [1] . [1]: Dercksen J. G. 2004. Some Elements of Old Anatolian Sofiety in Kaniš. [in:] J. G. Dercksen (ed.) Assyria and beyond: studies presented to Mogens Trolle Larsen. Leiden: NINO, pg. 137-139 |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
Legal texts, legislative documents, theological writings, chronicles and more.
[2]
Letters: "The total of extant letters may number somewhere around 15,000; there are upward of 150 major letter-collections dating between 300 and 1500."
[3]
[1]: (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haldon 2008, 21-29) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Mullett 2008, 885) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
Legal texts, legislative documents, theological writings, chronicles and more.
[2]
Letters: "The total of extant letters may number somewhere around 15,000; there are upward of 150 major letter-collections dating between 300 and 1500."
[3]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haldon 2008, 21-29) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Mullett 2008, 885) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
Legal texts, legislative documents, theological writings, chronicles and more.
[2]
Letters: "The total of extant letters may number somewhere around 15,000; there are upward of 150 major letter-collections dating between 300 and 1500."
[3]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haldon 2008, 21-29) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Mullett 2008, 885) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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Archives discovered in the capital, Hattusa. These include military annals and festival programmes.
[1]
Remains of the Hittite language were found in excavations of Hattusa. Hittite cuneiform archives have been discovered at Ortaköy (ancient Sapinuwa), Kuşakli (ancient Sarissa) and Maşat (ancient Tapikka).
[1]: (Bryce 2002, 6) |
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Location very close to Tabal kingdoms: "A unique document marking this final phase of independence is the bilingual inscription(in Phoenician and Luwian hieroglyphs) from Karatepe. It was written in the second half of the eighth century BC. The inscription belongs to a certain Asatiwata, who celebrated the construction of his fortress, Asatiwatiya (Karatepe) .. Asatiwata was not an independent ruler, but a vassal of Urikki of the ’House of Mopsos’, a king of Que (known as Adana in Hittite and Danunim in Phoenician)"
[1]
[1]: (Liverani 2014, 453-454) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The South Arabia civilizations were literate during most of the first millennium BC and AD, and consequently they supply us with a record that complements that derived from archaeological excavations and surveys."
[1]
[1]: (Wilkinson 2009, 57) Tony J Wilkinson. Environment and Long-Term Population Trends in Southwest Arabia. Michael D Petraglia. Jeffrey I Rose. eds. 2009. The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia. Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics. Springer. Dordrecht. |
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"The South Arabia civilizations were literate during most of the first millennium BC and AD, and consequently they supply us with a record that complements that derived from archaeological excavations and surveys."
[1]
[1]: (Wilkinson 2009, 57) Tony J Wilkinson. Environment and Long-Term Population Trends in Southwest Arabia. Michael D Petraglia. Jeffrey I Rose. eds. 2009. The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia. Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics. Springer. Dordrecht. |
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"One of the salient features of Yemen (and, to a lesser extent, Arabia) is the substantial quantity of epigraphic documents—texts written on non-perishable materials, such as stone and metal, or on durable media, such as wood—yielded by these regions. [...] The oldest local inscriptions, which originate from Yemen, were carefully carved texts and the work of professionals, and would date from the mid-eighth century BC."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 90-91) 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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This quote refers to a 16th century inscription on a feast house. “In one of the oldest feast houses in Kafa, at Baha, Cardinal Massaja found a tabot with an inscription dedicated to ‘St. George, Our Lady Mary and God’ and signed by ‘Dengel’ (possibly referring to Sarsa Dengel of the sixteenth century).”
[1]
[1]: (Orent 1970, 272) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/collection |
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There could be diplomatic letters perhaps with the Uyghurs. There could be individuals who knew Chinese writing.
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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]
Based on the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether literacy spread from Buganda to Nkore at this time.
[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 Ajami script (see second quote) was used by a high-ranking minority. "In southern Senegambia, where non-Manding populations predominated, Manding was a prestigious language of the pagan aristocracy and, on the other hand, the language of the Muslim merchant network of Jakhanke. The existence of Manding Ajami in that area was already attested in the first half of the 18th century (Labat 1728; cited by Giesing & Costa-Dias 2007: 63), long before the pagan rule of the ñàncoo elite of the Kaabu was definitely smashed by Muslim Fulbe troops from Fuuta Jalon. In any case, the emergence of Ajami is not related to the establishment of a Muslim political power in this area: the main holders of Islamic writing in the area, the Jakhanke merchants, were for centuries integrated into the social system of the Kaabu confederation and often served as advisers and intermediates for the political elites."
[1]
"A number of terms have been used in this volume to refer to the usage of Arabic script for languages other than Arabic. Crosslinguistically, such writing systems are often termed ‘Arabic literature’, ‘Islamic literature’ or ‘Islamic writings’, and locally they are known by a large number of names, such as Wolofal, or Kiarabu. The term Ajami in particular (or variations, such as Äjam, Ajamiya, etc.), derived from the Arabic word ʿaǧam ‘non-Arab; Persian’, has gained some degree of popularity in academic literature and is also encountered as a self-denomination for these writing systems in some languages, such as Hausa."
[2]
[1]: (Vydrin 2014: 201-202) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/E8Z57DNC/collection. [2]: (Mumin and Verstegh 2014: 1) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/PVIK4HGV/collection. |
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