Manuscripts and Archives

The archive is traditionally considered the counterpart of the library, the one storing records, the other housing "books." There is evidence, however, that this institutional division of labor reflects certain historical and social constellations. The present volume addresses the question of this complex interrelationship with case-studies from an impressive variety of ancient, traditional, and living cultures

Manuscripts and Archives

The archive is traditionally considered the counterpart of the library, the one storing records, the other housing "books." There is evidence, however, that this institutional division of labor reflects certain historical and social constellations. The present volume addresses the question of this complex interrelationship with case-studies from an impressive variety of ancient, traditional, and living cultures

Manuscripts and Archives

The series publishes monographs and collective volumes contributing to the emerging field of manuscript studies (manuscriptology), which includes disciplines such as philology, palaeography, codicology, art history, and material analysis. SMC encourages comparative approaches, without geographical or other limitations on the material studied; it contributes to a historical and systematic survey of manuscript cultures, and provides a new foundation for current discussions in Cultural Studies

The impact of writing: ancient and modern views on the role of early writing systems within society and as a part of 'civilisation'

Writing is essential to the way in which we live today, our society would simply not exist without it. Because of this there is often a danger of unconsciously projecting the importance we put on writing onto ancient societies. The aim of my research project is to uncover the way in which the invention of writing was received and originally affected the people living in the regions where it was being used, and how this view fits in with the modern interpretations that have been put forward on the impact of writing and literacy. In my study I will be using Egypt and Sumer as case studies, as they were the first regions to invent writing. This is important as it means their societies had not been exposed to writing beforehand, so their reaction was not affected by a preconceived idea of the function of writing. I will begin by looking at the modern views on the role of writing, espoused by scholars from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. These modern views often link writing to the idea of ‘civilisation’, believing that without it a society cannot be called civilised. The modern views will be contrasted with the ancient views of early writing, both from the perspective of society as a whole, and on a more personal level. By doing so I hope to highlight where modern views of early writing diverge significantly from ancient views, allowing us to reconsider arguments and place them within their proper context

Of marks and men : the functional and historical context of the workmen's marks of the Royal Theban Necropolis

The dissertation examines the functional and historical context of the corpus of ostraca from the Theban necropolis - hitherto largely unpublished - that are inscribed with identity marks. The feature that sets the usage of marks in Deir el-Medina apart from other systems in ancient Egypt is their application in the creation of documentary records. Analysing the 18th Dynasty ostraca, the study provides insight into the organisation and administration of the royal necropolis workmen of that period. The ostraca from the 19th and 20th Dynasty are occasionally concerned with supplies and tools for the construction of the tomb, but more often they record the delivery and distribution of commodities, goods and rations, and attendance at the worksite. In the 20th Dynasty more than in the 19th Dynasty ostraca can be recognised that pertain not to the collective necropolis administration, but that are private accounts. The subject of such records is also exclusively of a material nature. They include what seem to be inventories of private property and records of transactions. The majority of ostraca with identity marks were created by workmen without formal scribal training, although some were evidently composed by scribes or draftsmen

Law’s Box: Law, Jurisprudence and the Information Ecosphere

For so long as it has been important to know “what the law is,” the practice of law has been an information profession. Nonetheless, just how the information ecosphere affects legal discourse and thinking has never been systematically studied. Legal scholars study how law attempts to regulate information flow, but they say little about how information limits, shapes, and provides a medium for law to operate. Part I of the paper introduces a holistic approach to “medium theory”—the idea that methods of communication influence social development and ideology—and applies the theory to the development of legal thinking and institutions. Part II examines select historic and pre-historic cultures that emphasize different media for conducting legal affairs—stone stelae, clay tablets, papyrus, and oral verse. In concluding, the paper relies upon Heidegger’s criticism of “technological thinking.” In the case of modern society, the legal environment and our conception of the past are limited by technological thinking (i.e., the reduction of all things as resources to be mastered and used toward some end). However, the challenge is to see, by studying past information ecospheres, the current boundaries of law’s box and then to imagine what may lie beyond them

Law's Box: Law, Jurisprudence and the Information Ecosphere

Includes bibliographic references.For so long as it has been important to know what the law is, the practice of law has been an information profession. Nonetheless, just how the information ecosphere affects legal discourse and thinking has never been systematically studied. Legal scholars study how law attempts to regulate information flow, but they say little about how information limits, shapes, and provides a medium for law to operate. Part I of the paper introduces a holistic approach to medium theory - the idea that methods of communication influence social development and ideology - and applies the theory to the development of legal thinking and institutions. Part II examines select historic and pre-historic cultures that emphasize different media for conducting legal affairs - stone stelae, clay tablets, papyrus, and oral verse. In concluding, the paper relies upon Heidegger's criticism of technological thinking. In the case of modern society, the legal environment and our conception of the past are limited by technological thinking (i.e., the reduction of all things as resources to be mastered and used toward some end). However, the challenge is to see, by studying past information ecospheres, the current boundaries of law's box and then to imagine what may lie beyond them. The UMKC selection committee for the Brenner Faculty Publishing Award unanimously designated the article from law faculty publications for 2005-2006 as the recipient of award

Interdisciplinary Explorations of Postmortem Interaction

In the present as in the past, the dead have been deployed to promote visions of identity, as well as ostensibly wider human values. Through a series of case studies from ancient Egypt through prehistoric, historic, and present-day Europe, this book discusses what is constant and what is locally and historically specific in our ways of interacting with the remains of the dead, their objects, and monuments. Postmortem interaction encompasses not only funerary rituals and intergenerational engagement with forebears, but also concerns encounters with the dead who died centuries and millennia ago. Drawing from a variety of disciplines such as archaeology, bioarchaeology, literary studies, ancient Egyptian philology, and sociocultural anthropology, this volume provides an interdisciplinary account of the ways in which the dead are able to transcend temporal distances and engender social relationships. Until quite recently, literary sciences and archaeology were generally regarded as incommensurable in their aims, methodologies, and source material. Although archaeologists and literary critics have been increasingly willing to borrow concepts and terminology from the other discipline, this book is one examples of a genuinely collaborative endeavor. This is an open access book

Hieratic Ostraca of the Rameside period in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo: documentation, classification and commentary

We have dealt in this dissertation with 31 ostraca from the Valley of the Kings with various texts. They all attribute to Th. Davis and Carter/ Carnarvon’s excavations. They can classify into administrative, literary, Funny-signs and few jar labels. Coordinated minor institutions may have probably based therein, being administered by a large headquarter settled somewhere in western Thebes. These small administrative stations were in charge of preparing works to be executed into some group of tombs in the vicinity. That can explain the reason why we find some artefacts of a certain king somewhere else other than the area where his tomb is located. The corpus of this research has revealed that workmen might have probably exploited the Valley of the Kings as a place where they could temporarily settle down. This hypothesis may be corroborated by the recent excavations which have discovered a wide-spread of huts throughout the main valley along with its lateral ones. The increase of workmen’s number which took place sometime during the ruling years of Ramses IV would have probably constricted the authority to build these huts as a sort of temporary inhabiting extension to the neighbouring settlement of Deir el Medina