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Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics The eighth-century revolution Version 1.0 December 2005 Ian Morris Stanford University Abstract: Through most of the 20th century classicists saw the 8th century BC as a period of major changes, which they characterized as “revolutionary,” but in the 1990s critics proposed more gradualist interpretations. In this paper I argue that while 30 years of fieldwork and new analyses inevitably require us to modify the framework established by Snodgrass in the 1970s (a profound social and economic depression in the Aegean c. 1100-800 BC; major population growth in the 8th century; social and cultural transformations that established the parameters of classical society), it nevertheless remains the most convincing interpretation of the evidence, and that the idea of an 8th-century revolution remains useful © Ian Morris. [email protected] 1 THE EIGHTH-CENTURY REVOLUTION Ian Morris Introduction In the eighth century BC the communities of central Aegean Greece (see figure 1) and their colonies overseas laid the foundations of the economic, social, and cultural framework that constrained and enabled Greek achievements for the next five hundred years. Rapid population growth promoted warfare, trade, and political centralization all around the Mediterranean. In most regions, the outcome was a concentration of power in the hands of kings, but Aegean Greeks created a new form of identity, the equal male citizen, living freely within a small polis. This vision of the good society was intensely contested throughout the late eighth century, but by the end of the archaic period it had defeated all rival models in the central Aegean, and was spreading through other Greek communities. -
5. the Harappan Script Controversy
5. The Harappan script controversy (Subchapters 5.1-10 are the text of the paper “The Vedic Harappans in writing: Remarks in expectation of a decipherment of the Indus script”, written in late 1999, if I remember correctly. Instead of a postscript, subchapters 5.11-12 summarize a later development in 2003-2004, which throws an entirely different light on the meaning of the Indus script. At the time of editing this collection, I am agnostic on this question.) 5.1. Introduction In the Harappan cities some 4200 seals, many of them duplicates, have been found which carry short inscriptions in an otherwise unknown script. There is not the slightest doubt that this harvest of Harappan writings is but the tip of an iceberg, in this sense that the Harappan culture must have produced much more copious writings, but that most of them disappeared because the writing materials were not resistant to the ravages of time, particularly in the Indian climate. This fatality can still be seen today, when the libraries of many impoverished maharajas' castles are full of manuscripts which are decaying under our very eyes, turning large chunks of India's national memory and heritage into dust. Even of the oldest and most popular texts, the extant manuscripts are seldom older than a few centuries, copies made as the only guarantee to save the texts from the ravages of time which were destroying the earlier copies. It is fair to assume that a text corpus proportionate in size to the enormous extent of the Harappan cultural space, has gone the same way into oblivion. -
Gaulish Galo
palaeoeuropeanpalaeoeuropean languages & epigraphieslanguages & | epigraphiesHispania & Gaul PALAEOHISPANICA 2020 | I.S.S.N. 1578-5386 revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania antigua DOI: 10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.383 Gaulish Galo Alex Mullen University of Nottingham [email protected] Coline Ruiz Darasse Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Institut Ausonius / UMR 5607 CNRS [email protected] Abstract: Gaulish is a language in the Celtic language family, documented in Gaul (France and surrounding territories) from around the 2nd century BC and through the Roman period. It is transmitted primarily in Greek (Gallo-Greek) and Latin (Gallo-Latin) script, with a small number of Gaulish texts also attested in the Etruscan alphabet in Italy (Gallo-Etruscan) and with Gaulish names found in Iberian script. In this article we detail current knowledge of the linguistic content, context and classification of Gaulish, and consider the epigraphic corpus, naming practices, writing systems and the cultural interactions that shape this material. Finally, we discuss the future challenges for the study of Gaulish and some of the work that is underway which will drive our research in the 21st century. Keywords: Continental Celtic. Cultural contacts. Epigraphy. Gaul. Gaulish. Gallo-Greek. Gallo-Latin. Onomastics. Writing systems. Resumen: El galo es una lengua perteneciente a la familia celta, que está documentada en la Galia (Francia y los territorios adyacentes) desde aproximadamente el siglo II a. C. y a lo largo del período romano. Esta lengua se escribió principalmente en alfabeto griego (galo-griego) y latino (galo-latín), aunque también se cuenta con un pequeño número de textos en alfabeto etrusco en Italia (galo-etrusco) y de nombres galos en escritura ibérica. -
ICONS and SIGNS from the ANCIENT HARAPPA Amelia Sparavigna ∗ Dipartimento Di Fisica, Politecnico Di Torino C.So Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, Torino, Italy
ICONS AND SIGNS FROM THE ANCIENT HARAPPA Amelia Sparavigna ∗ Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Torino C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, Torino, Italy Abstract Written words probably developed independently at least in three places: Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa. In these densely populated areas, signs, icons and symbols were eventually used to create a writing system. It is interesting to see how sometimes remote populations are using the same icons and symbols. Here, we discuss examples and some results obtained by researchers investigating the signs of Harappan civilization. 1. Introduction The debate about where and when the written words were originated is still open. Probably, writing systems developed independently in at least three places, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa. In places where an agricultural civilization flourished, the passage from the use of symbols to a true writing system was early accomplished. It means that, at certain period in some densely populated area, signs and symbols were eventually used to create a writing system, the more complex society requiring an increase in recording and communication media. Signs, symbols and icons were always used by human beings, when they started carving wood or cutting stones and painting caves. We find signs on drums, textiles and pottery, and on the body itself, with tattooing. To figure what symbols used the human population when it was mainly composed by small groups of hunter-gatherers, we could analyse the signs of Native Americans. Our intuition is able to understand many of these old signs, because they immediately represent the shapes of objects and animals. It is then quite natural that signs and icons, born among people in a certain region, turn out to be used by other remote populations. -
First Capitals of Armenia and Georgia: Armawir and Armazi (Problems of Early Ethnic Associations)
First Capitals of Armenia and Georgia: Armawir and Armazi (Problems of Early Ethnic Associations) Armen Petrosyan Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan The foundation legends of the first capitals of Armenia and Georgia – Armawir and Armazi – have several common features. A specific cult of the moon god is attested in both cities in the triadic temples along with the supreme thunder god and the sun god. The names of Armawir and Armazi may be associated with the Anatolian Arma- ‘moon (god).’ The Armenian ethnonym (exonym) Armen may also be derived from the same stem. The sacred character of cultic localities is extremely enduring. The cults were changed, but the localities kept their sacred character for millennia. At the transition to a new religious system the new cults were often simply imposed on the old ones (e.g., the old temple was renamed after a new deity, or the new temple was built on the site or near the ruins of the old one). The new deities inherited the characteristics of the old ones, or, one may say, the old cults were simply renamed, which could have been accompanied by some changes of the cult practices. Evidently, in the new system more or less comparable images were chosen to replace the old ones: similarity of functions, rituals, names, concurrence of days of cult, etc (Petrosyan 2006: 4 f.; Petrosyan 2007a: 175).1 On the other hand, in the course of religious changes, old gods often descend to the lower level of epic heroes. Thus, the heroes of the Armenian ethnogonic legends and the epic “Daredevils of Sasun” are derived from ancient local gods: e.g., Sanasar, who obtains the 1For numerous examples of preservation of pre-Urartian and Urartian holy places in medieval Armenia, see, e.g., Hmayakyan and Sanamyan 2001). -
Sicani Cave Drawings
Sicani cave drawings Continue October 6, 2014 Patrice Hall Leave a comment written: Patrice Hall magazine IndexBest Sicily Arts and Culture Fashion Food - Wine Story - Society of Us Travel Faqs Contact Map of Sicily Some terms BC - Before the traditional birth of Jesus Christ. Also, B.C., until the general era. The Bronze Age - The Era of the first instruments and weapons of copper and bronze, in Greece, dating from about 3000 BC to the Iron Age. chalcedony - Mineral quartz formations and similar substances previously used for use by primitive tools. Copper Age - Earliest period of the Bronze Age, depending on the region, before copper was fused with tin to form bronze for tools and weapons. Early Minoan - Minoan (Cretan) civilization from 4000 BC to 2100 BC Indo-European - Many societies in Europe, South Asia and southwest Asia, identified by 1000 BC on the basis of linguistic similarities. Iron Age - The Era of iron instruments, dating back to about 1200 BC, in Greece around 1100 BC, in Sicily, probably with the Greeks around 700 BC. Late Bronze Age - In Sicily, the epoch dates from about 1270 BC to around 650 BC, just before the Iron Age imposed by the Greeks. Late Minoan - Minoan (Cretan) civilization from 1550 BC to 1100 BC The Middle Minoan - Minoan (Cretan) civilization from 2100 BC to 1550 BC Minoan - Aegean civilization of ancient Crete, from 4000 BC to 1100 BC Mycenaean - a civilization of the late bronze age of ancient Peloponnese modern to mine late (Critical) development. Attitude to ancient mycenae. Neolithic is literally the New Stone Age, which immediately preceded the Bronze Age. -
Catalan in the Classroom: a Language Under Fire Sara Fowler
Catalan in the Classroom: A Language Under Fire Sara Fowler Hawaii Pacific University Abstract This paper describes the role of Spain’s largest minority language, Catalan, in Spanish society, specifically in the classroom. Throughout its history, Catalan has gone through many cycles of oppression and revival. Currently, despite several decades of positive progress in its official role and a growing number of young speakers, Catalan is facing new challenges once again. Some members of the Spanish government believe that the language of instruction in Catalonia should be Castilian, a development which the citizens of Catalonia feel is an attack on their linguistic rights and identity. Catalan is a well-documented example of the tensions which can arise in a country with a minority language or languages. The Catalan case can also serve as a reminder to English teachers that the politics of language are often more complicated than they seem; teachers must be aware of and sensitive to the cultural and political backgrounds of their students. Introduction It is a fact that linguistic boundaries and political borders are not a perfect match; nevertheless, most people associate one language with one country. For example, the name Spain, for many people, brings to mind one language: Spanish. However, Spanish, or “Castilian” as it is more specifically called, is not the only language in Spain. There are 15 languages spoken in Spain—one official language and three other “co-official” languages, the largest of which is Catalan, spoken as a “mother tongue” by approximately nine percent of the population, compared to five percent speakers of Galician and a mere one percent who speak Euskera (Basque) as a mother tongue (Ethnologue, 2014; European Commission, 2006, p. -
The Ancient People of Italy Before the Rise of Rome, Italy Was a Patchwork
The Ancient People of Italy Before the rise of Rome, Italy was a patchwork of different cultures. Eventually they were all subsumed into Roman culture, but the cultural uniformity of Roman Italy erased what had once been a vast array of different peoples, cultures, languages, and civilizations. All these cultures existed before the Roman conquest of the Italian Peninsula, and unfortunately we know little about any of them before they caught the attention of Greek and Roman historians. Aside from a few inscriptions, most of what we know about the native people of Italy comes from Greek and Roman sources. Still, this information, combined with archaeological and linguistic information, gives us some idea about the peoples that once populated the Italian Peninsula. Italy was not isolated from the outside world, and neighboring people had much impact on its population. There were several foreign invasions of Italy during the period leading up to the Roman conquest that had important effects on the people of Italy. First there was the invasion of Alexander I of Epirus in 334 BC, which was followed by that of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 280 BC. Hannibal of Carthage invaded Italy during the Second Punic War (218–203 BC) with the express purpose of convincing Rome’s allies to abandon her. After the war, Rome rearranged its relations with many of the native people of Italy, much influenced by which peoples had remained loyal and which had supported their Carthaginian enemies. The sides different peoples took in these wars had major impacts on their destinies. In 91 BC, many of the peoples of Italy rebelled against Rome in the Social War. -
The Evolution of Civilizations Singled out for National Awards by a National Committee Headed by George Gallup
The Evolution of Civilizations n this perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of I civilizations, Professor Quigley seeks to establish the analytical tools necessary for understanding history. He examines the applica- tion of scientific method to the social sciences, then establishes his historical hypotheses. He poses a division of culture into six levels, from the more abstract to the more concrete—intellectual, religious, social, political, economic, and military—and he identifies seven stages of historical change for all civilizations: mixture, gestation, expansion, conflict, universal empire, decay, and invasion. Quigley tests these hypotheses by a detailed analysis of five major civilizations: the Mesopotamian, the Canaanite, the Minoan, the classical, and the Western. "He has reached sounder ground than has Arnold J. Toynbee" —Christian Science Monitor. "Studies of this nature, rare in American historiography, should be welcomed. Quigley's juxtaposition of facts in a novel order is often provocative, and his work yields a harvest of insights"—American Historical Review. "Extremely illuminating" —Kirkus Reviews. "This is an amazing book. Quigley avoids the lingo of expertise; indeed, the whole performance is sane, impres- sively analytical, and well balanced"—Library Journal. CARROLL QUIGLEY taught the history of civilization at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and was the author of Trag- edy and Hope: The World in Our Time. Contents Diagrams, Tables, and Maps .................................................... 11 Foreword, by Harry J. Hogan ................................................... 13 Preface to the First Edition ....................................................... 23 1. Scientific Method and the Social Sciences.......................... 31 2. Man and Culture.................................................................. 49 3. Groups, Societies, and Civilizations.................................... 67 4. Historical Analysis .............................................................. 85 5. -
AELAW Booklet / 3 Iberian Language / Writing / Epigraphy Noemí Moncunill Martí Javier Velaza Frías
This output received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 715626. AELAW Booklet / 3 Iberian Language / Writing / Epigraphy Noemí Moncunill Martí Javier Velaza Frías INTRODUCTION* The Iberian language is principally documented by more than 2000 inscriptions dated between the fifth century BCE and first century CE, drawn from a region of the Mediterranean belt that stretches from the Hérault river in French Languedoc to Almeria. It is currently an undeciphered language. We are able to read its texts fairly reliably and even analyse the briefest and most formulaic of them with some competence, but nonetheless are unable to understand its meaning. From a typological perspective, it is almost certainly an agglutinative language which may present ergative features. Its hypothetical relationships with other languages, ancient or modern, are, however, still unproven: although a relationship with Aquitanian or ancient Basque is not impossible, it is unclear whether this would be genetic or through contact. The study of the Iberian language, like that of the other Palaeohispanic languages, goes back to the works of the numismatists, from Antonio Agustín and Velázquez to Delgado and Zóbel de Zangróniz. They are responsible for identifying the script and deciphering the first signs. When Emil Hübner published the first corpus of pre-Roman Hispanian inscriptions at the end of the nineteenth century, however, the system of transcription was still very deficient and did not even serve to reveal that these inscriptions were in fact evidence of various languages that are very different to one another. -
Languages of Harappa
•§ Michael Witzel Feb. 17, 2000 135 k The Languages of Harappa § 1. The riddle of the Indus script and language Each year, or as it seems, by now every other month, we see a new decipherment of the Indus script. Beyond G. Possehl's fifty-odd examples (Possehl 1996), there must be some dozens more, by now frequently found on the internet. However, as is well known, neither is the script itself well understood nor do we know on which language it is based and for which languages it has been used. In this paper, I am not going to add myself to the long list of failures of decipherment of the script. Instead, I think we should first prepare the ground for such undertaking by investigating the peculiarities of the script itself, a task that has not been carried systematically enough (Wells 1998). Secondly, we should take a much closer look at the various sources which may indicate which languages were spoken in the core areas of the Indus civilization, in the Greater Panjab and in Sindh-Baluchistan. During the past few decades, the language underlying the Indus script has almost universally been taken as Proto-Dravidian (leaving aside such unlikely explanations as Sanskrit, Sumerian, etc., see Possehl 1996). This means a form of reconstructed, early Dravidian that precedes --by some two thousand years or more-- that of the Sangam (Cakam) texts which were composed in archaic Tamil around the beginning of our era. The tacit presupposition has been that the by and large South Indian Dravidian languages preceded the various dialects of Old Indo-Aryan (OIA) in the Panjab and Sindh. -
Harappan Civilization
~{ ,"r. ..... ~_Lu 5 ~ . Reprinted from Harappan Civilization Edited by GREGORY L. POSSEHL OXFORD & lBH PUBLISHING CO. New Delhi Bombay Calcutta _ \ Ii' L IRA V ATHAM MAHADEVAN 29. Terminal Ideograms in the Indus Script THE study of the Indus script has cOme of age with the direct borrowing or common descent. Pictograms and publication of two comprehensive, computerized ideograms, hy their very nature, are bound to have concordances which cover between them the entire resemblances even i.f tbey belong to different and known inscriptional material of the Harappan Civili independent writing systems. Sign sequences in the zation (Parpola et al., 1973, 1979; Ma.hadevan 1977). Indus script are unique, bearing no relation to any of These concordances present the texts and the rele the West Asian scripts. vant background data in a systematic manner, enabl 3) The lndus script is /l0/ related to the later ingscholars without direct acceSS to the original mate Indian scripts, namely, the Brahm. and the Khora rial to undertake analytical studies of the insc riptions sh\hi. The attempts to link fe atures like conjunct and to formulate or verify hypotheses regarding the consonants or medial vowel signs of the later Indian nature of the script and the typology of the underlying scripts with the supposedly simil"r [catllres o[ the language. Indus script have not been successful. Some positive results have already emerged aT 4) The most common supposition that the fre been confirmed by analytical studies based on the quent terminal signs of the Indus script represent concordances. The determination of the direction of grammatical suffixes, especially case endings, has nor writing (from right to left) and the segmentation of been confirmed by the concordances.