The prism of time: the factor of information transfer

Abstract

The article is aimed at a general analysis of events and circumstances influencing the change and/ or distortion of historical information over time. The methodological basis of the article implies a set of principles and methods of cognition, the choice of which is determined by interdisciplinary approachesto the disclosure of the topic, the assigned tasks, and the specifics of the sources. In the research process, critical and comparative methods of analysis of sources of ancient information are used as well as analysis and systematization of events and circumstances influencing the information with their subsequent classification. The scientific novelty of the research is defined by the fact that, in contrast to the generally accepted analysis of individual cases of distortion of information, this study attempts to identify groups and types of events and circumstances that influenced or could influence the distortion of information throughout the entire period of its existence, and subsequently systematize and classify them as separate phenomena or factors that shall be taken into account when studying such information. The results of the research are based on the analysis of ancient information as well as on the analysis of many events and circumstances that influenced or could influence the perception of such information or its physical distortion. Given the limited time frame, this study analyzes events and circumstances that can be attributed to only one type, since all of them are associated only with the transfer of information from one medium to another (for example, when recording an oral story on a hard medium, when restoring text from the original, when editing, copying or translating text, or the other way of transferring information to a new medium). These events and circumstances are combined into a factor, which can roughly be called “the factor of information transfer”. At the same time, during the study, it was established that the influence of this factor on information mostly occurred for three reasons, namely: due to negligence, ignorance, or pretense.