Ancient Inscriptions Research Articles

Stronghold of Letters: Late Medieval Durham as a Symbol of the Epistolarity.

In this article, we will explore how the consumption of ancient letter collections and the development of letter-writing practices, known as dictaminal culture, reflect the grandeur of Durham Cathedral Priory. Located near the Scottish border and in a place with a historical influx of Scandinavians, Durham Cathedral Priory was a distant Benedictine community which stood as one of the most significant examples against the idea of cultural and educational periphery. It had one of the most comprehensive and multidisciplinary libraries in Western Europe, of which a significant part is still available and heavily invested in primary and secondary education. In that context, Durham Cathedral Library was a beacon of erudition, social and political connectiveness and humane growth. Linked to all those advancements, we can find both the consumption of ancient letter collections, which we will present as a product of various techniques and genres and the development of letter-writing techniques, which were inherited from late Antiquity but were transformed into something utterly new in medieval Europe. Therefore, we intend to demonstrate how Durham Cathedral Priory was an epistolary stronghold in all senses, which allowed it to grow further than any other distant and small community in England.

Exploring the Characteristics of Chinese Ancient Inscriptions: A Chen's Theory Perspective

Exploring the Characteristics of Chinese Ancient Inscriptions: A Chen's Theory Perspective

What Were the Influences on These Sogdian Merchants Doing Business in China During China's War with Xiongnu?

This paper investigates the affects to the Sogdian merchants who were doing business in China during Chinas war with the Xiongnu. Several arguments were made in this paper in order to support the points made below, with actual historical events and background, which includes the Yongjia rebellion that happened in the Western Jin Dynasty in China. The Paper also relied heavily on an ancient letter to support its statements, which was written by a Sogdian merchant who used to trade in China in the Western Jin dynasty, got trapped in China and could not leave. The paper proves the security of Sogdian life, property, and trade during the period of the war between China and the Huns.

A Parallel Comparison Between the Social Status of Sogdian and Chinese Aristocratic Women in Tang Dynasty

Sogdians were active in commercial activities on the Silk Road in Tang and Song Dynasty of China. The interaction between Sogdians and Chinese promotes the exchange and development of both cultures, which resulted in some shared similarities between them, including the social status of women. However, further research is required to compare the social status of Sogdian and Chinese aristocratic women. This contributes to better knowledge about the family structure and marital relationships in Tang Dynasty, enabling researchers to reconstruct the life of aristocratic Sogdians and Chinese. In this paper, the term social status is deconstructed into female literacy, marital autonomy, and accessibility to the property. Two Sogdian ancient letters, one Tang epitaph, and several Sogdian and Chinese legal documents are analyzed from the three aspects. In conclusion, both Sogdian and Chinese aristocratic women enjoyed relatively higher social status in Tang Dynasty. Sogdian women were slightly superior to Chinese women, as they had more agency to divorce. Nevertheless, their relatively higher social statuses were not common across the entire gender and were still not comparable to their male counterparts.

Deep Aramaic: Towards a synthetic data paradigm enabling machine learning in epigraphy.

Epigraphy is witnessing a growing integration of artificial intelligence, notably through its subfield of machine learning (ML), especially in tasks like extracting insights from ancient inscriptions. However, scarce labeled data for training ML algorithms severely limits current techniques, especially for ancient scripts like Old Aramaic. Our research pioneers an innovative methodology for generating synthetic training data tailored to Old Aramaic letters. Our pipeline synthesizes photo-realistic Aramaic letter datasets, incorporating textural features, lighting, damage, and augmentations to mimic real-world inscription diversity. Despite minimal real examples, we engineer a dataset of 250 000 training and 25 000 validation images covering the 22 letter classes in the Aramaic alphabet. This comprehensive corpus provides a robust volume of data for training a residual neural network (ResNet) to classify highly degraded Aramaic letters. The ResNet model demonstrates 95% accuracy in classifying real images from the 8th century BCE Hadad statue inscription. Additional experiments validate performance on varying materials and styles, proving effective generalization. Our results validate the model's capabilities in handling diverse real-world scenarios, proving the viability of our synthetic data approach and avoiding the dependence on scarce training data that has constrained epigraphic analysis. Our innovative framework elevates interpretation accuracy on damaged inscriptions, thus enhancing knowledge extraction from these historical resources.

Türk Runik Bibliyografyası’na Ek IV

Since their initial discovery, the Old Turk inscriptions in the Turkish Runic script, which represent the earliest known written texts of the Turks, have been the subject of extensive scholarly investigation, encompassing thousands of studies. The aim of the study is to contribute to the existing bibliography, as outlined in the 2017 publication entitled “Turkic Runic Bibliography” by Bilge Kültür Sanat Publications. In doing so, this research endeavour aims to expand the existing body of knowledge in two key areas: the “Additions” section will include previously overlooked publications, while the “New Publications” section will include works published in 2023. By expanding and refining the existing literature, this study aims to deepen our understanding of the rich cultural and historical heritage contained within these ancient inscriptions.

A Text-Centred Rhetorical Analysis of 1 Thessalonians 2:17–20

This article analyses 1 Thessalonians 2:17–20 from a rhetorical perspective. Instead of the typical approach used to analyse the letter in terms of ancient rhetorical theory, this article explains that Paul’s rhetorical strategy is best observed by a close reading of the text itself; it is called a text‑centred rhetorical analysis that follows a minimum theoretical approach. Accordingly, the overall rhetorical strategy is identified, followed by an outline of the dominant and supportive arguments, including the supportive strategies, and completed by identifying the rhetorical techniques. Moreover, this article highlights how Paul effectively adapts the ancient letter style to achieve his rhetorical objectives. It remains critical to understand the urgency of the missionaries not only to convey their loving concern but to exhort them to endure faithfully to the immanent parousia.

Whatever You Bestow on Him, You Will Bestow on Me: Key Motifs of Early Byzantine Letters of Recommendation

The letter of recommendation was known in Antiquity as a separate genre of letter writing for which a certain set of compositional techniques and formulae were developed. In Byzantium, too, the letter of recommendation was in great demand: letters in which the author presents his protégé to the addressee and, as a rule, asks him to perform something for him are not difficult to find in the epistolary collections of many authors from the 4th to the 15th century. Meanwhile, while the ancient letter of recommendation is well studied, the etiquette of this genre in the Byzantine tradition has hardly been investigated yet. The purpose of this piece is to characterize the etiquette norms of Greek letter of recommendation in the early Byzantine period (4th — early 7th centuries). The subject of the study are, first of all, literarische Privatbriefe, belonging to Libanius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Synesius of Cyrene, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Procopius of Gaza and others, but also private papyrus letters. Their analysis leads to the conclusion that there is a wide variability of the canons of the letter of recommendation, the absence of any rigid scheme that presupposes a clear sequence of structural elements. At the same time, it reveals six recurrent etiquette motifs, all of which are subordinated to a single goal — to persuade the addressee to patronize the recommended person. These motifs are analyzed in detail, and stable formulas are indicated for some of them. An attempt is made to determine to what extent the canons of Greek letters of recommendation of the 4th–7th centuries go back to the ancient tradition. The letters of recommendation of Cicero and Pliny the Younger, as well as letters preserved on late antique papyri, are used as material for comparative analysis.

EpiSearch. Identifying Ancient Inscriptions in Epigraphic Manuscripts

AbstractEpigraphic documents are an essential source of evidence for our knowledge of the ancient world. Nonetheless, a significant number of inscriptions have not been preserved in their material form. In fact, their texts can only be recovered thanks to handwritten materials and, in particular, the so-called epigraphic manuscripts. EpiSearch is a pilot project that explores the application of digital technologies deployed to retrieve the epigraphic evidence found in these sources. The application of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) to epigraphic manuscripts is a challenging task, given the nature and graphic layout of these documents. Yet, our research shows that, even with some limits, HTR technologies can be used successfully.

Analisis Image Processing pada Prasasti Teroksidasi Ayam Téas I

The Ayam Téas I inscription is one of the ancient inscriptions in Indonesia. Currently, the condition of the inscription has undergone natural degradation, causing the letters and the written message to become more difficult to read. Among the natural forms of degradation are corrosion and erosion. One method that can be used to address this problem is by utilizing image processing technology in the form of imageJ software. The analysis process involves capturing images using a camera and then processing the images using imageJ software. This software provides a mode that can remove unnecessary colors due to lighting, allowing some of the writings on the Ayam Téas I inscription to become more visible. Keywords: imageJ; prasasti; Ayam Téas I; histogram; grayscale

Teaching and Researching the History and Archaeology of Jordan during the Bronze and Iron Ages (ca. 3600 – 1200 BC)

The history of nations is their political and cultural identity, but this recorded history, which began with the knowledge of writing in the East about 3200 years BC and has continued until the present, has seen difficulties and declines in civilizations. What concerns us in this article is shedding light on an important period of Jordan’s ancient history – the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 3600-332 BC) – which scholars of religion and the Bible contect with stories in the Bible beginning with the the Israelites leaving Egypt, their coming to Palestine and their establishing their state. It is important for us to shed light on who undertook and undertakes recording that history and the methodologies followed and the interpretation of antiquities and ancient inscriptions related to that history. We have seen that it is necessary to the extent possible to clarify Jordan’s role in the study of Jordan’s ancient history by the Jordanian universities that study history and archaeology and related fields. Since the establishment of the emirate in 1921, Jordan has attached great importance to archaeology, establishing a Department of Antiquities that remained under the control of the Mandate until the Arabization of the army in 1956. Also, in the same year in which the University of Jordan was established (1962), a Department of History and Archeology was established, and the university sent students abroad to study ancient history. Some other Jordanian universities did likewise. Unfortunately, recent years have seen a decline in research and teaching about the Bronze and Iron Ages; a number of faculty members in this field have retired, and universities have either refrained from sending students abroad or have stopped hiring new faculty members. In addition, the sub-sciences related to archaeology have overshadowed the original, hoping that students will get a job, as a result of graduates in archaeology flooding the market. In order for the matter to be rectified, it is necessary to establish a research center or centers based on scientific research and publishing in the ancient history of Jordan, following a unified approach based on scientific evidence.

How the Sogdian Ancient Letters Show the Family Values of the Sogdians People Who Lived in China

Sogdiana was an ancient country of Central Asia lasting from the Han dynasty to Song dynasty in the history of China. Its people, the Sogdians, were famous for their business talents. Their contributions to the international trade system and culture blending were nonnegligible. Sogdians expanded the geographical range of their trade routes to China; some of them chose to live in China to do business. Called as Hu, a general term for non-Chinese peoples living north and northwest of China, Sogdians brought their own culture and traditions and kept their own identity when they settled in China. This paper analyzes the details and purpose of Sogdian ancient letters to explore how and why the Sogdians preserved their heritage and maintained their culture in China. In conclusion, Sogdians kept family values to form an organization to help each other when they were out of their motherland.

Ancient Letters and Old Paper: How Matthew Parker (1504–1575) Understood Medieval Books

Abstract: This article examines the efforts of Matthew Parker and his scholarly circle to understand the medieval books that he collected as archbishop of Canterbury. It argues that Parker made sense of his books by connecting them to what amounted to an emerging history of the book. That is, Parker began to piece together the formal features of different medieval books into a rough but increasingly refined timeline of the history of book production in order to contextualize any given manuscript. The evidence can be found scattered throughout Parker's library, in the form of annotations, transcripts of passages, copied illustrations, and printed books that offer a wealth of information about how Parker's team understood the books they handled. This documentation reveals how they combined scribal knowledge with textual information, to powerful ends. By connecting Parker's practices to contemporary developments in other areas of knowledge production, from alchemy to conjectural emendation, this article offers a new way forward for scholarly analysis of the early modern study of older books, especially for our analysis of early modern practices and paradigms that do not fit modern definitions of paleography and codicology.

A text-centred rhetorical analysis of 1 Thessalonians 2:1–12

This article analyses 1 Thessalonians 2:1–12 from a rhetorical perspective. Instead of the typical approach used to analyse the letter in terms of ancient rhetorical theory, this article explains Paul’s rhetorical strategy found in the text itself; it is therefore called a text-centred rhetorical analysis which follows a minimum theoretical approach. Accordingly, the overall rhetorical strategy is identified in this pericope. A discussion of the dominant and supportive arguments and rhetorical techniques follows the identification. This article illustrates how Paul adapts the ancient letter style to achieve his rhetorical objectives. It remains critical to note Paul’s already favourable relationship with the congregants. Therefore, his authority does not need to be confirmed. In light of the accusations of the outsiders, he nevertheless finds it necessary to reaffirm his integrity or ethos.

The Truth of History in the Graffiti on the Fresco of St. Sophia of Kyiv: a New Reading of the Most Ancient Inscriptions

The article, in the context of the author’s proposal of new dating of St. Sophia of Kyiv to the years of 1011–1018, focuses on the conceptual problem of the apogee of the development of ancient Rus-Ukraine. It is argued that this historical phenomenon is characteristic of the era of Volodymyr the Great, rather than Yaroslav the Wise, which was only a “weakened copy” of his father’s reign. To support this argument, the article analyzes the oldest Sophia graffiti from 1015 and 1019. A new reading of these graffiti using the method of a complex causal approach has made it possible to more clearly understand and objectively perceive the specific historical situation, which was falsified in the annals, and to bring it to life. In the altar part of the cathedral, the graffiti, previously considered to be the inscriptions of Volodymyr (Vasyliy) Monomakh and his contemporary Metropolitan Nikephoros and dated to the beginning of the 12th century, have been re-attributed. The author argues that these graffiti are 100 years older and are the autographs of Volodymyr (Vasyliy) the Great and his contemporary, the Byzantine general Archon Nikephoros Xiphias, created in 1014–1015 to commemorate the Belasytsia victory of Basil II with the help of Volodymyr’s troops in Bulgaria. This is the oldest authentic evidence of the existence of Sophia of Kyiv at that time as an already-built and frescoed temple that Volodymyr aimed to complete before his death. The existence of Sophia in the second decade of the 11th century is also confirmed by the author’s previously attributed graffiti of the “Olisava group” of 1019. These were preserved in the princely choirs of the cathedral, which belonged to Princess Olisava, the mother of Sviatopolk I, and his entourage, as well as the Metropolitan of Kyiv Ioann I. The graffiti left by the soldiers of the Novgorod official Kosniatyn Dobrynych on the walls of the cathedral’s open galleries also date back to the same year. The graffiti of 1019 record the end of the princely feud of 1015–1019 and the arrival of Yaroslav from Novgorod to power in Kyiv. Therefore, all the avalyzed graffiti are reliable epigraphic documents that testify to the emergence of Sophia of Kyiv in 1011–1015 and shed light on the course of historical events and the formation of national culture.

Sogdian Traders Along the Silk Road: Causes for Their Commercial Success

The Sogdian traders were arguably the most important traders along the Silk Road from the 4th century to the 8th century. Their sphere of influence expands across Eurasia, and their trading partners include China and the Roman Empire. This paper will argue that there are some distinct reasons behind their success as merchants who built a massive political-economic system along the Silk Road. In this paper, the research will base on the famous Sogdian Ancient Letters, other archeological findings, and secondary literature by historians like Di Cosmo and De la Vaissire and investigate the causes of Sogdian merchants success in building a transcontinental commerce system. Furthermore, this paper will specifically explain how Sogdian merchants rose to prominence in cities such as Dunhuang and Turpan and gained commercial success in China, one of its greatest trading partners.

बलम्वु क्षेत्रका लिच्छवीकालिन शिलालेखहरुको वर्तमान अवस्था {The Contemporary State of the Lichhavi Inscriptions of Balmbu}

This article is based on the present situation of stone inscription at ward no. 12 Chandragiri Municipality of Balambu area as referenced in the title. The article seeks to discuss the past and present situation of nine different stone inscriptions found at Balambu area. These inscriptions are valuable sources for the writing of Nepali’s history. These inscriptions were issued by various kings such as Basanta Deva, Kramalil, Ravi Gupta, Bhauma Gupta, Amsu Varma, Gana Deva, Bhimarjuna Deva, Jishnu Gupta, Narendra Deva, Shiva Deva II play an important role to write the history of Nepal. This research is a qualitative and comparative study of the differences in the physical condition of these inscriptions that were looked into and researched fifty years ago. These inscriptions which are witnesses of Nepalese long history has not caught the attention of the related institutions. Thus, the main objective of this research is to look into the physical condition of these inscriptions at various places of the ward no 12, Balambu area Chandragiri municipality. What was the physical condition of these inscriptions fifty years ago? In what ways are they different? How many have been lost? What is there physical condition at present? This research article seeks to unfold the how and why of these present conditions of these inscription. The Department of Archaeology the local municipality and community are the major stakeholder for the conservation and preservation of the cultural heritages. This article also investigates about: Who is responsible for the conservation of these Ancient inscriptions which belong to the Lichhavi period considered to be the golden era of Nepali history. Loss and damage of the inscription create problems for verification or correction against previous researches. This research will facilitate students, researchers and others to gather information about the status and present conditions of these stone inscription.

Born of fire: The pursuit of the ‘white gold’

AbstractFor more than 300 years, scores of historians and researchers have vigorously argued about the question who might have been the genuine inventor of European porcelain of Meissen fame: Johann Friedrich Böttger or Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Although the story of the invention of porcelain has been told countless times, the exact circumstances of its discovery are still shrouded in mystery. For a very long time the palm has been awarded to Böttger, but today, the scale is increasingly tilting toward Tschirnhaus. In this contribution, ancient letters and laboratory notes, and modern phase diagrams and microstructural investigation are being used to paint a picture of royal desire, efficient research organization, arduous labor, ingenious reasoning, but also treason, camouflage, bald lies, and perfidy.

National Identity and Belonging of Yemenite Jews in The Journey of Buried Secrets

Abstract This article discusses the national identity of the Yemenite Jews as portrayed in Majdi Saleh’s novel The Journey of Buried Secrets. The novel, in addition to being a journey to the ancient past of Yemen, is a journey to the secret life of the Yemenite Jews as well. It is an exploration of their customs, traditions, worries, passions and identity. The writer has been able to dive deep into the depths of Yemeni society, both Muslim and Jewish, depicting the beauty of Yemen architecture, ancient inscriptions and living styles of bygone days. Saleh’s novel presents a new perspective of the Yemenite Jew, one who identifies himself with Yemen and feels proud of this attachment to the land of his birth. The article argues that Yemenite Jews have been emotionally and cognitively attached to their motherland and perceived themselves as being Yemenites belonging to the country where they were born and grew up. It asserts that such a sense of belonging is the outcome of religious tolerance and coexistence of the larger Muslim community.

Identifikaciya ieroglifov v drevnih nadpisyah po tipovym ocifrovannym dannym: prilozhenie v istorii, arheologii, lingvistike

A new perspective method for the study of hieroglyphic inscriptions is described. The main attention is paid to the development of approaches for the correct identification of hieroglyphs in the ancient inscriptions according to characteristic digitized photometric data. Developed method for finding standard characteristics and parameters of the oldest hieroglyphic inscriptions allows to correctly identifying the same type of hieroglyphs.