Historical Inscriptions Research Articles

“But Never Do be Long Without Writing Us, for Altho' Many Miles Divide Us We Have Your Welfare at Heart”: An Analysis of Requests in Intimate Discourse in Irish Emigrants’ Letters (1700–1940)

This article concentrates on the analysis of requestive speech acts from the point of view of (im)politeness studies within the context of historical letter-writing. It draws its data from a sub-corpus of the Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) containing letters written by Irish emigrants that settled in the United States and their intimates. The scope of this research is limited to intimate discourse to perform a cohesive study of the encoding of this speech act within a particular framework of usage in a particular genre. This study classifies a total of 254 requests extracted from this sub-corpus and observes the major tendencies that appear in this specific context. Results show a clear preference for the usage of impositive head act strategies (95.68% of the results). Imperatives (50.9%), want statements (27.8%), and performatives (9.8%) are the most recurrent head act strategies in this set of data. Conversely, indirect requests show a much lower number of hits (4.32%). Moreover, the data showed a preference for external modification or no modification at all. These results point towards the idea that directness might have been conventionalized as a sign of positive politeness between family members in the context of historical letter writing. Some reservations about generalizations with regards to the data are expressed and further research lines are proposed in order to establish a more solid understanding of the encoding of requestive speech acts in the context of historical letter writing.

Validation of graph sequence clusters through multivariate analysis: application to Rovash scripts

This paper introduces the concept of pattern systems that evolve, with a focus on scripts, a specific type of pattern system. The study analyses the development of different script systems, known as scriptinformatics, with a focus on the historical Rovash scripts used in the Eurasian steppe. The aim is to assess the traditional classification of historical inscriptions, referred to as script relics, into distinct Rovash scripts. Clustering and ordination techniques were used to perform multivariate analyses on Rovash scripts and inscriptions. The study presents two new measures, the script-specific holophyletic index and the joint holophyletic index, for evaluating trees produced by hierarchical clustering. The results indicate that holophyletic indices can validate the traditional assignment of inscriptions to scripts through phylogenetic tree evaluation. This method can be extended to include pattern systems with evolutionary properties and graph sequences derived from them, as well as additional scripts and inscriptions.

Fungal and bacterial species richness in biodeteriorated seventeenth century Venetian manuscripts

Historical paper documents are susceptible to complex degradation processes, including biodeterioration, which can progressively compromise their aesthetic and structural integrity. This study analyses seventeenth century handwritten historical letters stored at the Correr Museum Library in Venice, Italy, exhibiting pronounced signs of biodeterioration. The techniques used encompassed traditional colony isolation on agar plates and proteomics analyses, employing nanoscale liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (nano-LC–MS). Fluorescence microscopy was used for the first time in the historical paper biodeterioration context to supplement the conventional stereoscopic, optical, and scanning electron microscopic imaging techniques. This method enables the visualisation of microorganisms beyond and beneath the paper’s surface through their natural intrinsic autofluorescence in a non-invasive and non-destructive way. The results demonstrate a diverse, complex, and abundant microbiota composed of coexisting fungal and bacterial species (Ascomycota, Mucoromycota, Basidiomycota, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria), along with mite carcasses, insects, parasites, and possibly protists. Furthermore, this study reveals certain species that were not previously documented in the biodeterioration of historical paper, including human pathogens, such as Histoplasma capsulatum, Brucella, Candida albicans, and species of Aspergillus (A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. oryzae, A. terreus, A. niger) known to cause infections or produce mycotoxins, posing substantial risk to both artefacts and humans.

Indigenous architecture and rock art and Euro-American historical inscriptions from the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, southwestern Colorado, USA

The paper presents some results from research of the Polish archaeological project conducted in several canyons in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado, USA. It focuses on reconstruction of settlement structure and socio-cultural changes in Ancestral Pueblo community from 13th century A.D. as well as on documentation (mainly with advanced digital methods) and analysis of Native American rock art from different time periods. Rock art consists of petroglyphs and paintings that include Ancestral Pueblo and historic Ute tribes, but also Euro-American inscriptions left close to Native American rock art panels. One of the aims of the project is also to reconstruct the relationships between the site locations, architecture, rock art, and the surrounding landscape.

What can historical letters teach us about past societies?

What can historical letters teach us about past societies?

Заключительные «Исторические письма» В.И. Ламанского (предисловие к публикации)

The article introduces the publication of the fragments of the sixth “Historical Letter on the Attitude of the Russian People to their Tribesmen” and the conclusion prepared by Vladimir Ivanovich Lamansky, a Slavophile and professor at St. Petersburg University. It is noted that other works of the scientist, on which he worked in the following years, remained unfinished. The facts allowing to indicate the date of writing the “Historical Letters” are given: 1859–1862, work interrupted by Lamansky's trip abroad (1862–1864). It is suggested that the “Historical Letters” were a continuation of the research direction outlined by Lamansky in his master's thesis “On the Slavs in Asia Minor, Africa and Spain” (1859), i.e. they were the result of his archival and desk work. The trip to the Slavic lands enriched the scholar with real knowledge of the Slavic peoples, their history and current situation, which made many of the arguments in the “Historical Letters” irrelevant. There are two subjects that Lamansky touched upon in his “last” letters, and which were further developed in his research and work. Firstly, these are the works in the field of national ethnography: his long-term leadership of the ethnographic department of the Russian Geographical Society, the organisation of the Slavic Congress and the Ethnographic Exhibition in 1867, the publication of the ethnographic journal “Zhivaya starina” (1890), the project of the of the ethnographic department of the Russian Museum (1899). Lamansky's statements on ethnography as fatherland studies or ethnology are presented, revealing his understanding of ethnographic science. Secondly, this is a historiosophical interpretation of the Oriental Question, considering it as an episode of interaction between two civilisations: the Greco-Slavic and the Romano-Germanic. The incompleteness of the “Historical Letters” is pointed out, which is reflected in the gaps in their publication.

Historical Letters to the Editor Mirror Current Issues in Nursing.

Historical Letters to the Editor Mirror Current Issues in Nursing.

Metodologické východiská výskumu šľachtickej korešpondencie v ranom novoveku (na príklade listov Judity Balassovej)

Letters have always played an important role as means of communication. As a historical source, they convey information about various aspects of life of their period, including both public and private. In this paper, I analyse the methodological principles and possibilities of conducting historical research of early modern aristocratic correspondence. The first part of the study deals with the theoretical questions related to historical letters. The second part verifies the methodological approaches providing examples based on the research of correspondence of the family Koháry from the 17th century, while pointing out the possibilities and limits of interpretation. The aim of the study is not to present the results of complex research, but it rather serves as an analysis of characteristics and distinctiveness of historical letters, and demonstrates some of the methods of scientific approach towards historical correspondence.

Navigating the Challenges of Deduplicating Actors in Historical Letter Exchanges

This paper outlines ongoing research to standardize the metadata of letters from Finnish cultural heritage organizations to build a comprehensive archive for studying 19th-century epistolary culture in the Grand Duchy of Finland (1808/09-1917), as a part of the Constellations of Correspondence (CoCo) project. The challenge of deduplicating and reconciling actors and their associated information is an important problem faced in historical knowledge databases. The actors, e.g., senders and recipients of letters, can be individual people, couples, or families as well as organizations like institutions or companies. The deduplication described in this article has its focus on the individual people. The solutions we propose in this paper are significant for the development of the efficient and accurate approaches in this field.

Digital documentation and analysis of Native American rock art and Euro-American historical inscriptions from the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado

Detailed photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning of rock art, geophysics research and sondage excavations conducted at the Painted Hand Petroglyph Panel, a large rock art site in south-western Colorado, USA, has revealed new information about the cultural situation in the pre-Columbian and historic North American Southwest.

LetterSampo–Historical Letters on the Semantic Web: A Framework and Its Application to Publishing and Using Epistolary Data

Epistolary data about historical letters are typically distributed in different archives depending on where the letters were sent to and received, and the data are represented using local heterogeneous data models and different natural languages. To study such letter data on a global level, the heterogeneous, distributed data in local siloes need to be aggregated and harmonized into larger services where local metadata can enrich each other to complement missing information. This article presents a new framework, LetterSampo, for representing, publishing, and using epistolary data as Linked Open Data (LOD) on the Web for Digital Humanities (DH) research. The framework is used for creating LOD services and for building individual LetterSampo portals on top of them. To test and demonstrate the framework, it has been applied to the epistolary CKCC dataset of ca. 20,000 letters of the Huygens Institute, the Netherlands, to the correspSearch dataset of ca. 151,000 letters aggregated by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and to the Early Modern Letters Online (EMLO) data of ca. 170,000 letters published by the University of Oxford. The CKCC and correspSearch datasets were published as LOD services, SPARQL endpoints, and as data dumps at Zenodo.org for re-use, and a demonstrational portal LetterSampo: Historical Letters on the Semantic Web was created based on this data. A novelty of the LetterSampo portals is to use faceted semantic search for filtering data of interest in flexible ways from multiple perspectives on two conceptual levels, and then visualize and analyze the results and data by seamlessly integrated data analytic tools—programming skills are not needed for using the portal. In addition to using the tools of the portal, the SPARQL endpoints can be used with modest knowledge about programming for DH research.

Historical language use in Europe from a contrastive pragmatic perspective

Abstract This paper presents a case study which brings together the fields of contrastive pragmatics and historical pragmatics. Specifically, we contrastively investigate the ways in which the speech act set of “farewell” – representing the closing phase of an interaction – was realised in nineteenth-century historical letters in different linguacultures, including the English, German and Chinese ones. We argue that contrastive pragmatics provides a fruitful contribution to historical research for two inter-related reasons. First, contrastive pragmatics allows us to identify similar pragmatic patterns between typologicially “close” linguacultures, such as the English and the German ones. Second, it prompts researchers to attest the validity of such patterns by comparing such typologically close linguacultures with more distant ones such as the Chinese. Our study is based on a corpus of family letters written to elderly relatives.

Unraveling the Enigma of Funan Culture in the Southeast Asian Archipelago: Archaeological Insights and Historical Significance

This research embarks on a multidisciplinary journey to unravel the mysteries of Funan culture, an ancient civilization nestled within the Southeast Asian archipelago. By employing a combination of archaeological excavation, artifact analysis, historical inscriptions, and environmental data, our study delves into the historical context, societal structures, and lasting impact of Funan culture. Our findings shed light on the architectural sophistication of this civilization, highlighting the organization of its urban centers and the enduring presence of religious beliefs. Artifacts, including intricately designed pottery and opulent gold jewelry, reveal a society that celebrated artistry and actively engaged in far-reaching trade networks. Inscriptions in Sanskrit unveil the governance structures and spiritual inclinations of Funan culture, offering a historical voice to this enigmatic civilization. Furthermore, environmental data provide insights into the ecological context in which this culture thrived. The implications of our findings extend beyond historical excavation, enriching our understanding of cross-cultural interactions, early state formation, cultural diversity, and economic interdependencies. Moreover, our research forges a vital connection between the past and the present, enabling contemporary communities to embrace their historical roots and fostering a deeper sense of cultural continuity, economic resilience, and political heritage. This journey through Funan culture is a testament to the enduring power of history and archaeology to illuminate the past and connect it to the contemporary world.

Historical Inscriptions of the 17th Century in Cyrillic Books: New Findings

The article introduces into scholarly circulation newly-found 17th century notes, previously unknown to specialists, on old printed books from the 16th–17th centuries preserved in some modern private bibliophile collections. These books, printed in East Slavic printing houses, as well as at the Moscow Print Yard, containing notes of undoubted historical and cultural significance, were identified by the author during recent field and office archaeographic work. The value of notes in old printed books as a historical source has long been proven in historiography, while archeographical work focused on the search, description, and study of such notes remains relevant. The article examines donation notes in the books, as well as the bookplates of the outstanding book translator and scribe Evfimy Chudovsky; the crucial historical figure Yuri Khmelnitsky, the son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky; the “hero” of the Tale of the Miracles of the Vilna Cross, Bogdan Tsvetnov, a merchant and sponsor of churches and monasteries in Murom; and, finally, Pyotr Yevtihievich Lermontov, the great-great-grandfather of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.

«Исторические письма об отношениях русского народа к его соплеменникам» В.И. Ламанского: контексты третьего письма (к публикации «Исторических писем об отношениях русского народа к его соплеменникам» В.И. Ламанского)

The article serves as the introduction into the publication of the third “Historical letter” by V.I. Lamansky. The authors show the history of writing the third letter. Attention is drawn to the features of the published text. The authors point out that the third “Historical Letter” is characterized by an emphasis on the search for psychological differences between the Slavs and the Germans. An assessment of Lamansky's Panslavism is also given. It is highlighted that the time of writing “Historical letters” refers to the period when Lamansky was fascinated by romantic historiosophy, which led to his idealized perception of the Slavs. The authors note that although Lamansky never completely overcame his panslavic views, in many respects in the mature period of his work he considered Slavic culture more realistically, in many respects responding to the romanticized panslavism. The authors emphasize that Lamansky's early work was influenced by his political views. However, the presented text does not belong to the scientific heritage of Lamansky, but is a vivid example of late Slavophil journalism permeated with romantic idealism and historiosophy. The authors point out that Lamansky's views on the national question are in line with the general European culture of the 19th century; and Lamansky’s political views were associated with political situations in his time.

HISTORICAL DISCOURSE AND ALLUSION

Many studies have been conducted around the problem of allusion in the world and have not yet ceased to be relevant. The allusion is very complex, diverse, and the ways of transmission in the artistic text are different. Closely related to history. That is, it is reflected in the artistic text by indirect references to historical data. This article discusses the category of historical discourse and features of allusion and interpretation of historical facts in an artistic text. By studying the allusion, researchers pay attention to its functions, typologies and types, and specific characteristics. If we consider history and allusion in a very close relationship, it is obvious that allusion has its own place in the transmission of historical discourse in the artistic text in a work of art. In this article, the historical inscriptions in the text of M.Magauin's work «Kyрshak beauty» is relatively analyzed within the framework of scientific-historical, socio-political, artistic-historical, and cultural discourses. The influence of a historical and artistic text on historical consciousness is studied. The article is guided by the works of such scientists as N.Fateeva, A.N. Pasco, J.Weixlmann, A. G. Mamaeva, A. A. Pelttari, A. S. Adilova on the topic of discourse. Attempts are made to identify the features of the relationship between allusion and historical discourse. In the course of the study, methods of comparison, comparison-analysis, interpretation, semantic, were used.

Comprehensive Occupational and Environmental Risk Assessment of Elemental Mercury at the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange, NJ

The Thomas A. Edison National Laboratory in West Orange, NJ was used to research and develop many inventions including experiments with a mercury oxide battery. Historical letter from Ms. Kellogg to Thomas Edison in 1884 reported the outcome of using mercury while conducting research. Preliminary test results showed spread of some contamination to artifact throughout the laboratory but the majority of the mercury was confined to a specific area of the lab. Spillage of elemental mercury in the Small Dry Cell Lab on the third floor of Building 5 leaked through the floor and ceiling on the second floor below. A comprehensive preliminary site risk assessment was conducted to evaluate the location and extent of the mercury contamination. Remediation work was conducted to remove the wood floor and ceiling but the work plan and health and safety plan for the project was inadequate. Workers were exposed to elevated levels of mercury vapor. Changes were made to reduce the risk and occupational exposure. The work was accomplished successfully without mercury poisioning after implementing more elaborate engineering and administrative controls.

Self-writing in Tral, Kashmir

This article is an engagement with persistent efforts to (re) write history that I encountered in the form of letters, notes, poetry, and sketches given to me by ordinary students I met in the politically troubled region of South Kashmir, many of whom had come to be protestors and stone-pelters. It reflects on these reflexive engagements of students with their own lived histories, and in relation, on what they may suggest for understanding of the historical inscription of self and thought. The essay discusses particularly excerpts from three letters, selected randomly from several written by students in the Tral tehsil in Pulwama district, to attend more closely to relationships evinced between locality, time, and possibilities of (self) writing. Even as they were located in a given historical past, these self-writings were testimonies of personal experiences, interpretations of and struggles with a bitter present, and the looming despair of unresolved futures.

Disruptions in Translational Intertextuality across Multilingual Translations of a Historical Inscription

This is the first research study to investigate translational intertextuality across multilingual translations of a historical inscription through retranslation and relay translation. It aims to offer a translational chain by linking the studied translations that involve different translational strategies and reveals intra- and multi-lingual alterations within the collection of the analyzed works. The corpus of the study consists of six academic works – on the interlingual translations of a historical inscription in Alanya, Türkiye – in five different languages, including the source language. To analyze the corpus, qualitative content analysis and purposeful sampling are applied. It is revealed that the translations tend to change their textuality through semantic alterations and application of translational phenomena, and thanks to the alterations, it is seen that the source text evolved through translations. It is suggested that translational intertextuality has a crucial role in the creation of new texts in a target language based on a translation, and the studied corpus illustrated that any disruptions in translational intertextuality affect the other rings of the translation chain, directly or indirectly helping to disseminate false knowledge or/and foreignizing the resultant text for the target audience. Moreover, it is highlighted that an ulterior translation can be affected by these disruptions; therefore, the disrupted prospective translational intertextuality could influence the intertextual ties across disciplines established by translations.

The Slavdom and the West in History and Culture (to the Publication of “Historical Letters about the Relations of the Russian Nation to its Tribesmen” by V.I. Lamansky)

The article serves as the introduction into the publication of the “Historical Letter” by V.I. Lamansky. The authors consider the context of V.I. Lamansky’s discourse concerning the reciprocal relations between the Slavs and the Germans. Considering these relations as inimical, V.I. Lamansky substantiated this idea by references to the opinion of German scholars about the Slavs. He showed the malignancy of the German cultural and political influence on the Slavs, something which leads to the loss of their nationality, based on the example of Czech and, to some extent, Croatian history. It is not a coincidence that the essential part of the second “Historical Letter” is based on the material of the Hussite movement and Thirty Years’ War which caused the germanisation of the Czech people. Lamansky attached great importance to the Hussite movement, as he considered it one of the highest manifestations of the Slavic self-consciousness (or at least of the Western Slavs). Based on the letters of the scholar showing his attitude to the Czech people, F. Palacky and other leaders of the Czech Revival, the authors demonstrate that Lamansky had probably borrowed the notion of “the Greek-Slavic world” as against the German-Roman world from German historiological literature. Being an adherent of Slavophilism, Lamansky considerably contributed to it. Particularly, he tried to more definitely formulate Slavophile’s attitude to the “Slavic question,” on which the attention of the founders of the movement had paid little attention. His interpretation of Slavic history was best realized in his master’s thesis “On the Slavs in Middle Asia, Africa and Spain” (1859). The second “Historical Question” was likely written soon after finishing work on the thesis and was a step on the way to his other serious work, namely his doctoral thesis “On Historical Studies of the Greek-Slavic World in Europe” (1871), as both “Historical Letters” and the dissertation were written from similar historiographical positions.