Historical Inscriptions Research Articles

ИСТОРИЯ КАЗАХСКОЙ ДИПЛОМАТИИ: ПЕРЕПИСКА КАЗАХСКОГО ХАНСТВА С РОССИЙСКОЙ ИМПЕРИЕЙ

This article attempts to reveal the content and analysis of documents and letters of diplomatic correspondence of Kazakh khans and sultans with the Russian Empire. An analysis of the events in the international life of the Kazakh Khanate in the dynamics of its changes testifies to the presence of a rich diplomatic practice of the Kazakh rulers. Since the formation of the Kazakh Khanate, the diplomatic service has been an important tool for strengthening statehood. Using different types of diplomatic correspondence, the linguistic aspects of historical letters were considered. The article analyzes the history of Kazakh diplomacy, using medieval written data and historiographic works.

MITHRAISM ROCK TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE IN IRAN

Mithraism is known as one of the ancient world religions. The roots of Mithraism settle in the old world beliefs, culture, and mysteries. Historical documents show the origin of Mithraism belongs to the 1400 years B.C. Mithraism features found in different parts of the ancient world from east to the west: India, Iran, Anatolia, and Europe. The name of Mithra in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology as the god of light is in some historical inscription. Among the ancient world’s religions, Mithraism is the ancient Iran pre-Zoroastrian religion. There are some doctrines about the origins of Mithra. The well-defined of them is the dualism doctrine that comes from Zoroastrianism. This doctrine is always a battleground between the Good Principles and the Evil Principles. The force of propitious is light or day and the forces of evil are with darkness or night. These two forces are in a state of perpetual war. According to the archeologists, many rock temples with Mithraism features locate in Iran. Some of these natural rock temples are in the northwest part of Iran. The gravity center of this study is one of the rock temples of Mithraism in the northwest of Iran. These temples locate at a cross-sectional point between different cultural impressions. For accessing the aims of the research, the study consists of three stages. In the first stage, the focus point is on the roots of Mithraism in Iran and the ancient world and the interaction of Mithraism with other cultures. Then in the second stage, be tried to find Mithraism temples’ general architectural characters and elements due to the expansion in Iran and in Europe. Finally, the study is concentrated on the case study rock temple Mehr Temple in the northwest of Iran to investigate the structural characteristics, find similarities with the other temple, and evaluate these characters.

Kerch 1855. History in Letters

Kerch 1855. History in Letters

Mobility as Memory: Refiguring Temporal and Spatial Mobility in Tan Twan Eng’s The Gift of Rain

This article discusses the operation of memory as an effect of narrative structure in The Gift of Rain, with a particular focus on the spatial and temporal mobility of narratorial perspective. Tan’s novel is situated within Malaysian writing in English, a body of minor literature in a minority language amid the country’s promotion of Bahasa as the linguistic medium for a national literature, alongside the attendant racialization of language. However, the status of The Gift of Rain as a world Anglophone novel, which circulates transnationally while depicting trans-temporal and cross-spatial trajectories, imaginatively inscribes Malaysia with a more multifarious assemblage of its cultural origins through the hybridity and queer temporality of its protagonist. Further temporal and spatial mobilities emerge in the dynamic relationship between the novel’s frame and inner narratives, where the reading experience is akin to memory processes. The veracity of fiction as memory intervenes into historical inscription and so resists the pervasive ethno-nationalism that limits cultural discourse in Malaysia.

Sposoby nobilitacji zmarłego w historycznych polskich inskrypcjach nagrobnych na katolickich nekropoliach z Podola – nazwy zawodów i stanowisk

The subject of research in the article is Polish historical inscriptions on tombstones from Catholic cemeteries in Podilia. The names appeared in visual part of the inscription, created a positive characteristic of a deceased person. The professions and titles were indicated, according to the creator (founder) of the epitaph, were ennobling, valued and deserved, as indicated in the inscription. The tombstone inscriptions were dedicated to women and men. The ennobling element of characteristics for women were the husband’s professional achievements (the forms of “odżężowskie”, as an example) and social origin. In the case of men such activities as: military and governmental service, clergy, health care, lawyers, educators, included scientific and artistic professions.

Unlocking history through automated virtual unfolding of sealed documents imaged by X-ray microtomography

Computational flattening algorithms have been successfully applied to X-ray microtomography scans of damaged historical documents, but have so far been limited to scrolls, books, and documents with one or two folds. The challenge tackled here is to reconstruct the intricate folds, tucks, and slits of unopened letters secured shut with “letterlocking,” a practice—systematized in this paper—which underpinned global communications security for centuries before modern envelopes. We present a fully automatic computational approach for reconstructing and virtually unfolding volumetric scans of a locked letter with complex internal folding, producing legible images of the letter’s contents and crease pattern while preserving letterlocking evidence. We demonstrate our method on four letterpackets from Renaissance Europe, reading the contents of one unopened letter for the first time. Using the results of virtual unfolding, we situate our findings within a novel letterlocking categorization chart based on our study of 250,000 historical letters.

Undetectable?

In recent years, the ‘end of AIDS’ has been at the top of the international scientific and political agenda. At the same time, attention to the dark years of the epidemic is increasing, revealing a form of nostalgia for a time of collective mobilization. But what is to be said of the current state of the disease, between the nostalgia for a tragic past and the hope of a world without AIDS? This think piece was prompted by the increasing erasure of contemporary experiences of the sickness. At a time when we have the means to render HIV biologically undetectable, I propose to explore another of the virus’s materialities: its social and historic inscription in urban settings, in particularly in Montreal’s gay neighbourhood.

Archival notes on Robinson's Arch and the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem

ABSTRACT The archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund is a rich depository of material of historical value, comprising photographs, hand-written letters, maps and drawings, and serving scholars across the world. It includes primary documentation relating to the sacred enclosure of the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, which was the focus of research made by Ermete Pierotti, Charles W. Wilson, Charles Warren, Claude Regnier Conder, Clermont-Ganneau, and Conrad Schick, among others. This paper examines materials relating to the original function of Robinson's Arch, with the suggestion that already in 1867 Warren was the first to recognize it as an arch for a flight of stairs, rather than as part of a viaduct bridge crossing the Tyropoeon Valley which was the consensus of opinion prevailing until late in the twentieth century. This paper also investigates a little-known clash that took place in 1880 between two of the pioneers of Jerusalem archaeology, namely Wilson and Warren. The result of this dispute was the publication in 1884 of the now greatly regarded large format portfolio of maps and plans of the Temple Mount (‘Warren's Atlas’), which has been an enormous boon for research on ancient Jerusalem ever since. Finally, this paper looks at the possibility that subterranean vaulted chambers may have existed within the north-eastern angle of the Haram al-Sharif, if we accept the accuracy of Schick's model of the Haram from 1873 and a description of exploration of subterranean chambers in that area made by Peter Richardson in a letter to the PEF from 1874.

Research Note: Investigating the Viability of Stylometric Analysis to Attribute Authorship of Supreme Court Opinions

Function word content analysis is a proven method previously used to study disputed authorship in documents such as historical letters and novels. It has been used in similar fashion to review Supreme Court Justices’ legal opinions, demonstrating general contribution by clerks and variation related to their influence. It has not been used to create a “fingerprint” for clerks that may be used not only to understand their contributions but to directly attribute authorship of any given opinion to them or their Justice. This study builds on previous work to test the potential of a new application of this method in determining the contributions of Supreme Court clerks to the authorship of opinions. Drawing on the academic writings of clerks and Justices, this method has potential for attributing authorship contributions of clerks to individual legal opinions. This could open opinions to review as early and formative work of legal scholars and jurists, many of whom serve as clerks early in their careers. It may also have application to investigating authorship contributions in other legal writings.

Mobile belonging in historical everyday letters: the case of Estonia in the 1950s

ABSTRACTThis study contributes to the micro-history during the structural reorganization of Estonia in the 1950s by examining everyday letter exchange between family members, consisting of a single mother and her two daughters. The study uses a mobilities approach toward the meaning of belonging while investigating everyday places and related practices, the mentalities of individual stages of life, and symbolical relations which are influenced by structural formation. The study indicates mobile characteristics of belonging in a family’s subjective attachment to a place.

Hatshepsut’s Punt Reliefs: Their Structure and Function

The article examines the layout of Hatshepsut’s Punt reliefs, proposing a new interpretation of their internal structure and ideological function within the decorative programme of the Deir el-Bahari temple. The author argues that the reliefs form a cycle of subsequent scenes, starting at the southernmost end of the west wall, continuing through the south wall up to the northern part of the west wall. As for the scenes represented on the northernmost end of the west wall and on the north wall, it is argued that they should be viewed as forming a single ideological entity, which at the same time corresponds to the long historical inscription placed on the easternmost end of the south wall. That way the reliefs reflect both aspects of Egyptian eternity: the linear (in the cycle of subsequent episodes) and the circular one (in the ideological link between the southern- and northernmost extremities of the Punt Portico). As for the function of the reliefs, it is argued that they were supposed to magically repeat Hatshepsut’s Punt expedition and thus provide her divine father Amun-Ra with all exotic products necessary in his cult. The author also tries to demonstrate, how Hatshepsut was gradually identified with the goddess Hathor in her aspect of the Lady of Punt and the female counterpart of Amun-Ra throughout the Punt reliefs.

The Correspondence of Charles Darwin as a Tool for Reflecting on Nature of Science

This study took place in an introductory science inquiry course for preservice elementary school teachers as a supplement to lessons on critical thinking. The correspondence of Charles Darwin was used to provide historical context to nature of science concepts of the sociocultural embeddedness of science, the subjective and reflective nature of the knowledge and experiences of scientists, and science is composed of different types of empirically based knowledge. Darwin’s own words, reactions to other’s words and ideas, and personal correspondences illustrate the undercurrent of social interactions and private thought processes that furthered the development of scientific understanding. Qualitative analysis of student data indicates that these historical letters provided a medium through which students were able to recognize ideas commonly identified as NOS. With the appropriate instructional and pedagogical supports described, students demonstrated knowledge of the historical context of Darwin’s work and the social enterprise of science illustrated through that work, leading to their developing understanding of the nature of science.

The failure of early demonstration agriculture on nineteenth century model/pattern farms: lessons for contemporary demonstration

ABSTRACTPurpose: Demonstration farming has been an important part of agricultural extension since the first decades of the twentieth century. While Seaman Knapp is often credited with developing demonstration farming, his son acknowledged that the concept has much earlier origins in the nineteenth century development of model/pattern farms. However, little is known of these early origins or why early demonstration agriculture failed. This paper addresses this gap.Design/methodology/approach: The methodology involves analysis of out of copy-right historical journal articles, letters, pamphlets, and books recently made available by online services such as Google Books.Findings: The study details how the concept of demonstration farming was developed by agricultural societies of the eighteenth century but was not implemented until the early nineteenth century with the advent of model/pattern farms. Demonstration activities were run by a variety of different types of private and public farm organisations who sought to improve agriculture through emulation. Enthusiasm for model farms died out by the end of the nineteenth century but the failure of model farm demonstration leaves us with lessons for demonstration farming today.Theoretical implications: The study provides new knowledge on the conceptual and historical development of demonstration farming and why it failed to influence change.Practical implications: The study identifies factors that might contribute to the failure of demonstration activities.Originality/value: This is the first study to explore in detail demonstration farming on nineteenth century model farms and, methodologically, outlines how free on-line digitised literature can be used to investigate early agricultural education activities.

The Time of Collective Memory: Social Cohesion and Historical Discontinuity in Paul Ricœur’s Memory, History, Forgetting

One of principal tasks of Paul Ricoeur’s Memory, History, Forgetting is to analyze the phenomenon of social cohesion, understood not as a uniform bond, but in terms of human plurality that arises from a diversity of perspectives of remembering groups rooted in complex stratifications and concatenations. This paper focuses on the role of remembrance and of its historical inscription as a source of social cohesion, which is subject to rupture and dissolution over time. It first identifies the way in which, according to Ricœur, memory and history function as essential preconditions of social cohesion; following this, it examines the significance and scope of temporal rupture and discontinuity to which this cohesion is subject. In examining Ricœur’s reflection on social cohesion and on the discontinuity to which it is subject over time, I aim to place his thought in a critical light in order to set in relief what I take to be an important aporia it encounters.

Connection, trespass, identity and a swastika: mark-making and entanglements at Pudjinuk Rockshelter No. 1, South Australia

Pudjinuk Rockshelter No. 1 is one of two small, adjacent shelters located in the limestone cliffs of the River Murray Gorge, South Australia. While both rockshelters represent a crucial node in the cultural landscape of the region, Pudjinuk Rockshelter No. 1 is significant for its remnant pre-contact rock art and the body of historical inscriptions it contains. Site surveys recorded 188 motifs, only one of which was a pre-contact engraving, indicating that the ‘graffiti’ has almost entirely obliterated a body of Aboriginal petroglyphs. Historical research to ascertain the identities of those represented in the post-contact corpus shows the inscriptions to be the work of members of frontier conflict/punitive expeditions, local European settlers and a non-local Aboriginal man. Of the motifs that can be confidently attributed to German/European settlers from villages in nearby districts, one incorporates a swastika, probably engraved in 1932. Pudjinuk Rockshelter No. 1 reveals deep Aboriginal connection as well as interpenetrating tensions and social histories as a result of European invasion, colonisation and global events. However, even where inscriptions serve to desecrate the site they nevertheless co-exist with the Aboriginal motif, creating a new ‘dependency’—entangled for as long as they endure together on the rockshelter walls.

Rock Art from the Lower Sand Canyon in the Mesa Verde Region, Southwestern Colorado, USA

The paper presents the results of the research and initial analysis of the rock art from the Castle Rock Community, a cluster of Ancestral Pueblo sites, dated to the thirteenth century A.D. and located in southwestern Colorado, in the heart of the Mesa Verde region. The rock art in the area is represented by anthropomorphic figures (shamans or warriors) from the Basketmaker II period, but most of the rock art is from the Pueblo III period (1150-1280/1300 A.D.) and encompasses geometric designs as well as fighting scenes. The interpretation of the meaning and function of the rock art is rather difficult, but some depictions might be interpreted as clan symbols, watermarks, or as solar/lunar markers connected with astronomical observations. On almost every panel of rock art or close to it, historic inscriptions, initials, names and dates are also present. Most of the ancient rock art is located within the site’s (cliff dwellings) boundaries or very close to them, but certainly some paintings and petroglyphs are much older than the thirteenth century A.D. settlements.

HISTORICAL LETTER : My turn to thank many around the World: For photosynthesis research in my life

HISTORICAL LETTER : My turn to thank many around the World: For photosynthesis research in my life

A New Topological Method for Examining Historical Inscriptions

The article presents a new method developed to increase the efficiency of the identification algorithm for historical inscriptions of unknown origin. The authors extracted topological properties of the symbols containing different script relics, and analyzed them by using statistical tools. The considered topological properties are circular loop, oblique lines, vertical section, and crossing, among others. The article describes the use of the number of a three-circle grapheme intersection point vectors to identify unknown symbols. The number of intersections of the three circles and the examined symbol is stored in a feature vector. By supplementing the feature vectors with the circle vectors, the authors succeeded in improving the efficiency of the algorithm designed to decipher hard to read historical inscriptions.

A New Historical Inscription of Sargon II from Karkemish

A New Historical Inscription of Sargon II from Karkemish

Rezension zu W.W. Hallo, with the assistance of Harold Torger Vedeler, Sumerian Literary and Historical Inscriptions

Rezension zu W.W. Hallo, with the assistance of Harold Torger Vedeler, Sumerian Literary and Historical Inscriptions