Week 2

• Historiography: writing and interpretation of the past, intellectual form in which a civilization renders account to itself of the past.
• The 3rd campaign against Judah in 701 BCE
• Challenges with ancient historiography: more fluid generic boundaries, aims often not to report historical facts but for commemoration, didactic (learning point), and influences narrative.
• Greek historiography: before Herodotus, logographers were chroniclers and historians writing in mythic tradition but in prose.
• Hecataeus of Miletus turned from god-centred history to people-centred.
• Hecataeus composed a map and description of earth and history of gods and demigods, significant influence on Herodotus.
• Greek historiography: Herodotus from Halicarnassus wrote the Histories (Persian Wars), focusing on mortal events, rhetorical practice of inspecting things for oneself (autopsy) and using empirical research.
• Recurring elements in Classical historiography: speeches, unnecessary excursions, use of topoi, chronological structures, thematic.
• Influence of epic and rhetoric on Graeco-Roman historiography: from epic, focus on leaders, warfare, panegyric (praise speech) and didactic (educational) aims, in prose rather than verse, focus on human agency than role of gods in history.
• From rhetoric, rhetorical education aim of becoming a good orator, study of literature, rhetorical techniques, art of speaking, persuasion.
• Assyrian Royal Inscriptions contain almost 1000 extant inscriptions with a heavy emphasis on campaigns, written in standard Babylonian Akkadian or Neo-Assyrian Akkadian, rarely Sumerian, many standardised elements and stock phrases, and the main protagonist is the king.
• The Rassam Cyclinder of King Sennacherib (704-681 BCE) is the first three campaigns of Sennacherib.
• Royal inscriptions are used by historians to reconstruct royal dynasties, extent of territorial holdings, buildings, local, city, and state religion, royal rituals, political structures, the offices and duties of kings and officials, military history, and information about other areas.
• The Hebrew Bible (TaNaKh) consists of 24 books, divided into chapters and verses, written in Hebrew and some Aramaic, with Torah (5 books) “teaching”, Nevi’im (8 books) “spokespeople”, and Ketuvim (11 Book) “writings”, canonised between 100 BCE-200 CE, and many translations include vowels added (vocalisation changes) as masoretic text.
• The Hebrew Bible should not be approached as a product but as a transmitted oral tradition and writing of a specific population for particular aims, with no distinction made between more mythical and more “historiographical” narratives.
• The importance of one’s everlasting name for “immortality” preservation of the past into the future
• Neo-Assyrian Empire vs Israel/Judah: Mesopotamia in the Hebrew Bible is often depicted as a place of oppression, with the Neo-assyrian and neo-babylonian empires looming large in the biblical narrative.
• Historiography in Late Antiquity (4-7th BCE) saw a variety of languages (Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian) and forms (narrative, chronicle).
• Christian historiography: history of the church and important events in Christianity, biographies of Christian persons, biographies of saints and martyrs: ‘hagiography’.
• Historiography in Ancient Mesopotamia had no corresponding genre of “historiography”, but “Mesopotamian Historiographical” genres included royal inscriptions, king lists, omens, chronicles, historical epics and literature.
• The Sumerian King List is a historical source, found on many media with different potential audiences, and is part of a large corpus with a wide geographical and chronological scope.
• Authorship of Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions is generally unknown, presumably royal and court scribes, often first-hand witnesses to projects and campaigns.
• Audience of Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: in most cases, gods, future kings, and us.
• Cyriacus of Ancona is considered the father of epigraphy, which involves the study of inscriptions.
• Triumphal arches need to be located in Rome.
• Epigraphy involves the study of more than 500,000 inscriptions from the Greco-Roman World, which are located on hard, durable materials.
• The purpose of epigraphy is the sharing of information.
• Engraving/carving is a technique used in epigraphy, which involves inscribing into stone.
• Incising, also known as graffito, is a technique used in epigraphy, which involves inscribing into metal, clay, or plaster.
• Stoichedon is a writing style in epigraphy, which is characterized by a grid-like, orderly inscription.
• Boustrophedon is an early Greek writing style in epigraphy, which involves alternating between left to right and right to left.
• Painting, or dipinto, is a technique used in epigraphy, which involves painting onto a wall.
• Funerary inscriptions make up ⅔ of all inscriptions, and are a repetitive genre used for onomastics, prosopography, history of mentalities, and social and cultural history.
• Pig stele of Edessa is an example of an inscription, which tells the story of a pig and his owner that was later accidentally killed by the owner's chariot.
• Honorific inscriptions, building inscriptions, votive inscriptions, and curses tablets are other types of inscriptions.
• Roman inscriptions use abbreviations more commonly in Latin than in Greek, only majuscule letters, no differentiation between U and V, use of Roman numbers, no interpunctuation, and end of the line indicated by vertical bars like | or /.
• [. Pon]tius Pilatus => dot means amount of letters, name is missing
• • Braces {..}
  • Used when superfluous letters which required deletion by editor
• GERMANIC[o] is an example of an inscription where the letter O has been forgotten.
• GERMANIC[o] => letter O has been destroyed