Silvio Panciera
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265062
- eISBN:
- 9780191754173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265062.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This brief chapter stresses the difference between the revolutionary possibilities of applying Information Technology to the Greek and Roman epigraphic record and its limited effects to date. It ...
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This brief chapter stresses the difference between the revolutionary possibilities of applying Information Technology to the Greek and Roman epigraphic record and its limited effects to date. It traces the reasons partly to scholarly attitudes, partly to the lack of a list of prioritised objectives, partly to divergences in the very concepts of ‘inscription’ and of ‘data-base’ and partly to a lack of unity and collaboration.Less
This brief chapter stresses the difference between the revolutionary possibilities of applying Information Technology to the Greek and Roman epigraphic record and its limited effects to date. It traces the reasons partly to scholarly attitudes, partly to the lack of a list of prioritised objectives, partly to divergences in the very concepts of ‘inscription’ and of ‘data-base’ and partly to a lack of unity and collaboration.
ANDRÉ LEMAIRE
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264010
- eISBN:
- 9780191734946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264010.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Together with material archaeology and the literary tradition of the Hebrew Bible, epigraphy is one of the main sources for the history of ancient Israel in the ninth century BCE. Although limited in ...
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Together with material archaeology and the literary tradition of the Hebrew Bible, epigraphy is one of the main sources for the history of ancient Israel in the ninth century BCE. Although limited in number, West Semitic inscriptions throw some light on the history of this period. This chapter examines ninth-century West Semitic inscriptions and the historical information they contain regarding the history of ninth-century Israel. It starts with the Hebrew inscriptions, followed by inscriptions in the neighbouring southern Levant countries as well as Aramaic inscriptions from Upper Mesopotamia. The chapter deals first with inscriptions in ‘Canaanite’ dialects before analysing inscriptions written in Aramaic dialects. The Mesha and Tel Dan steles are the main West Semitic inscriptions that help us understand the history of Israel and Judah during the ninth century BCE.Less
Together with material archaeology and the literary tradition of the Hebrew Bible, epigraphy is one of the main sources for the history of ancient Israel in the ninth century BCE. Although limited in number, West Semitic inscriptions throw some light on the history of this period. This chapter examines ninth-century West Semitic inscriptions and the historical information they contain regarding the history of ninth-century Israel. It starts with the Hebrew inscriptions, followed by inscriptions in the neighbouring southern Levant countries as well as Aramaic inscriptions from Upper Mesopotamia. The chapter deals first with inscriptions in ‘Canaanite’ dialects before analysing inscriptions written in Aramaic dialects. The Mesha and Tel Dan steles are the main West Semitic inscriptions that help us understand the history of Israel and Judah during the ninth century BCE.
Isabel Rodà
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265062
- eISBN:
- 9780191754173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265062.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Those with responsibilities for the display of inscriptions in museums and other public places have in recent years been addressing the challenge of how the riches of the ancient texts can be ...
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Those with responsibilities for the display of inscriptions in museums and other public places have in recent years been addressing the challenge of how the riches of the ancient texts can be conveyed to a public with little or no knowledge of Latin or Greek. The choice of texts should not ignore the casual messages of daily life from graffiti and painted slogans, nor should the later ‘forgeries’ of ancient texts or the innocent errors of stonecutters be excluded. Electronic media can bring to life both ancient images and texts, and can help in presenting difficult or incomplete texts. Inscriptions speak directly from the remote past, and meeting the challenge of transmitting their messages to the modern visitor will certainly repay the effort.Less
Those with responsibilities for the display of inscriptions in museums and other public places have in recent years been addressing the challenge of how the riches of the ancient texts can be conveyed to a public with little or no knowledge of Latin or Greek. The choice of texts should not ignore the casual messages of daily life from graffiti and painted slogans, nor should the later ‘forgeries’ of ancient texts or the innocent errors of stonecutters be excluded. Electronic media can bring to life both ancient images and texts, and can help in presenting difficult or incomplete texts. Inscriptions speak directly from the remote past, and meeting the challenge of transmitting their messages to the modern visitor will certainly repay the effort.
Salvador Carmona and Mahmoud Ezzamel
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199546350
- eISBN:
- 9780191720048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546350.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Finance, Accounting, and Banking
The theorization of space in social sciences has made considerable progress in the last decades. Yet, there appears to be remarkably little interest in exploring the relationship between accounting ...
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The theorization of space in social sciences has made considerable progress in the last decades. Yet, there appears to be remarkably little interest in exploring the relationship between accounting and space. This chapter argues the case for studying the relationship between accounting and social space, which has held considerable promise as a theoretical framing and a heuristic for studying the differentiation of groups in the social world. In this respect, the chapter addresses a number of research implications in relation to accounting inscriptions and social space, accounting for individual capital, and accounting and the objectification and domination of space. Furthermore, the chapter explores some possible future research opportunities concerning the processes of social space: the roles that accounting can play in underpinning cognitive spacing, the connection between accounting and moral spacing, and the extent to which accounting can underpin aesthetic spacing.Less
The theorization of space in social sciences has made considerable progress in the last decades. Yet, there appears to be remarkably little interest in exploring the relationship between accounting and space. This chapter argues the case for studying the relationship between accounting and social space, which has held considerable promise as a theoretical framing and a heuristic for studying the differentiation of groups in the social world. In this respect, the chapter addresses a number of research implications in relation to accounting inscriptions and social space, accounting for individual capital, and accounting and the objectification and domination of space. Furthermore, the chapter explores some possible future research opportunities concerning the processes of social space: the roles that accounting can play in underpinning cognitive spacing, the connection between accounting and moral spacing, and the extent to which accounting can underpin aesthetic spacing.
Barbara Czarniawska and Jan Mouritsen
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199546350
- eISBN:
- 9780191720048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546350.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Finance, Accounting, and Banking
The recent rapprochement between management studies and studies of science and technology recreated an interest in management studies. This chapter presents examples showing that the role of things ...
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The recent rapprochement between management studies and studies of science and technology recreated an interest in management studies. This chapter presents examples showing that the role of things in management is complex. Managers try to defend themselves from the insubordination of technical and material things, and they spend much time applying quasi-objects such as managerial technologies to mediate the fate of technical or material objects. Much effort is also dedicated to turning people into objects, which permits the use of procedures of insulation and control on them. The chapter concludes that in exercising management, managers avoid certain material objects but make use of quasi-objects such as accounting systems and management technologies in order to make the world (i.e. organization, public agency, or firm) more interventionable or manageable, and yet they also create new uncertainties in the process.Less
The recent rapprochement between management studies and studies of science and technology recreated an interest in management studies. This chapter presents examples showing that the role of things in management is complex. Managers try to defend themselves from the insubordination of technical and material things, and they spend much time applying quasi-objects such as managerial technologies to mediate the fate of technical or material objects. Much effort is also dedicated to turning people into objects, which permits the use of procedures of insulation and control on them. The chapter concludes that in exercising management, managers avoid certain material objects but make use of quasi-objects such as accounting systems and management technologies in order to make the world (i.e. organization, public agency, or firm) more interventionable or manageable, and yet they also create new uncertainties in the process.
M. J. GELLER
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264010
- eISBN:
- 9780191734946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264010.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Scholars interested in the history of Israel often select for study relevant passages from Akkadian historical inscriptions, annals, and chronicles referring to biblical events. This process has ...
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Scholars interested in the history of Israel often select for study relevant passages from Akkadian historical inscriptions, annals, and chronicles referring to biblical events. This process has become more sophisticated of late, particularly with the Texte aus der Umwelt der Alten Testaments series and COS, in which much more of Akkadian and even Sumerian literature is taken into account as directly or indirectly relevant to the Bible. However, the ‘scriptures in context’ approach often pays less attention to the nitty-gritty side of Assyriology, namely, the everyday contracts, administrative documents, lists, letters, receipts, and economic texts. There is a lot to learn from such material, which comprises the bulk of the thousands of Mesopotamian tablets. Biblical scholars tend to concentrate on those sections of the Kurkh and Black Obelisk inscriptions that mention Ahab and Jehu and the regional struggles against Assyria. The questions raised are valid, namely, how solid or fragile was the coalition of states fighting against the Assyrians, and at what point did the coalition break down?Less
Scholars interested in the history of Israel often select for study relevant passages from Akkadian historical inscriptions, annals, and chronicles referring to biblical events. This process has become more sophisticated of late, particularly with the Texte aus der Umwelt der Alten Testaments series and COS, in which much more of Akkadian and even Sumerian literature is taken into account as directly or indirectly relevant to the Bible. However, the ‘scriptures in context’ approach often pays less attention to the nitty-gritty side of Assyriology, namely, the everyday contracts, administrative documents, lists, letters, receipts, and economic texts. There is a lot to learn from such material, which comprises the bulk of the thousands of Mesopotamian tablets. Biblical scholars tend to concentrate on those sections of the Kurkh and Black Obelisk inscriptions that mention Ahab and Jehu and the regional struggles against Assyria. The questions raised are valid, namely, how solid or fragile was the coalition of states fighting against the Assyrians, and at what point did the coalition break down?
Peter Liddel
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199226580
- eISBN:
- 9780191710186
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226580.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
By developing a notion of civic obligation, this book attempts to re‐interpret the nature of individual liberty in ancient Athens. Its primary concern is to elucidate how the considerable obligations ...
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By developing a notion of civic obligation, this book attempts to re‐interpret the nature of individual liberty in ancient Athens. Its primary concern is to elucidate how the considerable obligations of the citizen to the city‐state (polis) and community (known here as civic obligations) were reconciled with ideas about individual liberty, and how this reconciliation was negotiated, performed, and presented in the oratory of the Athenian law‐courts, assembly, and through the publication of inscriptions. This work assesses the extent to which Rawls' model of liberty, consisting of his advocacy of renewed conventional modes of justice and liberty, might be used to elucidate the kind of liberty that existed in the ancient Greek city. The historical context is late 4th‐century Athens, during which period it is possible to observe a growing concern, expressed in the oratorical and epigraphical sources, for the performance by citizens of obligations, epitomized in the notion of good citizenship which emerges in Lycurgus' speech Against Leocrates. The core of the work analyses the ways in which the civic obligations were negotiated in oratorical and epigraphical modes of expression, examines comprehensively the substance of those obligations, and the ways in which their virtuous performance was recorded and used as a tool of self‐promotion. The final chapter measures the survey of Athens with that gleaned from the theory of Rawls: notwithstanding certain historical peculiarities, it is suggested that the model may be a useful one for thinking about city‐states and other organizations beyond fourth‐century Athens.Less
By developing a notion of civic obligation, this book attempts to re‐interpret the nature of individual liberty in ancient Athens. Its primary concern is to elucidate how the considerable obligations of the citizen to the city‐state (polis) and community (known here as civic obligations) were reconciled with ideas about individual liberty, and how this reconciliation was negotiated, performed, and presented in the oratory of the Athenian law‐courts, assembly, and through the publication of inscriptions. This work assesses the extent to which Rawls' model of liberty, consisting of his advocacy of renewed conventional modes of justice and liberty, might be used to elucidate the kind of liberty that existed in the ancient Greek city. The historical context is late 4th‐century Athens, during which period it is possible to observe a growing concern, expressed in the oratorical and epigraphical sources, for the performance by citizens of obligations, epitomized in the notion of good citizenship which emerges in Lycurgus' speech Against Leocrates. The core of the work analyses the ways in which the civic obligations were negotiated in oratorical and epigraphical modes of expression, examines comprehensively the substance of those obligations, and the ways in which their virtuous performance was recorded and used as a tool of self‐promotion. The final chapter measures the survey of Athens with that gleaned from the theory of Rawls: notwithstanding certain historical peculiarities, it is suggested that the model may be a useful one for thinking about city‐states and other organizations beyond fourth‐century Athens.
Cynthia Talbot
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195136616
- eISBN:
- 9780199834716
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195136616.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The desire to have their charitable deeds documented in permanent form led thousands of Hindu temple donors in the Andhra Pradesh region of South India to get the details of their gifts inscribed on ...
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The desire to have their charitable deeds documented in permanent form led thousands of Hindu temple donors in the Andhra Pradesh region of South India to get the details of their gifts inscribed on stone pillars, rock slabs, and temple walls. Using these records of what people actually did, Cynthia Talbot reconstructs the precolonial past as it existed in practice during the era when India's distinctive regional societies were taking shape. The medieval Andhra that emerges from the perspective of inscriptions is a vibrant and mobile world inhabited by a wide range of individuals including herders, merchants, and women, as well as landed peasants, kings, and Brahmans. Precolonial India in Practice begins with an examination of the historical processes that prompted Andhra's long age of inscriptions (c.1000–1650), a time when the religious patronage of temples both reflected and stimulated an expanding agrarian economy and a growing regional culture. It moves on to an in‐depth analysis of the society, temples, and polity of the Kakatiya era (1175–1325) – a formative period in which the Telugu‐speaking region was politically unified by the upland warriors who continued to dominate its society for centuries. The enduring cultural significance of the Kakatiya period for later Telugu society is demonstrated in a final section dealing with historical memories of the Kakatiyas.Talbot's interpretation of medieval Andhra as an era of dynamic change characterized by extensive social and physical mobility and a militaristic ethos offers a significant alternative to earlier depictions of the history and society of medieval India. In serving as a corrective to models of the Indian past derived only from Brahmanical literature, modern ethnography, and colonial observation, this case study of a neglected time period and region has important ramifications for our general understanding of precolonial India.Less
The desire to have their charitable deeds documented in permanent form led thousands of Hindu temple donors in the Andhra Pradesh region of South India to get the details of their gifts inscribed on stone pillars, rock slabs, and temple walls. Using these records of what people actually did, Cynthia Talbot reconstructs the precolonial past as it existed in practice during the era when India's distinctive regional societies were taking shape. The medieval Andhra that emerges from the perspective of inscriptions is a vibrant and mobile world inhabited by a wide range of individuals including herders, merchants, and women, as well as landed peasants, kings, and Brahmans.
Precolonial India in Practice begins with an examination of the historical processes that prompted Andhra's long age of inscriptions (c.1000–1650), a time when the religious patronage of temples both reflected and stimulated an expanding agrarian economy and a growing regional culture. It moves on to an in‐depth analysis of the society, temples, and polity of the Kakatiya era (1175–1325) – a formative period in which the Telugu‐speaking region was politically unified by the upland warriors who continued to dominate its society for centuries. The enduring cultural significance of the Kakatiya period for later Telugu society is demonstrated in a final section dealing with historical memories of the Kakatiyas.
Talbot's interpretation of medieval Andhra as an era of dynamic change characterized by extensive social and physical mobility and a militaristic ethos offers a significant alternative to earlier depictions of the history and society of medieval India. In serving as a corrective to models of the Indian past derived only from Brahmanical literature, modern ethnography, and colonial observation, this case study of a neglected time period and region has important ramifications for our general understanding of precolonial India.
K. R. Norman
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197262856
- eISBN:
- 9780191753961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262856.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter goes back to the beginnings of Buddhism, in fact to that ancient problem: What language or languages did the Buddha speak? It discusses Old Indo-Aryan and the origin of the Prakrit ...
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This chapter goes back to the beginnings of Buddhism, in fact to that ancient problem: What language or languages did the Buddha speak? It discusses Old Indo-Aryan and the origin of the Prakrit dialects, the language(s) of the Buddha and the Jina, Old Māgadhī, the migration of the Buddhist teachings, the writing down of the canon in Ceylon, anomalous forms in the Theravādin canon, anomalous forms and the Aśokan inscriptions, and why anomalies remain in the Pāli canon.Less
This chapter goes back to the beginnings of Buddhism, in fact to that ancient problem: What language or languages did the Buddha speak? It discusses Old Indo-Aryan and the origin of the Prakrit dialects, the language(s) of the Buddha and the Jina, Old Māgadhī, the migration of the Buddhist teachings, the writing down of the canon in Ceylon, anomalous forms in the Theravādin canon, anomalous forms and the Aśokan inscriptions, and why anomalies remain in the Pāli canon.
Alain Bresson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265062
- eISBN:
- 9780191754173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265062.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
After initial comments on the role of Greek inscriptions as ‘archives’, this chapter reviews the drastic changes that have occurred since Finley's book of 1973 in the picture of the ancient economy, ...
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After initial comments on the role of Greek inscriptions as ‘archives’, this chapter reviews the drastic changes that have occurred since Finley's book of 1973 in the picture of the ancient economy, both by acknowledging development and growth, and by adopting new concepts, not least New Institutional Economics with its emphasis on transaction costs. The methodological impact of such new approaches is sketched in four fields, each of which is illustrated with epigraphic documentation: (1) production and growth, instancing technological advance, land exploitation and textile production; (2) finance, taxes, trade and prices, with emphasis on the need and opportunities for quantification; (3) money and coinage; and (4) the transformation of uncertainty into an assessment of risk, illustrated in respect of farming practices and recourse to consultation of oracles and curse-tablets.Less
After initial comments on the role of Greek inscriptions as ‘archives’, this chapter reviews the drastic changes that have occurred since Finley's book of 1973 in the picture of the ancient economy, both by acknowledging development and growth, and by adopting new concepts, not least New Institutional Economics with its emphasis on transaction costs. The methodological impact of such new approaches is sketched in four fields, each of which is illustrated with epigraphic documentation: (1) production and growth, instancing technological advance, land exploitation and textile production; (2) finance, taxes, trade and prices, with emphasis on the need and opportunities for quantification; (3) money and coinage; and (4) the transformation of uncertainty into an assessment of risk, illustrated in respect of farming practices and recourse to consultation of oracles and curse-tablets.
