{"title":"The Tablet Collections of the Hittite State, c.1650–1080 BCE","authors":"Paola Dardano","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"The tablet collections discovered in the Hittite capital are the largest collections of cuneiform texts in the Hittite language. In this paper the organization of the Hittite tablet collections will be examined on the basis of internal and external factors, i.e. colophons, labels, and catalogues. In particular, catalogues are not exhaustive lists of texts, but inventories of texts that were intended to be preserved for a longer period of time, and which were therefore continuously monitored and copied, and, in the course of time, reworked in various ways. Finally, collections management allows some reflections on genres of texts collected, copying practices, and typology of text collection (libraries or archives).","PeriodicalId":376432,"journal":{"name":"Libraries before Alexandria","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125992773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Rise of Libraries in Western Asia, c.2600–2300 BCE","authors":"K. Zand","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter compares the find-spots of lexical and literary texts from three different places: Shuruppag and Tell Abu Salabikh in Mesopotamia and Ebla situated in modern-day Syria. In Shuruppag and Ebla lexical and literary texts have been found in official buildings of the ruling elite, also combination with a massive amount of administrative texts. It can be seen that lexical and literary texts were produced, kept, and transmitted by scribes in the context of the administration of the different cities. They played therefore not only an important role in transmission and mastery of the cuneiform writing system, the main administrative tool. Their importance for the elites resulted in the development of a network of knowledge that spread Mesopotamian myths and lore over the Near East in the third millennium BCE.","PeriodicalId":376432,"journal":{"name":"Libraries before Alexandria","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127560571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Libraries in Ancient Egypt, c.1600–800 BCE","authors":"F. Hagen","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter surveys the evidence for ancient Egyptian libraries during the period 1600–800 BCE. It looks at both private and institutional libraries, defined as collections of papyri with literary texts, with a notable focus on archaeological context, and the use and materiality of manuscripts. Given the paucity of archaeological remains of temple and palace libraries, many indirect sources play a key role in the analysis, including book labels, administrative titles, and patterns of transmission for literary texts. Private libraries are better attested, and here the main groups are described with a particular focus on their importance for reconstructing the circulation and reception of literature. Finally, the chapter includes a rare case study where an historical individual and his family can be identified as the owners of a private library.","PeriodicalId":376432,"journal":{"name":"Libraries before Alexandria","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127223847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Libraries from Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt, c.800 BCE–250 CE","authors":"Ryholt Kim","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter is a survey of collections of literary texts from Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt, c.750 BCE–250 CE, effectively the last millennium of the ancient Egyptian culture. Examples of different forms of collections are described and discussed in detail: temple libraries and private libraries, as well as groups of literary texts found in tombs, in rubbish dumps, in waste paper collections, and re-used in cartonnage. The texts include narratives, wisdom instructions, science (esp. divination and medicine), and cultic texts (esp. ritual guidelines, religious treatises, and hymns). Additional paragraphs concern the use of master copies, different types of storage, the abduction of libraries, and the so-called House of Life.","PeriodicalId":376432,"journal":{"name":"Libraries before Alexandria","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122199200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Libraries before Alexandria","authors":"K. Ryholt, G. Barjamovic","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199655359.001.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199655359.001.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Ancient Egypt and Western Asia had a library tradition many centuries before the advent of the Greek script and the building of the Library of Alexandria. The chapter provides an overview of this tradition from the third millennium BCE onwards. It presents a rich archaeological record of many thousands of texts; the scripts, languages, and different types of manuscripts and writing equipment; the scholarship, acquisition, and curation that went into their creation; the various types of collections and assemblages of texts; literacy, reading, and access; and the architecture, storage, and maintenance of these early collections.","PeriodicalId":376432,"journal":{"name":"Libraries before Alexandria","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130623768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Libraries in Syria and the Levant in the Late Bronze Age, c.1450–1100 BCE","authors":"M. Rutz","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Syria and the southern Levant has a long and rich epigraphic tradition that was rediscovered in the last century through archaeological excavation. Written remains stretching from the Bronze Age (Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Ugarit, and Emar) down into the Roman period (Qumran) provide ample evidence for the collecting of literary texts, broadly conceived, and the formation of ancient libraries. This survey gives an overview of the archaeological distribution of what modern scholarship has termed ‘libraries’ and considers the chronological, geographic, and textual depth of the data from the region as whole. It then considers the principal case studies from ancient Syria and the Levant—cuneiform libraries from the north Syrian sites of Ugarit and Emar dating to the last centuries of the second millennium BCE.","PeriodicalId":376432,"journal":{"name":"Libraries before Alexandria","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123002514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Archives and Libraries in the Old Babylonian Period, c.1900–1600 BCE","authors":"Paul Delnero","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter two substantial textual assemblages of Sumerian literary compositions from Ur and Nippur (two major urban centres in southern Mesopotamia in the late third and early second millennium) are described and compared to address the question of the extent to which assemblages such as these can be considered textual archives or libraries. Particular emphasis is given to the types of compositions that are found in the two assemblages, as well as to how the archaeological contexts in which the assemblages were discovered and the material aspects of the texts themselves (the format and layout of the clay tablets on which the compositions were copied) might shed light on how and why the texts in these assemblages were copied (and possibly archived) as a group.","PeriodicalId":376432,"journal":{"name":"Libraries before Alexandria","volume":"72 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124065144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}