The Emergence of Writing in Greek Antiquity

Do you believe that the transition between the days of pre-internet read a book and write a paper, and our current days of fast blue-tooth cord-free and other hyphenated techno-craze has been an easy one?


Do you think it has been entirely in the interest of all people?

Have we lost anything in making this transition?

Adiabene 101

Adiabene(ܚܕܝܐܒ) was a small kingdom that made up part of the Armenian empire. though this country was only around for about a century, it's history contains religious shifts, two kings, ethical-political tension, martyrdom, Jewish rabbinic academies, and catholic archbishoprics.

now, before i go any further, i have to make clear the fact that i am definitely still taking about Mesopotamia. i had been searching out the earliest things i could find on Mesopotamia since i was assigned the culture. i then realized that there were people assigned Sumerians and Hittites, both of whom had excellent cuneiform posts yesterday. so rather than fight for the early mesopotamian culture spotlight, i though it might be interesting to examine a time period of extreme transition (since i figured that paradigm shifts count as knowledge turning points, why not look at the Mesopotamian cultures around the time Christianity is really catching on?) so i found this little gem of a case-study-in-a-country.

the Adiabene empire was a subservient empire to Persia, Assyria, and other Mesopotamian powerhouses, then in the first century BC, the country gained independence(not in the flag waving revolutionary war way America did, they just sort of were all of a sudden good enough to have a little respect). Izates, the king-to-be, converted from to Judaism at about the same time his mother did, followed by a large enough chunk of the general populace to make Judaism the primary religion in the country. the second most popular choice was that newfangled Christianity with all their Jesus talk, and in third came Zoroastrianism, a more traditional Mesopotamian religion.

now, this next part gets a bit inferrence-heavy, so bear with me and if my logic seems off, let me know. picture yourself as if you lived at the beginning of this kingdom. life's gotta be a little uncertain, seeing as how the country you live in didn't exist when you were born. not only that, but the king and a WHOLE BUNCH of your neighbors are either going to church at the synagogue, where they believe in a dude who got some fancy rocks from god, or to the christian church, where they believe that the head of their church is some dead-but-not dead guy who's alive but not here.... right..... .anyways - the world seems a bit turbulent (it gets better when you add in the fact that your dear sweet homeland will be no more by the time your kids die). so, this brings a few questions into my Adiabene mind. what the heck is going on?? where am i supposed to go to get a bit of stability? the Jews have their big rolls of paper, and seem to be the most stable non-traditional choice for a life direction, but grandma's ghost would haunt me forever if i stopped going to the Zoroastrian church (you can tell i haven't studied Zoroastrianism very thoroughly) but those Christians aren't completely crazy either - they have some letters written by their leaders, who have spoken to the not-dead guy, apparently. since the political vicissitudes are a bit uncontrollable, all i can do is choose a way to live life, and one of these churches has to tell me the right way to go, right? so a logical choice seems to be to READ THEIR TEXTS. (the idea of hearing something you've never heard before, but reading the text and basing life decisions on what you read is NOT foreign to those of us who are Latter Day Saint Returned Missionaries). so. my musings aside on what the situation might be like and how i might deal with it aside, there is a point here. in this volatile environment of constantly changing knowledges, written texts give an individual a good chance to objectively become informed (something that oral and folk knowledges may not accomplish so well) and to adapt to the changes. adaptation is what survival is all about - so those individuals who best adapt to changing knowledge systems are the ones who survive, the ones who get their names in history books, etc.

how do you see this adaptation in today's society - seeing as how we are on the cusp of the data age?

images: The sarcophagus of Queen Helena of Adiabene, Frieze from the Tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene near Jerusalem, roman coin depicting Bound Arab and Adiabene captives seated back to back on shields

lonely thursday :(

so i was reading around on the rest of the class blogs, and found a great post by Emily from enLIGHTened about propaganda. this brings up a good subject that i think was semi-addressed in the library presentation today - the authority behind the document matters A TON. this isn't a huge new concept nor was it directly mentioned by the presenter lady, but just the fact that the Sumerians covered original tablets in a "security tablet" that could be broken and matched to the original text, and Romans kept copied information four times (two on the owner's tablets and two on the temple's tablets)signifies that the knowledge that the information recorded was authentic was important. i asked Dr. Petersen about the authentication methods used on the more papery writing media, and she said that signatures, wax seals, and the like were used for this purpose (this picture in this lump of wax can only be made by the king's ring, and if anyone other than the king is found in possession of this ring, he will be executed, therefore this document was really really authorized by the real king). she also mentioned how wherever there is an authentication system, there is forgery.

what i really found interesting is that propaganda is essentially that authority being abused to twist popular opinion. if BYU wanted to warp the minds of its students, it would publish heinous fliers about how all students must be married within one year of beginning at BYU, or you're not a true cougar. imagine the difference if this document were made in two forms - one without and illustration, just plain text, ending with a typed ..... -Cecil O. Samuelson. - the other form would have the exact same text, but would be on BYU letterhead, with pres. Samuelson's personal signature and a BYU seal stamped into the paper. one would be laughed at, while the other would do nothing less than create pretty intense ripples. think about it.....

Ελληνική Γλώσσα (Greek Language)

Cuneiform This!!!!

so i figured i'd get some cuneiform written out and get a good pic to post to the ole blog. an hour and a half and 135 Popsicle sticks later, this monstrosity was sprawled across my living room floor:

Oral Tradition in Persia - A Glance

In the ancient world of Persia (map; Iran is most of Persia), only official administrative documents--such as land grants and tax records--were written. Almost no narrative survives in written form from this time--the history of the kingdom was generally passed on as an oral tradition. Tales of the exploits of "the king" -- always recounted without time and without specifics -- were told and retold by the people, thus preserving a sense of national identity. (If I find the book I read this in I will come back and add the reference. It isn't on the library shelf where I found it, as others I've perused aren't...)

This pattern continued on through the ages in this region.

Common Peloponnesian Sense

Since we have started this class, I have been very interested in how knowledge has been acquired and manipulated in order for one to grow in power.  It would seem like he who knows the most holds the power, hence our allegiance to and dependence on God.  But what else do we know about power? As the  Latter-Day Saint Prophet Joseph Smith wrote in the 121st Section of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1839:

"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion." (Doctrine and Covenant 121:39)


I did a little research to see how this principle is true in the case of Ancient Greece, the supposed birthplace of democracy.  Using analyses of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, I will demonstrate how through the manipulation of social conventions, mainly language and religion, the overarching political and social structures collapse.

RECITATIONATION

so the midterm recital of king benjamin's speech was REALLY interesting today. for whatever reason, when i listened to the audio recording of the chapters we recited on lds.org, i was bored out of my mind. the realism that an in-your-face oral performance lends to a text, however, is absolutely captivating!! not only did verses i've read dozens of times come to life in a new and cohesive way, but to be a part of the recitation of the speech gave me a sense of responsibility, as was said in class. In addition, i felt a heightened understanding of the motivation, emotion and desires of the original speaker when memorized my verses knowing the speaker would be ME! the "part of a whole" quality of the verses i was assigned to read translated into a "part of a whole" feeling towards my responsibility - i knew that my success or failure meant more than my grade, it would reflect on the class as a whole and possibly inhibit other performers from being able to perform their part. i feel that this unity or team feeling was the real miracle today - i found myself internally cheering for a whole bunch of people I've never talked to and who i had nothing really in common with, except the shared experience of frantically memorizing a bunch of scriptures over the weekend. just because i had been through that, too, i understood their struggles and rejoiced in their success. though we haven't really talked about the unity that oral traditions create between performers, i think this is one of the strongest of ways that the oral unifies people.

good job everyone!!

do you believe?

i do. miracles happen - i got a last-minute interview with a mesopotamian expert, expect a full post by the end of the weekend!!

Sing Me a Song of Ethos

Music has been around for centuries. Do you believe music serves the same role in every culture?

For the Ancient Greeks, music was a way to express their love and respect, even fear, towards their reigning gods. The oral tradition of ethos used in song created ways in which the entire culture learned more about and were strengthened in their polytheist beliefs.