#early-script

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Arts
fromHyperallergic
3 days ago

Dice Are 6,000 Years Older Than Previously Believed, Study Says

More than 600 two-sided dice crafted by Native Americans have been identified, dating back over 12,000 years, predating known dice from the Bronze Age.
#ancient-mesopotamia
History
fromNature
5 days ago

How DNA forensics is transforming studies of ancient manuscripts

Tim Stinson's curiosity about DNA in ancient manuscripts led to the emergence of a new field in manuscript studies.
fromwww.thehistoryblog.com
5 days ago

30 previously unknown verses by Empedocles found on papyrus

The discovery of a few pages from an original edition of Hugo's work would then be a momentous event. This is precisely what specialists in Empedocles are experiencing today.
History
UX design
fromYannglt
2 weeks ago

AI and the Rosetta Stone

AI enhances the translation between design and engineering, increasing speed while challenging the preservation of meaning.
#ancient-egypt
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 week ago

Truths Wrapped in Fiction: Mesopotamian Naru Literature: Originality in Writing Ancient Bestsellers

Originality in ancient literary works was less valued than in modern times, with authors often assuming identities of famous figures.
#mesopotamia
OMG science
fromMail Online
1 month ago

Scientists recreate the lost languages of ancient humans

Scientists reconstructed ancient human species languages by analyzing fossilized skeletal imprints of soft tissues like the larynx, tongue, and brain, revealing that Neanderthals likely spoke languages understandable to early Homo sapiens.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 weeks ago

Mesopotamian Naru Literature: The World's First Historical Fiction

Naru Literature featured historical figures in fictional narratives, shaping perceptions of history and humanity's relationship with the divine.
Philosophy
fromApaonline
1 month ago

Why Engage with the Past? Philosophy and Its History

Philosophy departments distinguish between contemporary theoretical and practical philosophy addressing current issues, and history of philosophy studying outdated theories from past philosophers.
#archaeology
fromNature
2 months ago
Science

Daily briefing: Symbols on ancient pottery could be earliest evidence of mathematics

History
fromMail Online
2 weeks ago

Dark message found inscribed on sling bullet from ancient Holy Land

A 2,000-year-old sling bullet inscribed with 'Learn your lesson' was found in ancient Hippos, showcasing local sarcasm from Greek defenders.
fromNature
2 months ago
Science

Daily briefing: Symbols on ancient pottery could be earliest evidence of mathematics

Books
fromNature
1 month ago

Brain mysteries and Bronze Age diplomacy: Books in brief

Lionel Penrose's mid-twentieth century research connected genetic abnormalities to hand creases, establishing the hand as a significant diagnostic tool across multiple medical disciplines.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

From Clay to Culture: The Power of Written Language

Cuneiform, invented in Sumer around 3500 BCE, was the first script, enabling civilizations to record human thought and preserve all aspects of human experience through written communication.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
3 weeks ago

Sargon of Akkad: From Gardener to King of the Four Corners of the World

Sargon of Akkad founded the first multinational empire in history, uniting Mesopotamian kingdoms under central authority and establishing bureaucratic administration standards that influenced rulers for 1,500 years.
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
4 weeks ago

Mesopotamian Literature: The Earliest Works of the Imagination

Writing was created in response to the need to communicate over long distances in trade and, initially, was focused on the purely practical aspects of record-keeping. Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia recorded what commercial goods had been shipped to which destination, their quantity, purpose, and cost.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Cuneiform: From trade lists to epic tales of gods

Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia circa 3600/3500 BCE. It is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk, which further developed and advanced cuneiform circa 3200 BCE and allowed for the creation of literature.
History
fromMail Online
2 months ago

Long-lost Egyptian scroll fuels debate over real-life biblical giants

An ancient Egyptian papyrus held by the British Museum has been cited as possible evidence supporting some of the Bible's most controversial claims about giants. The 3,300-year-old document, known as Anastasi I, has been in the museum's collection since 1839 and has recently resurfaced on the Associates for Biblical Research, renewing interest in its possible links to biblical accounts. The papyrus describes encounters with the Shosu people, said to stand 'four cubits or five cubits' tall, up to eight feet in height.
Books
Business
fromFast Company
2 months ago

Navigating the ghosts of cultures past

Organizational culture constantly changes; leaders must discern which legacy cultural elements to retain and which to remove while balancing enduring beliefs with adaptive practices.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

What Defines a Civilization?

Civilization requires a writing system, government, food surplus, labor division, and urbanization, with Mesopotamia recognized as the birthplace of civilization due to its early city construction around 5400 BCE.
Philosophy
fromPhilosophynow
2 months ago

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us?

Roman thought combined Greek philosophical influences with practical political and engineering practices, producing enduringly useful ideas rooted in pragmatism.
Science
fromNature
2 months ago

Daily briefing: Scientists delve into the smells of history

Researchers recreate historical smells and use imaging, AI, and biomedical advances to probe heritage, ancient human timelines, medical rescue devices, and rare-disease genetics.
History
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
1 month ago

Long-lost page of Archimedes' writings rediscovered in France

Scientists recovered a missing page from the Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th-century medieval manuscript containing writings from the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes.
Books
fromBig Think
2 months ago

The deep history of AI began 3,000 years ago

Organizing a library into coherent structure transforms chaotic information into an enduring, shareable 'mind' that extends and amplifies human thought.
Science
fromFuturism
2 months ago

Scientists Investigating 2,000-Year-Old Artifact That Appears to Be a Battery

A reconstructed Baghdad battery configuration could have produced about 1.4 volts, comparable to a modern AA battery, using a porous clay separator and an electrolyte.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Akkad and the Akkadian Empire: The First Multinational Empire in the World

The Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great around 2350 BCE, was the first multinational political entity that unified Mesopotamia and established governmental, administrative, and military systems adopted by subsequent civilizations.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

12 Great Cities of Ancient Mesopotamia: The Rise and Fall of the Earliest Cities in the World

Twelve major Mesopotamian cities including Nineveh, Uruk, Babylon, and Ur became legendary through Greek writings and yielded significant archaeological discoveries, each connected to a patron deity whose prestige determined the city's fate.
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

New Project Explores the Craft of Writing in the Medieval Nordic World - Medievalists.net

CHARM is built around a large-scale survey of material connected to three major writing centres-Turku, Naantali, and Viipuri-in the 15th century. By comparing charters and book fragments together, the researchers aim to map how writing practices were adopted, modified, and localised, and what that meant for society and administration in a region that was then part of the Swedish realm.
History
fromMail Online
1 month ago

Ancient time capsule found in Iraq corroborates the Bible

King Nebuchadnezzar II himself 'speaks' in the text, proudly describing how he restored an old, crumbling stepped temple tower in the city of Kish that was dedicated to the Mesopotamian god and goddess of war, Zababa and Ishtar. He explained that earlier kings had built and fixed the ziggurat before, but it had fallen into disrepair again from age and rain.
History
History
fromMedievalists.net
1 month ago

The Survival of Roman Education in Early Medieval Britain - Medievalists.net

Roman cultural practices persisted in Britain for generations after AD 410, with aristocrats maintaining traditional education and Christian learning similar to their Gallic counterparts.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Mesopotamian Education: Creating the First Written Works in History

The Sumerians established formal scribal schools (edubba) after inventing writing, training students in cuneiform, Sumerian and Akkadian, and a broad range of scholarly subjects.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 months ago

Scribes in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Beginning of History

Ancient Mesopotamian scribes mastered cuneiform and broad knowledge to record transactions, administer society, and preserve history across civilizations.
#ancient-mathematics
fromMail Online
2 months ago

Mysterious symbols spanning the globe hint at a lost civilization

His investigation began after identifying recurring giant T-shapes, three-level indents, and step pyramids carved into ancient stones worldwide. 'These specific symbols that are built in different size proportions, and the symbols are found in ancient stones around the world, are not supposed to exist; no cultures are supposed to have any cross-platform,' LaCroix explained. The symbols appear in locations ranging from Turkey's Van region to South America and Cambodia.
History
#sumer
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 months ago

Ur: the center of the Sumerian Renaissance

Ur was an influential Sumerian port city and ancient trade center in southern Mesopotamia with notable archaeological finds and contested biblical associations.
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 months ago

Cities, writing, and governments: Early Dynastic Mesopotamia's revolutionary advances

It should be noted, however, that the advances of Mesopotamia's Early Dynastic period differed from Egypt's in significant ways, notably in that Mesopotamia - even under the rule of Sargon or later empires - was never the cohesive ethnic or political entity Egypt was, and the kinds of cultural development cited for this era were not as uniform as they were in Egypt.
History
#roman-archaeology
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 months ago

Mesopotamian Government: Helping and Serving the Gods

Ancient Mesopotamian government treated rulers and officials as divinely chosen stewards modeled on family roles, with kings handling civic administration and priests overseeing temple affairs.
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Mesopotamian Science and Technology: Scientific Method in the Ancient Near East

The foundation of future Mesopotamian advances in scientific/technological progress was laid by the Sumerians, who first explored the practice of the scientific hypothesis, engaged in technological innovation, created the written word, developed mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, and even fashioned the concept of time itself. Some of the most important inventions of the Sumerians were: the wheel the sail the corbeled arch/true arch irrigation and farming implements maps mathematics time and clocks astronomy and astrology medicinal drugs and surgery
History
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 months ago

Mesopotamian Art and Architecture: The Birth of Art and Architecture in the Ancient World

Mesopotamian art and architecture began over 7,000 years ago, evolving from northern sites into Sumerian innovations and sustained through multiple ancient Mesopotamian periods.
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

Reading in Byzantium: Literacy, Books, and a World of Texts - Medievalists.net

Byzantine reading was communal and performative, woven into religious, educational, and administrative life while preserving classical learning within a Christian intellectual framework.
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 months ago

Festivals in Ancient Mesopotamia: Courting the Goodwill of the Gods

as the gods were understood as the true monarchs and the king as simply their steward. In order to maintain his authority, the king needed to court the goodwill of the gods, and although they made their approval clear through military victories, bountiful harvests, and prosperous trade, events such as the Akitu festival provided an annual opportunity for the divine to continue its relationship with the ruling house or withdraw its favor.
History
History
fromOpen Culture
1 month ago

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Discover the Secrets of the Bible's Oldest and Strangest Texts

Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts, diverse texts (biblical, apocryphal, sectarian, unknown) that complicated but did not completely upend understanding of Christianity.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 months ago

Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia: A Gift of the Gods to Their People

Gula, the Sumerian goddess of healing, guided Mesopotamian physicians whose specialized, long-trained practice combined divine attribution of illness with practical medical roles.
History
fromOpen Culture
2 months ago

Discover Khipu, the Ancient Incan Record & Writing System Made Entirely of Knots

Inca khipus encoded inventories, censuses, and historical narratives via knots, cord position, length, and fiber color, functioning as portable organic data systems.
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

New Medieval Books: Old High German Poetry - Medievalists.net

The translations offered are intended to keep as close to the originals as possible in line for line renderings, while conveying at the same time some indication at least of the poetic form. This is, of course, an entirely hubristic aim, and it is either a help (by permitting a certain freedom of approach) or an additional hindrance that, as noted, many of the texts survive in a somewhat parlous state.
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

The Classical Near East, with Kevin van Bladel - Medievalists.net

A conversation with Kevin van Bladel on his proposal regarding "The Classical Near East," a constellation of fields defined by the classical literary traditions of medieval Near Eastern cultures, including Byzantium.
History
History
fromwww.thehistoryblog.com
2 months ago

Phoenician scarab found at Nuragic site in Sardinia

A 2,700-year-old Phoenician steatite scarab seal from Lebanon was found at inland Nuragic Ruinas in Sardinia, indicating long-distance contacts and exchange.
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