All Queries 4. Alphanumeric Notation and the Calendrical-Musical Kosmos
All Queries
Transition Note
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The breakthrough to alphabetic writing seems to have been inspired from quite a different direction. A set of about 28 symbols had been created to signify the days in the lunar month, the gamut of tones in the musical scale, or perhaps both. These signs were applied to the verbal phonemes which became the basis for the Canaanite-Greek-Roman alphabet, which has cuneiform precedents going at least as far back as Ugarit c. 1400 BC.
[Omitted text: Transition from MUSIC chapter to ALPHABET chapter 5:]
Snodgrass[1] (1980: p. 79) has remarked that “Linear B was essentially an administrative script, used by palace scribes for official documentation, and occasionally by craftsmen… But graffiti hardly appear, and public inscriptions not at all. We infer that very few people could read the script… If it was the almost exclusive preserve of the palace bureaucracies, as seems likely, then their disappearance will have removed its raison d’être. The early alphabetic inscriptions show a sharp contrast. … They refer to private matters—ownership, entertainment, personal comments; a striking proportion of them are in verse. … and permanent inscriptions on stone follow” “[a]lready before 700 BC.”Originally here, the author had a note: “Transition from MUSIC chapter to ALPHABET chapter 5:”. We think it might be a suggestion that something from or related to Chapter 5 (Music, Temperament, and Social Concord) belongs here. Can you use this tip and the Key Concepts section of Chapter 4 to fill in what was intended to go here?
Add Context
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The breakthrough to alphabetic writing seems to have been inspired from quite a different direction. A set of about 28 symbols had been created to signify the days in the lunar month, the gamut of tones in the musical scale, or perhaps both. These signs were applied to the verbal phonemes which became the basis for the Canaanite-Greek-Roman alphabet, which has cuneiform precedents going at least as far back as Ugarit c. 1400 BC.
Snodgrass[2] (1980: p. 79) has remarked that “Linear B was essentially an administrative script, used by palace scribes for official documentation, and occasionally by craftsmen… We infer that very few people could read the script… If it was the almost exclusive preserve of the palace bureaucracies, as seems likely, then their disappearance will have removed its raison d’être. The early alphabetic inscriptions show a sharp contrast. … They refer to private matters—ownership, entertainment, personal comments; a striking proportion of them are in verse. … and permanent inscriptions on stone follow” “[a]lready before 700 BC.”Can you help add context about what Linear B is? Perhaps you can help add some context about Mycenaean Greek as per Wikipedia if that applies here, as no civilization is specified in or right before the second paragraph quoted above. Context can be added in a footnote or as a link in the chapter body text.
Verify Citation
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Add Context
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But narratives written in this (non)grammatical format with its agglutinative word formation were difficult to follow for someone who did not already know their basic content. Many functions that today are expressed in writing had to be committed to memory. In sum, cuneiform texts were nowhere near as self-explanatory as are modern books. They are especially hard for modern outsiders coming in cold.
[Omitted text: [an archaic Natural Law to ground social traditions in the rhythms of physical nature.]]
[Unrelated omitted text: As Chapter 5 will elaborate, it] may not be merely coincidental that the Akkadian sign for water, mem, occupying the first position in the cuneiform syllabary described by Zimmern[3] (1896 see also Driver[4] 1948: pp. 157–158, subsequently evolved into the Canaanite (and hence Greek and modern) letter m, originally μῦ, recalling the wavy zigzag line traditionally used to denote water.Spelling of Term
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Can you help us check the spelling of this term? It's mû not mem according to Wikipedia.
Verify Citation
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We guessed at the full citation for “Zimmern (1896)”:
- We guessed that the author’s full name is Heinrich Zimmern.
- We guessed that this was the 1896 publication that Hudson intended to cite: H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Alphabets,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 50 (1896), pp. 667–670.
Verify Citation
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Originally in Chapter 4, this was written as “Driver 1976: 179”: the full citation was missing, and both the year and page numbers were different from what we found: G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing From Pictograph to Alphabet (Oxford: 1948), p. 157–158.
Can you help us to confirm the relevant part discussed here is on pages 157–158 of the text that we cite? It may be a different edition, or possibly the wrong text.
From our research, the author of this text, G.R. Driver, died in 1975, meaning that the original “1976” may have been either a posthumous edition we could not find that may have different page numbers or a typo. What do you think?G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing, From Pictograph to Alphabet (3rd ed., London: 1976).
Symbol Query
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There was a missing symbol here; μῦ was our best guess based on page 158 of Driver, but if you know this should be something else, please let us know.
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
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This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it to the chapter body discussion and relate it to the chapter thesis? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
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This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it to the chapter body discussion and relate it to the chapter thesis? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
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This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it to the chapter body discussion and relate it to the chapter thesis? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
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This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it to the chapter body discussion and relate it to the chapter thesis? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
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Verify Citation
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This citation was a guess. Can a German-speaker please confirm this is the right citation? No full citation was provided.
See also: this more specific illustration-related query about Deimel.Verify Citation
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Can you help us verify the year in this citation? It might be 1987 rather than a second 1988 date in Chapter 3’s Bibliography and Chapter 4’s Bibliography per a web search, but we’re not sure.
See the same query in Chapter 3.Verify Citation
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We guessed at the full citation for “Zimmern (1896)”:
- We guessed that the author’s full name is Heinrich Zimmern.
- We guessed that this was the 1896 publication that Hudson intended to cite: H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Alphabets,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 50 (1896), pp. 667–670.
Expand Section
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The Alphabet and Writing
The complexity of Ice Age notations increased from c. 28,000 BC to the end of the Ice Age c. 10,000 BC. Paleolithic artifacts were engraved or carved with patterns which often turned out not to be “a non-arithmetic form of observational lunar/solar record-keeping” rather than merely decorative (Marshack 1991: p. 9). Notation from the late European Ice Age—the Magdalenian period—“is the end product of a long tradition of non-arithmetical astronomical observation and record-keeping.” Marshack found “a developing, highly structured year—ritual, social, and economic.”Can you help us continue this section and add an up-to-date section on Paleolithic writing systems? And can you help us work it into the body of Chapter 4 with a transition, so this section is not placed below the Chapter 4 Bibliography?
Citation Needed
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Verify Citation
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Citation Needed
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Citation Needed
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- ↑ Anthony Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (London: 1980), p. 79.
- ↑ Anthony Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (London: 1980), p. 79.
- ↑ H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Alphabets,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 50 (1896), pp. 667–670.
- ↑ G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing From Pictograph to Alphabet (Oxford: 1948), p. 157–158.
- ↑ H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Alphabets,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 50 (1896), pp. 667–670.
- ↑ G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing From Pictograph to Alphabet (Oxford: 1948), p. 157–158.
- ↑ H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Alphabets,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 50 (1896), pp. 667–670.
- ↑ G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing From Pictograph to Alphabet (Oxford: 1948), p. 157–158.
- ↑ G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing From Pictograph to Alphabet (Oxford: 1948), p. 157–158.
- ↑ H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Alphabets,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 50 (1896), pp. 667–670.
- ↑ G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing From Pictograph to Alphabet (Oxford: 1948), p. 157–158.