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  1. Jan 2026
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    The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction
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    1. chrisaldrich 12 Jan 2026
      The investment of time and manpower devoted to the constructionof this complex would have resembled the work on a medievalcathedral. As early as 3600 BCE work had begun on the so-calledLimestone Temple in the Eanna precinct. Quarrymen and masonsremoved limestone from a rocky outcrop around fifty kilometers (31mi) to the southwest. Other men transported the stone to Uruk. Stillothers formed hundreds of thousands of mud bricks and clay cones,and set them out to harden in the sun. Others brought timber fromfar to the north for the roofs. Someone supervised all the workmenwho set the bricks and stones and mosaic cones in place. The menwould have been fed and provided for during the construction. Thebuilders were all probably residents of Uruk, united in their desire tocreate a magnificent home for their beloved divine queen.

      Possibility that even with proto-cuneiform (writing) evolving here that such temples were local memory palaces for the culture of the inhabitants who would have been primary orality-based?

      memory palaces orality transition to literacy Eanna ("house of heaven") House of Inanna temples primary orality

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  3. Apr 2025
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    A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth
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    1. chrisaldrich 24 Apr 2025
      though he claimed to be nothing more than a translator – therebyconforming to medieval literature’s aversion to originality, at least outwardly –he remains one of the most strikingly original writers of the Middle Ages.

      And isn't this just what we would broadly expect of a culture moving from primary orality into literacy? The old wisdom passed down through memory would be prized over the invention of the new.

      Until the written tradition can be fully relied upon, originality wouldn't be prized the way it is in current Western culture.

      We should expect writers to say (even if lying) that their material is based on prior sources and not created by them.

      Of course perhaps the primary oral bards may have exhibited this pattern themselves and used their own creativity to embellish prior "close truths". Just how far did originality go in the bardic tradition?

      Compare this with using written statements to actively tell lies in the opening centuries of literacy.

      orality orality transition to literacy close truths bardic tradition primary orality originality

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