Historical information. The history of the emergence of information resources of society

historical information

In the Book of Daniel, the king of New Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, says that he built Babylon as a "kingdom house" for himself. “Is this not majestic Babylon, which I built into a house of the kingdom by the strength of my might and to the glory of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30). According to the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is the proud builder of New Babylon. However, despite the fact that Babylon is mentioned quite often in the writings of Herodotus, Caesius, Strabo and Pliny, we are not aware that these authors referred to Nebuchadnezzar as the builder of New Babylon. On this basis, many have assumed that the book of the prophet Daniel gives erroneous information.

However, records found by archaeologists from the same era of Nebuchadnezzar provide indisputable information stating that the story described in the Book of the Prophet Daniel is reliable. For example, one entry is as follows: “And then I, Nebuchadnezzar, will build a palace, the throne of my reign, the union of the human race, a dwelling place of joy and gladness.” Professor J. A. Montgomery concludes that in this remarkable example, "the very language of Daniel's narrative is reminiscent of the Akkadian dialect." The very moment of the king's self-glorification is strikingly correct from the point of view of history. Traces of the building activity of Nebuchadnezzar are visible in Babylon almost everywhere, where millions of bricks have inscriptions confirming this fact. In the words of Professor H. W. Saggs, this "indicates that he 'nebuchadnezzar' may well have said the words attributed to him in verse 27 of Daniel 4." The historical accuracy of the narrative is confirmed by a lot of evidence collected by science and baffles those who claim that the Book of the Prophet Daniel was written in the 2nd century BC. BC Professor of Harvard University R. Pfeifer believed, for example, that “we will probably never know how our author became aware that New Babylon was the creation of Nebuchadnezzar [Dan. 4:30 (H. 4:27)], as evidenced by the excavations." However, we see that because of the increasing level of information that confirms the biblical record and thus contributes to the correct understanding of biblical statements, what was a problem for previous generations is no longer a problem for us.

The tale of Nebuchadnezzar's madness, presented in chapter 4, was also a subject of controversy for a long time. It has been called an "unhistorical account" which is supposedly "an incoherent recollection of those years that Navonides spent in Teima (Tema), in Arabia". Other scholars have also confirmed this assumption, based on four fragments of an unknown text found in 1955 from Cave 4. (4QNab) in Qumran, which were published the following year under the title "The Prayer of Nabonidus." It is assumed that these fragments represent the prayer of Nabonidus, "the great king, when, at the command of God Most High, he was stricken with malignant blisters in the city of Teman." It goes on to say that Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king, was smitten by them "for seven years" until "there came a soothsayer (or exorcist), a native of the Jews." The king received the forgiveness of sins and was healed by this soothsayer (caster).

Some scholars have argued that the narrative of Nebuchadnezzar's madness stems from the Nabonidus Prayer, which was "written at the beginning of the Christian era, but the document itself may have been composed several centuries later." It was believed that the author of the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel mixed up the names of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus and (or) reworked earlier traditions about Nabonidus.

However, it must be said that such a view is based on an unconvincing hypothesis with dubious assumptions. It was assumed that for seven years Navonid stayed in the Arab city of Teme (which is allegedly confirmed by the "seven years" of illness in Teme mentioned in the Qumran fragments).

New discoveries have changed the situation so much that this hypothesis, apparently, must be abandoned. Contemporary evidence written in Akkadian cuneiform on the Harran Stele and first published in 1958 tells us that Navonides stayed in Tema for "ten years" rather than seven, moving there for political reasons. This largely casts doubt on the historical objectivity of the information presented in the Prayer of Navonides.

Among the significant discrepancies between the 4th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Daniel and the “Prayer of Nabonid” are the following:

1. Nebuchadnezzar was afflicted with illness in Babylon, Nabonid - in Tema.

2. Navonides' illness is described as "malignant blisters", "severe rash" or "severe inflammation", while Nebuchadnezzar suffered a rare form of mental disorder, apparently a form of monomania.

3. Daniel (Dan. 4) Nebuchadnezzar's disease is the punishment for hubis (arrogance), while in Nabonidus it seems to be a punishment for idolatry.

"Recognizing the sovereignty of God, Nebuchadnezzar was healed by Himself, while Nabonidas was healed by a Jewish exorcist." In its present form, the Nabonidus Prayer dates from a later time than Daniel 4.

After a thorough comparative analysis, "we cannot speak of a direct literary relationship" between the 4th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Daniel and the "Prayer of Nabonid". Significant discrepancies between these two monuments speak against the assumption that the original tradition of Nabonidus was transferred to the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel and attributed to King Nebuchadnezzar. The well-known British Assyrologist D. Weissman notes that “nothing that we know so far about the departure of Navonides in the Teme confirms the view that this episode is a confused account of the events of the last reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and we can add that the opposite is also true.

Now let's move on to another very interesting question. Some believe that on the basis of extra-biblical data it can be argued that Nebuchadnezzar "did not leave the throne" and that in the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel the name of Nebuchadnezzar was replaced by the name Nabonides. Recently, new extra-biblical data has been released that, for the first time in over two thousand years, provides historical information regarding Nebuchadnezzar's mental disorder. In 1975 the Assyrologist A.C. Grayson published an incomplete cuneiform text (BM 34113 = sp. 213) from the treasures of the British Museum, which mentions Nebuchadnezzar and Evil-Merodach (Abil-Marduk), his son and successor on the Babylonian throne. Unfortunately, the text on this Babylonian tablet is so fragmentary that the content of only one side (the front) lends itself to translation, and here there are many ambiguities. However, lines 2-4 mention the name of Nebuchadnezzar and say that “his life seemed worthless to [him]” and that “he got up and chose the right path to […]. Lines 5-8 say, in particular: “And Babylon (yets) gives bad advice to Evil-Mero-dah […]. Then he gives a completely different command, but […]. He does not listen to the words that fly from his mouth, the courtiers [we (e) ...]. He changed, but did not delay […].

Unfortunately, it is impossible to say with certainty who is being referred to in lines 5-9, however, perhaps Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who gave some commands to his son Evil-Merodach, and the second of them goes unheeded due to the previous reckless behavior of the father. If the protagonist of this text is Nebuchadnezzar, then in the phrases presented in some of the following lines (such as “he does not show love for his son and daughter […] there is no family and kind […] he does not seek the growth of Esagila's prosperity ( and Babylon) ", one can easily see a connection with the strange behavior of Nebuchadnezzar during his mental breakdown, when he forgot about his family, clan, ministry associated with the Esagil temple complex, and the interests of Babylon in general. We admit that being the heir to the throne of Evil -Merodach was forced to take over the reins of government until his father could reign Daniel 4 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar was later restored to the fullness of his kingship (Dan. 4:33). If our interpretation of this new cuneiform text is correct, then for the first time we have extra-biblical and contemporary historical data that confirm and support the biblical story told in Daniel 4.

Let's take another example. Some scholars argue that there is no historical evidence to support the view that Belshazzar was "king" (see Dan. 5:1; 8:1). It has been argued that the Book of Daniel contains a "serious historical error" here. However, the restoration of the Babylonian texts clearly shows that Belshazzar really existed and was the son of Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king. One cannot but agree that texts have not yet been found in which Belshazzar would be called “king”, however, information has appeared that unequivocally explains that Navonides instructed Belshazzar "reign" (Sarrutim). The “Poetic Narrative of Navonid” says that “he [Navonid] entrusted“ Stan ”(reign, power. - Approx. Per.) to his eldest“ son, first-born, and assigned troops throughout the country under his“ command .... He let "everything* take its course, entrusting to him 'Belshazzar' the kingship...He went to Tema (deep) to the west."

Although Belshazzar was not called "king" as such (since Navonides himself was still one), Navonides, however, "entrusted him with the reign." This "kingship" included the military command of the nation and thus assumed "royal status". According to other Babylonian texts, this "kingdom" with its legitimate authority also included the care of the Babylonian liturgical temples (which was the king's duty), invoking his name and the name of his father at the moment of pronouncing the oath, and accepting tribute in the name of both. Professor E. Yang rightly noted that "Belshazzar's royal power is further manifested in his granting of rent, in the proclamation of his commands, in his administrative action concerning the temple in Erech." In short, on the basis of various Babylonian texts, it can be argued that in reality Belshazzar had the prerogatives of a monarch and, therefore, could be called "king", although he was subordinate to his father Nabonidus. Belshazzar acted like a king, and the transfer of "kingdom" to him forced him to manage the affairs of the state, actually being in the status of a king.

The Babylonian texts unequivocally identify Nabonidus as the father of Belshazzar, but verses 11 and 18 of Daniel 5 refer to him as the father of Nebuchadnezzar. In the Semitic language, the word "father" can be used in relation to a grandfather, or a distant ancestor, or even a predecessor in some ministry. The British Assirologist D. Weissman points out that the name of Nebuchadnezzar "father" actually "does not contradict the Babylonian texts that mention Belshazzar as the son of Nabonidus, since the latter was a descendant in the family of Nebuchadnezzar and could have had a direct connection with him through his wife." Navonid was a usurper who in 556 BC deprived the Babylonian throne of Lavosh-Marduk (Labashi-Marduk), whose father (Nergalsar) himself in 560 BC took power away from Nebuchadnezzar's son Amel-Marduk). However, Nergalsar (Neridlissar) took Nebuchadnezzar's daughter as his wife, and thus it can be considered that Navonides was Nebuchadnezzar's son-in-law. In this case, Nebuchadnezzar was Belshazzar's maternal grandfather.

So, taking into account the specifics of the use of the words "father" and "son" in the Semitic languages, it can be argued that King Nebuchadnezzar was indeed the "father" of Belshazzar, and he, in turn, was his "son" by the relationship of his grandfather - grandson. Thus, historical evidence gleaned from ancient written records helps us in understanding the information that is available in the Book of the Prophet Daniel.

How do people transmit social information, exchange it? This happens primarily at the level of personal communication. This happens with the help of words, gestures, facial expressions. This way of human knowledge is quite informative, but it has its own significant drawback - personal communication is limited in time and space. A person has learned to create works that express his goals and intentions and has managed to understand that these works can become sources of information. As a result, people accumulate everyday experience and pass it on to future generations. To do this, they encode it in material objects.

Source study is a method of cognition of the real world. The object in this case are cultural objects created by people - works, things, records-documents.

Since people create works purposefully, these works reflect these goals, the ways to achieve them, and the opportunities that people had at one time or another, under certain conditions. Therefore, by studying works, you can learn a lot about the people who created them, and this method of knowledge is widely used by mankind.

Question 45

Historical sources- the whole complex of documents and objects of material culture that directly reflected the historical process and captured individual facts and past events, on the basis of which the idea of ​​​​a particular historical era is recreated, hypotheses are put forward about the causes or consequences that entailed certain historical events

There are a lot of historical sources, so they are classified. There is no single classification, since any classification is conditional, and even controversial. There may be different principles underlying a particular classification.

Therefore, there are several types of classification. For example, historical sources are divided into intentional and unintentional. Unintentional sources include what a person created in order to provide himself with everything necessary for life. Intentional sources are created with a different purpose - to declare themselves, to leave a mark on history.

According to another classification, sources are divided into material(made by human hands) and spiritual. At the same time, a prominent Russian historian A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky argued that all sources, including material ones, are "products of the human psyche" 2 .

There are other classifications of historical sources: they are combined according to periods of creation, types (written sources, memoirs, media materials, etc.), in different areas of historical science (in political, economic history, cultural history, etc.). ).

Consider the most general classification of historical sources.

1. Written sources:

• 
  printed materials
• 
  manuscripts - on birch bark, parchment, paper (chronicles, chronicles, letters, contracts, decrees, letters, diaries, memoirs)
• 
  epigraphic monuments - inscriptions on stone, metal, etc.
• 
  graffiti - texts scrawled on the walls of buildings, dishes

2. Real(tools, handicrafts, clothing, coins, medals, weapons, architectural structures, etc.)

3. Fine(paintings, frescoes, mosaics, illustrations)

4.folklore(monuments of oral folk art: songs, legends, proverbs, sayings, anecdotes, etc.)

5.Linguistic(place names, personal names)

6. Film and photo documents(film documents, photographs, sound recordings)

The search for historical sources is the most important component of the researcher's work. But sources alone are not enough to adequately recreate history. You also need the ability to work with historical sources, the ability to analyze them.

The time has long passed when all the evidence of a source was taken at face value. Modern historical science proceeds from the axiom that the testimony of any source requires careful verification. This also applies to narrative sources (i.e., accounts of witnesses and eyewitnesses) and documents that occupy an important place in research.

Question 46

Research practice is an endless movement towards a more complete and deeper knowledge of historical reality. The source, even if it is part of some fact, does not give us an idea of ​​the fact as a whole. No source can be identified with historical reality. Therefore, speaking about the reliability of the source, we are talking about the degree of compliance, the information contained in it, the displayed phenomenon. The very concept of "reliability", therefore, implies not absolute (100%) compliance, but relative.

If the stage of source interpretation involves the creation of a psychologically reliable image of the author of the source, the use of such categories as common sense, intuition, sympathy, empathy along with the logical categories of the cognitive process, then, in turn, at the stage of content analysis, logical judgments and evidence, comparison of data, analysis of their consistency with each other. This approach helps to solve difficult questions of the objectivity of humanitarian knowledge.

The researcher can only establish the degree of correspondence to the fact-event, but not their identity. Based on the source, the researcher only reconstructs, models the fact (object) - verbally or with the help of other means. And if the object itself is systemic, then this does not mean that our knowledge about it is systematic. The general humanitarian method of source study allows in this case to determine the degree of approximation to the knowledge of the reality of the past. The categories such as completeness and accuracy also help in this.

The completeness of the source is a reflection in the source of the defining characteristics, essential features of the object under study, the features of the phenomenon, the main content of events. In other words, if on the basis of the source we can form a certain idea of ​​the real fact of the past, we can speak of the completeness of the source. In addition, in historical sources, we often find a display of a huge number of small factors and details. They do not give an opportunity to form an impression about the studied phenomenon, event, fact. But their presence allows us to concretize our knowledge. In this case, we can talk about the accuracy of the historical source information, that is, about the extent to which individual details are conveyed in it.

Completeness is a qualitative characteristic; it is not directly dependent on the amount of information. Two pages of text, a small sketch (sketch) can give a better idea of ​​what was happening than a weighty volume of a manuscript, a huge picture, etc.

Accuracy, on the contrary, is a quantitative characteristic: the degree of reflection in the source of individual details of the described fact. It essentially depends on the amount of information. Therefore, there is no very close (as mathematicians would say, directly proportional) connection between accuracy and recall. The abundance of information, enumeration of details, on the contrary, can make it difficult to perceive and understand the source information. At the same time, at a certain stage, the number of details makes it possible to significantly clarify the main content of events (the transition from quantity to quality). Just as the refinement of various fragments of a separate picture contributes to the creation of an idea of ​​​​it as a whole.

The next point is to clarify the origin of the information: whether we are dealing with information based on personal observation, or whether this information is borrowed. Naturally, we intuitively trust more of the information that we can observe ourselves ("Better to see once than hear a hundred times" - isn't this the magical effect of newsreels). The authors of the sources also knew about this fact. Therefore, the first condition is to clarify the evidence of personal observation, even if the author tries to prove it. Knowledge of the conditions of occurrence (place, time, circumstances) and the psychological characteristics of the creator of the source allows at this stage to significantly correct his statements.

The main thing in criticizing the reliability of a source is the determination in the analyzed source of internal contradictions or contradictions with reports from other sources and the reasons for these contradictions. When comparing sources, the researcher does not always have the opportunity to use as a criterion those of them, the reliability of which is not in doubt. As a result, it is often necessary to resort to cross-validation. In case of discrepancies, it becomes necessary to decide which of the sources is considered more reliable. In this case, it is necessary to be guided by the results of criticism of sources.

Question 47

When extracting information from a source, the researcher must remember two essential points:

· The source gives only the information that the historian is looking for in it, it answers only those questions that the historian puts before him. And the answers you get depend entirely on the questions you ask.

· A written source conveys events through the worldview of the author who created it. This circumstance is important, because this or that understanding of the picture of the world that exists in the mind of the creator of the source, one way or another affects the data that it captures.

Since historical sources of various types are created by people in the process of conscious and purposeful activity and served them to achieve specific goals, they carry valuable information about their creators and the time when they were created. To extract this information, it is necessary to understand the features and conditions for the emergence of historical sources. It is important not only to extract information from the source, but also to critically evaluate and interpret it correctly.

interpretation are carried out in order to establish (to one degree or another, to the extent possible, taking into account the temporal, cultural, and any other distance separating the author of the work and the researcher) the meaning that its author put into the work. From interpretation, the researcher moves to analysis its content. It becomes necessary for him to look at the source and its evidence through the eyes of a modern researcher of a man of another time. The researcher reveals the fullness of the social information of the source, solves the problem of its reliability. He puts forward arguments in favor of his version of the veracity of the evidence, and substantiates his position.

According to Mark Blok, the sources themselves say nothing. The historian who studies the sources must seek in them the answer to a particular question. Depending on the formulation of the question, the source may provide different information. Blok cites as an example the lives of the saints of the early Middle Ages. These sources, as a rule, do not contain reliable information about the saints themselves, but they shed light on the way of life and thinking of their authors.

Cultural historian Vladimir Bibler believed that together with a historical source created by human hands from the past, a “fragment of the past reality” gets into our time. After a positive identification of the source, the researcher begins to engage in reconstructive work: comparison with already known sources, mental completion, filling in gaps, correcting distortions and clearing later deposits and subjective interpretations. The main thing for the historian is to determine whether the event described in the source or reported by him is a fact, and that this fact really was or happened. As a result, the historian expands the fragment of past reality that has fallen into our time and, as it were, increases its “historical area”, reconstructs the source itself more fully, deepens its interpretation and understanding, and, as a result, increases historical knowledge:

Deciphering the historical fact, we include fragments of the reality of the past into modern reality and thereby reveal the historicism of modernity. We ourselves are developing as cultural subjects, that is, subjects who have lived a long historical life (100, 300, 1000 years). We act as historically memorable subjects.

Despite the fact that the right part of the inscription has not been preserved, attempts to decipher the letter were successful. It turns out that it was necessary to read it vertically, adding the letter of the lower line to the letter of the upper line, and then start all over again, and so on until the last letter. Some of the missing letters have been restored in meaning. The incomprehensible inscription was a joke of a Novgorod schoolboy who wrote: “The ignoramus of writing is not the thought of the kaz, but who is the quote ...” - “The unknowing wrote, the unthinking showed, and who reads this ...”. As a result of working with a piece of birch bark, the researcher not only deciphered the inscription, but also got an idea about the character of people and the culture of that time. He also generated new knowledge about ancient Russian culture and about the psychology of the people of the era under study, or, in Bibler's words, expanded the area of ​​a fragment of the past:

In our time, there is now (as a fact) just such a really meaningful birch bark letter. There is and actually exists a piece of everyday life of the XII century. along with the characteristic rude humor, practical joke, "scrap" of relationships.

Successful work with historical sources requires not only diligence and impartiality, but also a broad cultural outlook.

Question 48 Criticism of the source

Any source contains information, content. The researcher looks at two aspects - the completeness of the source and its reliability. The first is understood as informative capacity, i.e. the researcher looks at what the author of the source writes about, what he wanted to say, what he wrote, what the author knew about, but did not write, there is explicit information and there is hidden information. The completeness of the source is studied by comparison with other sources dedicated to the same event. Does it contain unique information? After that, the researcher proceeds to study the reliability of the source. It reveals how the writing of facts corresponds to real historical events. This is the apotheosis of criticism. There are two ways to discover the truth:

1. Comparative reception: the source of interest to us is compared with other sources. We must bear in mind that when comparing, we should not require the sources of an absolute match in the description. Some resemblance can be expected. Different types of sources describe the same events in different ways.

2. Logical technique: divided into two subspecies: study with t. sp. formal logic, studying with t. sp. real logic.

External criticism- includes an analysis of the external features of the material available, in order to establish its probable origin and authenticity. The written source must be examined for probable authorship, time and place of creation, as well as paper, handwriting, language, check for corrections and inserts ...

Then the next step begins: internal criticism. Here, the work is no longer with the form, but with the content. Therefore, the procedures of internal criticism are more relevant for author's sources. Moreover, both the content of the text and the personality of the author (if it was possible to establish it) are analyzed. Who was the author? What group could he represent? What was the purpose of this text? What audience was it intended for? How does the information in this text compare with other sources? The number of such questions can amount to dozens... And only a part of the information that has withstood all the stages of criticism and comparison with parallel sources can be considered relatively reliable, and only if it turns out that the author had no obvious reason to distort the truth.

Question 49 Criticism and attribution of the source

The researcher must determine and understand the meaning that the creator of the source put into this work. But first you need to set the name of the author of the source. Knowing the name of the author or compiler of the source allows you to more accurately determine the place, time and circumstances of the source, the social environment in which it arose. The scale of the personality of the creator of the work, the degree of completion of the work, the purpose of its creation - all these parameters determine the totality of information that can be gleaned from it. “To see and understand the author of a work means to see and understand another, alien consciousness and its world, that is, another subject,” wrote M.M. Bakhtin. Thus, both in dating, localization, and attribution, two interrelated tasks are solved:

Direct references to the author. An important basis for establishing a person's identity is a direct indication of a person's own name or anthropotoponym. In a personal name in the ancient period of our history, a canonical (godfather, monastic or schema) and non-canonical name were distinguished. As a result, as E.M. Zagorulsky, - at times one gets the idea that different princes are acting, while in fact they are one and the same person.

The identification of author's features was quite often carried out by fixing the external details of the author's style inherent in a particular person, and, in particular, favorite words, terms, as well as phraseological turns and expressions (author's style).

When establishing authorship, the theory of styles became widespread, a significant contribution to the development of which was made by V.V. Vinogradov. According to the system of V. V. Vinogradov, the defining indicators of the commonality of style are lexical and phraseological features, and then grammatical ones. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the danger of mistaking the social group or genre for the individual.

Using this approach is quite often complicated by the fact that quite often the author imitates being a regular compiler. The crisis of traditional attribution methods led to the fact that in the 1960s-1970s. the number of researchers who developed new mathematical and statistical methods for establishing authorship gradually began to grow. The use of computer technology contributed to the quantitative growth of such studies and the expansion of their geography. It should be noted the work on the formalization of texts, carried out by a team of researchers at Moscow State University (L.V. Milov; L.I. Borodkin, etc.). In a formalized text, paired occurrences (that is, neighborhoods) of certain classes (forms) were revealed.

External criticism- includes an analysis of the external features of the material available, in order to establish its probable origin and authenticity. authorship, time and place of creation, as well as paper, handwriting, language, check for corrections and inserts ...

internal criticism. Here, the work is no longer with the form, but with the content. Therefore, internal criticism procedures are more relevant for author's sources. Moreover, both the content of the text and the personality of the author (if it was possible to establish it) are analyzed. Who was the author? What group could he represent? What was the purpose of this text? What audience was it intended for? How does the information in this text compare with other sources?

The historical past is known with the help of various media that have some information about it. This information contains objects that, due to contact or interaction with other objects, carry certain traces of this contact or interaction. The historical information contained in such objects exists objectively, but it can be extracted from them only after appropriate processing by the subject-researcher. This processing includes a number of research procedures, and the more complete and thorough these procedures are, the more objective and versatile the historical knowledge obtained with their help.

A historical source should be understood as any object of study from which historical information can be extracted, and any data of the natural history cycle - anthropological, geographical and paleographic, geological, physical and chemical, which serve the same purpose, are full historical sources.

All sources are divided into historical remnants and historical legends.

Historical remains: material sources; from written sources - sources of an act character (documents in which state decrees, contracts, records management materials, etc.) are recorded in the form of legal norms. In such sources, historical reality was preserved without interpretation, distortion.

Historical legends (traditions): narrative sources - historical works (chronicles, chronographs, legends), travel descriptions, letters, memoirs, diaries, periodicals, literary works. Such sources represent a historical event in the form in which it was reflected in the minds of people (not directly, but indirectly).

Another variant of the classification of historical sources is as follows:

Written sources

Material sources

Ethnographic sources (rites, etc.)

oral sources

Linguistic sources

Film and photo documents

Phonodocuments (gramophone records, tape recordings, etc.)

It should be noted that the source can easily move from one group to another.

The largest group of sources is written. Written documents are divided into:

Informational

Scientific, popular science

Regulatory

Political and ideological

Publicistic

Statistical

Philosophical.

Myths contain a huge amount of information for historians. The use of mythology as a means of investigating the history and laws of human knowledge is a relatively new branch of science. Many myths originated much earlier than they were written down. Before the invention of writing, they were passed down from generation to generation orally. In addition, representatives of the same people living in different areas created various modifications of the same myths. All this creates certain difficulties when working with a myth as a source, but also provides more opportunities for comparison.

An important role in the study of the life of primitive people is played by ethnography, which studies all aspects of the culture of modern backward societies and projects its observations and conclusions onto the historical process in primitive times.

Sections: Organization of the school library

Lesson Objectives: expand knowledge about the history of the creation of the main sources of information in the past (clay tablets, papyrus, parchment).

Give an idea of ​​the libraries of the ancient world.

Modern man, besides books, is surrounded by many other sources of information. Various information carriers enter the life of each of us and become constant companions. It took people many thousands of years to make something similar to a modern book.

In different countries of the ancient world, people recorded their knowledge on various materials. One would like to call clay tablets with cuneiform writing the pages of ancient books. There are 27,000 tablets in the London British Museum, their age is from two to five thousand years. Archaeologists to this day find them during excavations of the ancient cities of Sumer, Assyria, Babylon in Mesopotamia - the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq. Tablets from the collection of the British Museum were discovered in the middle of the 19th century by English archaeologists O. Layard and H. Rassam during excavations of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who ruled in the 7th century BC.

While excavating, archaeologists found a place where the floor was covered with a thick layer (half a meter!) of broken bricks. However, at first, scientists did not even suspect that these were tablets, mistaking the mysterious icons on the plates for a pattern.

Clay tablets

Several thousand years ago, the inhabitants of Babylon, Sumer and Assyria used raw clay to record information. Clay tablets were made, and on these tablets they made notes that they wanted to keep. Clay became "writing material".

With the help of pointed sticks, wedge-shaped signs, or cuneiform writing, were squeezed out on the still damp clay of these tablets. For better preservation of the tablets, they were burned on fire, then they acquired the strength of stone. Sometimes the entries were long and took up many clay tablets. Each such book consisted of dozens or even hundreds of clay "pages" stacked in wooden boxes. In all the big cities of Babylon, Sumer and Assyria, there were schools and libraries at the temples, where “books with clay pages” were kept. These books were of the most diverse content: religious, literary, medicine, mathematics, agriculture, and many others.

Library of King Ashurbanipal

There were many interesting "clay" books in the libraries of the ancient interfluve, but there was not one as large and rich as the library of King Ashurbanipal in his Nineveh palace. This king assembled a large library in his capital, Nineveh, two and a half thousand years ago. It contains hundreds of clay books. They consisted of many "sheets" - tablets of the same size.

Ashurbanipal himself studied at the school at the temple and at that time was a very educated person: he knew how to read ancient inscriptions and understood tablets written in other languages. Therefore, Ashurbanipal loved books so much and collected a large library in his palace. He collected it in the truest sense of the word: he sent experienced scribes to different cities of Mesopotamia. Each group went to some large library - the "tablet house" at the temples. There they chose the most interesting books and carefully copied the entire text.

Two large rooms were chosen in the palace, in which boxes with “books” stood up to the very ceiling. The king valued them and was afraid to put them down, where the dampness of the tablets could get wet and die. Often the contents of a poem or other work did not fit on one plate. Then a continuation was written on the other, several clay tablets – “pages” were obtained. These pages could not be glued into one scroll, like the Egyptian papyrus. They were placed in one box. But tablets could always accidentally crumble and mix with others. Because of this, it was easy to confuse the books, and then the most learned priests would have difficulty understanding everything. To prevent this from happening, special notes were made on each page.

In the library of Ashurbanipal, there were many textbooks: a grammar of the Sumerian language with explanations of various rules for translating them into Babylonian, dictionaries of foreign words, lists of words that were memorized. These are lists of plants, animals, geographical names, etc. There were works of lyric poetry, historical chronicles, astronomical observations and mathematical works. When the tablets got into the royal library, a stamp was squeezed out on them – “Palace of Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria” – just like in our libraries they put the seal of the library on the books. Then the newly received tablets were put back in boxes and a catalog of books was compiled.

The boxes were divided into sections and a plate with the names of the department was attached to them. In some, there were tablets with textbooks on language and grammar, and in others, on mathematics. Separately placed tablets with hymns and prayers, stories and legends. There were sections on medicine, minerals, various industries, etc. Many books were presented in the library in several copies, some in five or six.

Ashurbanipal was one of the most educated people of that time. But, despite this, the king was as cruel and merciless as his father and grandfather. Once, in one of his campaigns, he captured four kings of the countries he conquered. Returning to Nineveh, Ashurbanipal ordered them to be harnessed to the chariot, and, sitting in it, drove through the entire capital. After that, these four kings were put in a cage, which stood at the gate of the palace. Ashurbanipal was the last Assyrian king, before whom the conquered peoples trembled. After the death of Ashurbanipal, the countries subject to Assyria rebelled and started a war.

The fate of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, is known. Under the onslaught of enemy armies, the city fell. In 612 B.C. Babylonian troops broke into Nineveh, the city was completely destroyed: “The cavalry rushes, swords sparkle, spears shine; many slain ... Nineveh plundered, devastated and devastated”, wrote an ancient historian. The fire that raged for many days after that completed the destruction, and the sands of the desert covered the remaining ruins.

The significance of the Ashurbanipal library is that it is, in essence, a genuine collection of cultural achievements of the peoples of the Ancient East.

Papyrus

In the neighboring kingdom of Assyria, the material for writing was made from a river plant. In ancient Egypt, papyrus was considered "royal plant" since the time of the Ptolemies. From the beginning of the III century BC. a tsarist monopoly was introduced on it. Papyrus was sold to many countries of the Ancient World.

Papyrus - river reed with a high and thick trunk.

The stem of the plant was divided with a needle into thin narrow strips. These strips were glued one to the other so that a whole page was obtained. Another layer was superimposed on the layer thus obtained, the stripes of which were located transversely to the stripes of the first. Both layers were strongly compressed and then dried. The remaining irregularities were polished with pumice. Due to resinous substances, a homogeneous, durable material of light yellow color was obtained, over time it darkened and lost elasticity, becoming brittle and brittle. A sheet made of papyrus could not be folded or folded. The pages were glued together in length and rolled into scrolls, the length of which could reach several tens of meters. Long ribbons were wound around a stick with a handle, resulting in scrolls, on which books and documents were copied. They read the scroll in this way: with the left hand they held the wand by the curly end, and with the right they unfolded the text in front of their eyes. Rolled scrolls were neatly placed in a box with straps and worn behind the back. As a material for writing, papyrus was invented around the beginning of the third millennium BC. and was used until the 8th-9th centuries AD. The Egyptian word "papyrus" has since denoted paper in a number of European languages. (German Papier, French papier, English paper goes back to ancient Greek pas pyros).

It is interesting:

Of the papyrus scrolls that have come down to us, the so-called Papyrus Harris (after its discoverer), now stored in the British Museum, is considered the largest. Its length exceeds 40 meters, and its width is 43 centimeters. The vast majority of papyri were not so large.

Library of Alexandria

The most famous library of antiquity was founded at the Alexandrian museion (temple or sanctuary) - one of the main scientific and cultural centers of the ancient world. In Egypt, libraries were created in temples, and priests took care of them. The books were in the form of rolls made from papyrus. The most famous library of ancient times was collected in the city of Alexandria in Egypt. It was formed in 300 BC.

Library hosts Egyptian Ptolemaic kings acquired all the literary works that only existed. Original manuscripts carefully collected and purchased from southern Europe, the Mediterranean islands, North Africa and Western Asia.

It is interesting : a curious episode, testifying to book addictions in ancient times. Pharaoh Ptolemy III, who created the Library of Alexandria, decided to replenish it with the works of famous Greeks. But since these books could not be obtained. Pharaoh decided to make copies. Why did Ancient Greece request rare manuscripts from Athens for copying. For each book, a deposit was paid in gold coins (1 book - 15 coins). However, the love of the Egyptian pharaoh for old manuscripts was so great that Ptolemy III donated gold, handed over the manuscripts to the Library of Alexandria, and sent copies to the Athenians. The attempts of the Greeks to return the manuscripts did not lead to anything. These were the first attempts to collect all Greek literature.

A special building was built for the library in one of the best areas of Alexandria. It had the shape of a rectangle, and was decorated on all sides with rows of graceful columns, between which stood statues of prominent writers and scientists. The entrance led into a large hall lined with white marble. There were tables for reading and writing, and comfortable chairs and beds beside them (noble Greeks liked to recline at the table on soft beds). Behind this hall, this hall was a huge repository of scrolls and service rooms - the room of the main custodian of the library, his assistants and translators. It contained at least 700,000 papyrus scrolls, which have been cataloged and fully systematized - just like in modern libraries.

It is interesting:

it is curious that in Alexandria there was a peculiar law, according to which all manuscripts found on ships arriving in the harbor of Alexandria had to be sent to the library for rewriting. In the Library of Alexandria, perhaps for the first time in the history of mankind, literary monuments of many peoples of the Middle East were collected.

Here not only literary and scientific works were collected, but also new works were created; the best grammarians and poets translated the outstanding works of writers from different countries and peoples. In addition, in the Library of Alexandria, for the first time in the history of the book, a catalog was compiled in which it was possible to find information about each work stored in it. It is clear that the Library of Alexandria attracted many scholars of antiquity. Mathematicians Archimedes, Euclid and Eratosthenes, mechanics Aristarchus of Samos and Heron of Alexandria, astronomer Claudius Ptolemy and many others worked with her books. others

An entirely new science arose in the Library of Alexandria. Classification - the distribution of hundreds of thousands of different works into sections and the compilation of a catalog with the designation of the author and the title of each book.

The catalog of the Library of Alexandria consisted of 120 books - one hundred and twenty papyrus scrolls. The author of the catalog was the scientist Callimachus, who himself copied, that is, copied about eight hundred poetic and historical works. The original catalog of the Library of Alexandria was literally called "Tables of those who became famous in all fields of knowledge, and what they wrote."

The fate of the Library of Alexandria is tragic. It existed in its original form for about 200 years. In 48 BC, when the troops of Julius Caesar broke into Alexandria and entered into a fierce struggle with the population of the city, a fire broke out. Part of the library was destroyed in the fire. Caesar sent many scrolls to Rome, but the ship with the scrolls sank. The library was damaged during the civil war in Egypt in the 3rd century. The remains of a remarkable collection of ancient literature were destroyed in the 7th century AD. troops of the Turkish Sultan who captured Egypt. When the existence of this library was reported to the Sultan, he said : “If these books repeat the Koran, then they are not needed, if not, then they are harmful.” And the priceless collection was destroyed.

Parchment

Along with papyrus, material made from the skins of young animals - calves, goats, sheep, rabbits - became widespread in the ancient world. In ancient Pergamum in the III century BC. (a state on the peninsula of Asia Minor, modern Syria) and invented this material for writing. He was named parchment by the name of the place where it was invented. This material was destined for a long life. In world history, the Asia Minor city of Pergamum became famous for the invention of parchment - specially processed calfskin.

The method of making parchment was rather complicated. The skins of the animals were thoroughly washed and soaked in ash, then cleaned from the remnants of wool, fat, and meat. The skin was stretched on frames, smoothed with pumice, dried and carefully scraped, giving it a smooth surface (sometimes lime was used for bleaching). From the skins, a white, thin, extremely durable material was obtained - parchment. It could be written on both sides.

Parchment was more expensive than papyrus, but more versatile and durable. In the beginning, scrolls were made from parchment, as from papyrus. However, it was soon noticed that, unlike papyrus, it is easily written on both sides. Parchment books have become similar to modern ones.

Manufacture of parchment books. The cut sheets of parchment were bent in a certain order. In Greek, a sheet of four additions “tetra” is called a notebook. From notebooks of sixteen and thirty-two pages, a volume was formed - a book block of any format. The notebooks were stapled together and enclosed in wooden lids. In form, they already then resembled a book to which we are accustomed. So "Pergamum paper" finally defeated papyrus.

Parchment books were written and drawn by skilled scribes and artists, each such book was a real work of art. The covers of such books were covered with gold, silver, precious stones and were very expensive. Such books in ancient libraries, so that they would not be stolen, were chained to the shelves.

Pergamon Library

Mass production of parchment began in Pergamum for the needs of the Pergamon Library, it was more expensive than papyrus and was used for more expensive publications. It could be used for illustrations.

The Roman scholar and writer Pliny the Elder reported that the invention of parchment was the result of rivalry in the collection of books between King of Egypt Ptolemy and king of Pergamon Eumenes II. Wanting to prevent his rival from purchasing books for the library, Ptolemy forbade the export of papyrus, the only writing material, from Egypt. The ruler of Pergamum had to urgently look for another material for the manufacture and rewriting of books that could replace the usual papyrus. Under him, a library was created, inferior in size only to Alexandria. It had a repository of manuscripts, a large and small reading room. Niches lined with cedar are arranged in the marble walls. The books were very diverse, but most of all - medical. Pergamum was considered the center of medical science; the famous physician Galen treated the sick here at one time. The library had scribes, translators, people who monitored the safety of manuscripts.

Obviously, the invention of a new writing material was the result of a long search for the best form for a book and more durable and comfortable writing materials.

Eumenes II, who was proud of the appearance in his kingdom of a new type of material for writing, did not suspect what distribution parchment would receive in the coming centuries. He could not have foreseen that it was the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, who ruled in the homeland of papyrus shortly before the onset of a new era (31 BC), that the Roman Mark Antony would generously present several thousand parchment books (which he inherited as a military trophy) from Pergamon Library.

The Pergamonians tried to restore the library, but they could not achieve its former greatness.

Bibliography

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1. Berger A.K. Library of Alexandria. / / From the history of human society: Children's encyclopedia volume 8. - M: Pedagogy, 1975. pp.81–82.

2. Glukhov A. From the depths of centuries: Essays on the ancient libraries of the world. - M: Book, 1971. 112 p.

3. Dantalov M.A. Library of King Ashurbanipal. / / From the history of human society: Children's Encyclopedia Volume 8. - M: Pedagogy, 1975. pp.36–38.

4. History of the book. / edited by A.A. Govorov, T.G. Kupriyanova. - M: Svetoton, 2001. 400 p.

5. Malov V.I. Book. - M: Slovo, 2002. 48 p. - (What is what)

6. Pavlov I.P. About your book. - M: Education, 1991. 113 p. - (Know and be able).

7. Ratke I. History of writing. Issue 4. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1995. 20 p.

8. Rubinstein R.I. What the monuments of the ancient East tell about: A book for reading. - M: Enlightenment, 1964. 184 p.

KHARKOV- Russian city. It was founded in the 1630s. Little Russians who fled from the Poles from the right bank of the Dnieper settled there. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich built a fortress there and founded the Kharkov Voivodeship in 1656.

DNEPROPETROVSK- founded by Catherine II in 1776 and was called Yekaterinoslav.

SUMS- founded by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich no later than 1655. The tsar allowed the Little Russian refugees, who were killed by the Poles, to settle there.

POLTAVA- was in the 17th century the center of pro-Russian-minded Little Russia. For this, the traitor Hetman Vyhovsky attacked the city and sold its inhabitants into slavery to the Crimean Tatars.

LUGANSK- founded in 1795, when Catherine II founded an iron foundry on the Lugan River. To work on it, immigrants from the central and northwestern provinces of Russia came to live in Lugansk.

KHERSON- founded by Catherine II in 1778 for the construction of the Russian fleet. The construction was carried out by Potemkin.

DONETSK- founded by Alexander II in 1869 during the construction of a metallurgical plant in Yuzovka.

NIKOLAEV- founded by Catherine II in 1789. At this time, Potemkin was building the ship St. Nicholas there.

ODESSA- founded by Catherine II in 1794 on the site of a fortress built a little earlier by Suvorov.

SEVASTOPOL- founded by decree of the Russian Empress Catherine II of February 10, 1784.

CHERNIGOV- one of the oldest Russian cities, it existed at the beginning of the 10th century. In 1503 he became part of Russia. In 1611, the Poles destroyed it and took this territory from the Russians. But in 1654, Chernigov returned to Russia and has been an integral part of it ever since.

SIMFEROPOL- founded by Catherine II in 1783 on the site of a fortress built earlier by Suvorov. Built the city of Potemkin.

MARIUPOL- founded in 1778 by Catherine II. She settled Greeks there - immigrants from the Crimea.

KRIVOY ROG- founded by Catherine II in 1775. And it received its industrial development in Soviet times, as a base for metallurgy.

ZAPORIZHIA- founded by Catherine II in 1770 and was called Alexandrovsk.

KIROVOGRAD- was founded in 1754 by the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna as a fortress to protect the southern borders of the Russian Empire from the Tatars. It was called ELISAVETHRAD.

CRIMEA- the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire (1783) - the inclusion of the territory of the Crimean Khanate into Russia after the abdication of the last Crimean Khan Shahin Giray. In 1784, the Tauride Region was formed on the annexed territory.

And already in the spring, urgent measures were taken to select a harbor for the future Black Sea Fleet on the southwestern coast of the peninsula. Catherine II, by her decree of February 10, 1784, ordered to establish here "a military port with an admiralty, a shipyard, a fortress and make it a military city." At the beginning of 1784, a port-fortress was laid, which Catherine II gave the name of Sevastopol.

On June 28, 1783, the manifesto of Catherine II was finally made public during the solemn oath of the Crimean nobility, which was personally taken by Prince Potemkin.

At first, murzas, beys, clerics swore allegiance, and then the ordinary population.

The celebrations were accompanied by refreshments, games, horse races, and cannon salutes.

Konstantin Kornev