Historical Consciousness and the Use of the Past in the Ancient World
offers linked essays on uses of the past in prominent and diverse
cultures in ancient civilizations across the world. The contributors are
leading experts in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Sinology, Biblical
Studies, Classics, and Maya Studies.
This volume addresses crucial questions in current scholarship on
historical consciousness and historiography. These questions include the
formation of different traditions and the manifold uses of the past in
particular socio-political contexts or circumstances; the ways in which
these traditions and these types of cultural memory informed or
contributed to the rise of more formal modes of historiography;
interactions between formal modes of historiography and other traditions
of historical consciousness during their transmission; and the
implications of such interactions for cultural heritage, collective
memory, and later understandings of history.
By taking an interdisciplinary approach, this volume situates the rise
of formal modes of historiography within a larger context of
developments in historical consciousness and a wider web of
intercommunicating discourses. It also uncovers intellectual processes,
literary mechanisms, and social institutions involved in the
construction of history. During the construction of ancient
historiographies, while many local traditions persisted, some ancients
gradually went beyond the temporal and spatial limitations of their
local traditions, arriving at a more extended and unified timespan, a
wider geographical region, and a common origin.
