HUMN 3375: Ideas in Transition Technologies of Communication

Midterm information

Bring a blue book! Available in the campus bookstore.

On this exam, expect:

slide/ term multiple choice questions (see set of study slides, and the terms below)
slide unknown question(s): something you havent seen before but will be asked
to discuss in a short answer
two short essays

Terms:
Dunbar number: around 150 , discovered by anthropologist Robin Dunbar, he
estimated the average amount of people one person can remember in a given
community, often seen from early civilizations, modern military groups, facebook
fiends, ect.

Lascaux : Jacques Marsal (boy) discovered prehistoric paintings cave with friends in
1940. Poem The first day, his dog disappeared in the forest, lost down a hole. The
next, exploring with friends, he found the caveleaping stags, buffalo, prehistoric
horses. Alone a moment, one French boy lived a dream boys dream: to stand at the
place where for thousands of years no one has been. That was 1940. Boy and dog
are dead. And the moment? Well, moments are always disappearing.
 Chauvet

Narrative, historical narrative: Uruk or urban period ca. 3500-2300 BC First

writing; early narrative art
narrative is how the story is told.

Figural

Visual symbol: 1. The form of the symbol may be arbitrary to its referent. This is one
of the fundamental features of language, but also applies to visual symbols. For
example, the symbol 2 does not look like two of anything. 2. A symbol is created
with the intention of communication. 3. There may be considerable space/time
displacement between the symbol and its referent. 4. The specific meaning of a
symbol may vary between individuals and indeed cultures. 5. The same symbol may
tolerate some degree of variability, either deliberately or unintentionally imposed.

Memory tools (external symbolic storage): objects allowing for the external
storage and control of information SUCH AS tokens, stamps

Tokens 9,000 BCE 7,000 BCE, 3600-3200 BCE (clay envelopes WITH tokens). Used
as a way to count items and hold others accountable. Clay envelope - use from ca
3600 BE to contain tokens for a sealed transaction. Possibly related to long distance
trade. This developed into: Numerical tablet - to record a transaction, more abstract
form of the clay envelope in numerical notation. Which lead to:
 Clay envelopes
3600-3200 BCE

Seals/seal impressions: Used as a way to prove authenticity (3600

Cuneiform: Mesopotamian era

Protocuneiform tablets from southern Mesopotamia. ca. 3000 BCE - little tablets
which had amount & symbol for what the quantity was of. Became increasingly
complex

Naram-Sin: conquest story

Hammurabi: Old Babylonian period, southern Iraq Hammurabi: 1792-1750 BC

takes control of most of Mesopotamia Stele of Hammurabi: set of laws instilled,
whole wall of laws in the form of "if then" laws, if this happens than this happens.
 For men on men crime, it's in the form of equality "eye for eye" , if it happens by a
woman, child, or slave than the punishment is much more severe/exponential "if a
child strikes his parents then the child loses their hand"
The way this piece is used it's written "here is a set of laws" and a single image of
authority, at the top of the art piece. It's the law because the king Hammurabi is at
the top, made king by the God Samash (illustrated in the art piece) "I give you
authority to be King"
This is indicative that knowledge is power, only those who could read would be able
to know the laws

Inanna:
The Exaltation of Inanna
http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4072.htm
presentation of offerings to Inanna
Who was the sumarian goddess of love and war (fertility - agricultural and sexuality)
These pieces potentially are created with ambiguous intent, meant to be sung

Enheduanna : high priestest (woman) first poet known wrote The exaltation of
Inanna
Amarna letters
Assyria: (northern Iraq) Colonies existed ca. 1400-605 BCE
Old Assyrian trade network
Merchants from Assur set up colonies in Anatolia, notably in Kanesh
Colonies called Karums, or ports, as in Karum-Kanesh, or port of Kanesh

Ideology: often seen in propaganda

Tribute: To give to empire or gods, mainly of lavish items of high value
 Lachish: Siege of Lachish. Sennacherib's 'Palace without Rival: at Nineveh. (704-681
BCE) Real location mentioned in the bible
Epigraphy

Inscription: Started in 700-500 BCE, alphabetic writing on objects

Kalos inscriptions
bubble inscriptions
symposion, or symposium
Antikythera Mechanism: Hellenistic Greek ca. 323-30 BCE , composed of 27 gears
with notches mainly of prime numbers. Used to calculate the planets and moon.
First computer , highly complicated device

Cicero

veristic portraits

For the essays, I will ask you two of the following:

1. How do images communicate information differently than text? To develop your

argument, use three different examples that we have studied in class. Discuss these
examples in detail (full identification of image/text source; detailed description of images;
historical detail).

2. Is the system of Roman letter exchange, as described by Standage, a better example of

social media than the exchange of letters in the Late Bronze Age? Why, or why not?
3. In your view, what was the most significant, or impressive (you choose) technological
innovation that we have studied in class? Discuss that innovation in detail, and provide a
strong argument to back up your choice.

4. Explain Standages argument about primates, the neocortex, and social behavior, and
how it helps explain humans interest in communication.

5. How did writing function differently in Mesopotamia than in the Greek/Roman world?
Be specific and give examples.

6. In what ways did the Romans use portraits and architecture to communicate?