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Time and Temporality in the Ancient World
Considering the topic of time in antiquity, juxtaposing cultures and societies, yields remarkable intersections, continuities, and discontinuities in the ways people have engaged with temporality.One of the most persistent dichotomies we find across many premodern societies is that between cyclical and teleological time--time marching inexorably forward, toward a goal, and the markers of nature that seem repetitive, cyclical, and fundamentally stable. Over the millennia much ingenuity has been directed at these models. Specific examinations range from the construction of time and space in prehistory, Roman Britain, quantifications of time in Assyria and Babylonia, through aspects of time in classical India, the Hebrew Bible, China, Greece, and the Roman Empire.With contributions by John C. Barrett (University of Sheffield), Marc Brettler (Brandeis University), Chris Gosden (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford), Astrid Moller (University of Freiburg), David Pankenier (Lehigh University), Alex Purves (University of California, Los Angeles), Eleanor Robson (University of Cambridge), Ludo Rocher (University of Pennsylvania), and Michele Renee Salzman (University of California, Riverside).
200 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2004
10 people want to read
About the author
Ralph M. Rosen
20 books1 followerRalph Rosen is Professor in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 16, 2015
A litte disappointed by this compilation of articles. The two first articles (on Prehistoric period) were borring. I was expecting something else about the definition of time and temporality and their study. It may be explain by this extract (p.21) :
"The structural conditions of possibility are what enable human agency to contribute to the making of history. It is only a contribution; other agencies are also at work to change and transform the material conditions of life,but the human contribution most concerns us. The temporal definition of hyman agency is not a question of the moment when it acts (the event). The prehistorian does not investigate human agency by identifying the acts of an individual. Nor is the temporal definition a matter of fixing its position in a sequence of events (process), as if that sequence were in some way determined by its own logic and the actions of human agency were therefore similary determined. Rather, temporal definition comes with an understanding of how it was possible for agents to establish a place for themselves in their own histories and what the larger consequences of those strategies may have been." It resumes all of the two first articles. They are more about researching the specificity of Prehistoric period, the meaning of history of Prehistoric period than a point on time and temporality.
The article on Babylonian period was much better. It analysed the construction of calendars and how they counted time. Here I found very useful informations on the development of mathematic astronomy. The role of number is important because it showed how time is about conscience. I liked very much the link made between past, present and future, very clear and illustrated by inscriptions. The chapter on time in the Bible was also good, with many quotations and a definition of time in its different translations in Hebrew. The chapter on China was not a personal discovery, but I learned more about the work of the Grand Astrologer. Language is also included (because Chineses had only preposition to speak of time). C.G Jung explains that "number is a more primitive mental element than concept. Psychologically we could define number as an archetype of order which has become conscious." The chapter on time in Hesiod's Theogony concluded on a stratification of time in mythological register. Next chapter tried to find the date of the first Olympic Game. The last chapter, on the 4th western century, compared the evolution of the week as seven days from pagan to christian point of view in the Roman Empire.
To sum up, I found this book have some fabulous points, but there were only a few! And what about North and Central American civilizations (Incas, Mayas...) ?
"The structural conditions of possibility are what enable human agency to contribute to the making of history. It is only a contribution; other agencies are also at work to change and transform the material conditions of life,but the human contribution most concerns us. The temporal definition of hyman agency is not a question of the moment when it acts (the event). The prehistorian does not investigate human agency by identifying the acts of an individual. Nor is the temporal definition a matter of fixing its position in a sequence of events (process), as if that sequence were in some way determined by its own logic and the actions of human agency were therefore similary determined. Rather, temporal definition comes with an understanding of how it was possible for agents to establish a place for themselves in their own histories and what the larger consequences of those strategies may have been." It resumes all of the two first articles. They are more about researching the specificity of Prehistoric period, the meaning of history of Prehistoric period than a point on time and temporality.
The article on Babylonian period was much better. It analysed the construction of calendars and how they counted time. Here I found very useful informations on the development of mathematic astronomy. The role of number is important because it showed how time is about conscience. I liked very much the link made between past, present and future, very clear and illustrated by inscriptions. The chapter on time in the Bible was also good, with many quotations and a definition of time in its different translations in Hebrew. The chapter on China was not a personal discovery, but I learned more about the work of the Grand Astrologer. Language is also included (because Chineses had only preposition to speak of time). C.G Jung explains that "number is a more primitive mental element than concept. Psychologically we could define number as an archetype of order which has become conscious." The chapter on time in Hesiod's Theogony concluded on a stratification of time in mythological register. Next chapter tried to find the date of the first Olympic Game. The last chapter, on the 4th western century, compared the evolution of the week as seven days from pagan to christian point of view in the Roman Empire.
To sum up, I found this book have some fabulous points, but there were only a few! And what about North and Central American civilizations (Incas, Mayas...) ?
May 3, 2018
The first three contributions (Barrett, Gosden, Robson) were so impressive that I had really high expectations for the rest of the volume, which means, alas, that I ended up quite disappointed. Gosdens discussion of conflating processes with their explanations was extremely important and should be required reading for most students and some scholars who ever find themselves studying processes of any kind. Robson, while using the data that had already been known to me, managed to arrange them in a system of production, use, reproduction and ideology, and I find myself suddenly with a much better understanding not only of temporality in Assyria and Babylonia but the Mesopotamian society and its workings as a whole.
Ludo Rocher's contribution on time in classical India was, in my opinion, incoherent, full of logical fallacies (so many false alternatives on so few pages!), and, to be honest, horribly written and clearly unedited. This was, in fact, the problem with the book in general: typos, mistaken names, commas instead of periods and mistakes in the bibliographies (Robson's contribution has "Oppenheimer 1974" on page 72 - a clear mistake for "Oppenheim", as he is correctly listed in the bibliography, Pankenier's bibliography lists "Keightley" between Loewe and Needham, and so on). This was especially annoying as the book was published by an institution that normally stands for good quality of not only scholarship but also scholarly writing.
The rest of contributions was also quite interesting, and I'm certain I would have appreciated them more, had I not been feeling constantly increasing irritation at the quality of editing.
Ludo Rocher's contribution on time in classical India was, in my opinion, incoherent, full of logical fallacies (so many false alternatives on so few pages!), and, to be honest, horribly written and clearly unedited. This was, in fact, the problem with the book in general: typos, mistaken names, commas instead of periods and mistakes in the bibliographies (Robson's contribution has "Oppenheimer 1974" on page 72 - a clear mistake for "Oppenheim", as he is correctly listed in the bibliography, Pankenier's bibliography lists "Keightley" between Loewe and Needham, and so on). This was especially annoying as the book was published by an institution that normally stands for good quality of not only scholarship but also scholarly writing.
The rest of contributions was also quite interesting, and I'm certain I would have appreciated them more, had I not been feeling constantly increasing irritation at the quality of editing.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews