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Finding, Inheriting or Borrowing?

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Since the dawn of humanity, people have developed concepts about themselves and the natural world in which they live. This volume aims at investigating the construction and transfer of such concept...
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  • 27 March 2019
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Since the dawn of humanity, people have developed concepts about themselves and the natural world in which they live. This volume aims at investigating the construction and transfer of such concepts between and within various ancient and medieval cultures. The single contributions try to answer questions concerning the sources of knowledge, the strategies of transfer and legitimation as well as the conceptual changes over time and space. After a comprehensive introduction, the volume is divided into three parts: The contributions of the first section treat various theoretical and methodological aspects. Two additional thematic sections deal with a special field of knowledge, i.e. concepts of the moon and of the end of the world in fire.
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Price: $55.00
Pages: 408
Publisher: transcript publishing
Imprint: transcript publishing
Publication Date: 27 March 2019
Trim Size: 8.86 X 5.83 in
ISBN: 9783837642360
Format: Paperback
BISACs: HISTORY / Social History, HISTORY / Ancient / General, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval
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»The book will mainly appeal to intellectual historians of antiquity, who will appreciate the case studies of ancient knowledge.«

Jochen Althoff (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of ancient Greek at the University of Mainz. He has published on ancient science and philosophy, especially Aristotle, and organizes the yearly meeting of the research unit Ancient Science and its Reception and co-edits a publication series of the same name. Since 2013, he has been vice-speaker of the research training group Early Concepts of Humans and Nature. Universal, Specific, Interchanged.
Dominik Berrens (Dr.) is a postdoctoral researcher in the project »NOSCEMUS - Nova Scientia: Early Modern Scientific Literature and Latin« at the University of Innsbruck. His research interests lie in pre-modern scientific texts and ancient drama.
Tanja Pommerening (Prof. Dr.) holds degrees in Egyptology, pharmacy and history of sciences. She has been a professor of Egyptology at the University of Mainz since 2010. Since 2013, she has been spokeswoman of the research training group Early Concepts of Humans and Nature. Universal, Specific, Interchanged. In addition to the overarching questions of universals, cultural specificities and knowledge transfer, her research focuses on the language and culture of Ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian medicine and science, and the histoory of knowledge.

Frontmatter 1
CONTENT 5
Preface and Acknowledgements 9
The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge in the Pre-Modern Era 13
Transmitting Symbolic Concepts from the Perspective of Cultural Cognition - The Acquisition and Transfer of Folk-biological Knowledge 41
The Transfer of Knowledge from Mesopotamia to Egypt 71
Epistemology in the Biblical Tradition - Judean Knowledge-Building, Scribal Craftsmanship, and Scribal Culture 99
Bodies of Texts, Bodies of Tradition - Medical Expertise and Knowledge of the Body among Rabbinic Jews in Late Antiquity 123
The Reception and Rejection of "Foreign" Astronomical Knowledge in Byzantium 167
"He assigned Him as the Jewel of the night" - The Knowledge of the Moon in Mesopotamian Texts of the Late Second and First Millennia BCE 187
Shapeshifter - Knowledge of the Moon in Graeco-Roman Egypt 213
Concepts Concerning the Moon in Plutarch's De facie in orbe lunae - Found, Inherited, or Borrowed Ideas 253
Conclusion - Of Moon and Men: Observations about the Knowledge of the Moon in Antiquity 279
Know Your Sources Before You Argue - Minucius Felix and Augustine of Hippo on the Conflagration 289
The Idea of an Apocalyptic Fire According to the Old and Middle Iranian Sources 313
Poets, Prophets, and Philosophers - The End of the World According to Otto von Freising 343
The Ragnark Myth in Scandinavia - Finding, Inheriting, and Borrowing 365
Conclusion - The End of the World in Fire 385
About the Authors 391
Authors and Texts Cited 395
General index 403