Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World presents a cross-cultural comparison of the ways in which ancient civilizations thought about the past and recorded their own histories, featuring contributions by an international group of scholars working in many disciplines. .

Series Editor’s Preface vii Notes on Contributors ix Introduction 1 Kurt A. Raaflaub 1 On Being Historical 6 David Carr 2 The Task and Ritual of Historical Writing in Early China 19 Stephen W. Durrant 3 History and Primordium in Ancient Indian Historical Writing: Itihāsa and Purānòa in the Mahābhārata and Beyond 41 James L. Fitzgerald 4 Historical Consciousness and Historical Traditions in Early North India 61 Romila Thapar 5 Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in Ancient Japan: The Nihon shoki as a Text of Transition 79 Christian Oberländer 6 As the Dharmacakra Turns: Buddhist and Jain Macrohistorical Narratives of the Past, Present, and Future 97 Jason Neelis 7 History as Festival? A Reassessment of the Use of the Past and the Place of Historiography in Ancient Egyptian Thought 117 Thomas Schneider 8 The Presence of the Past in Early Mesopotamian Writings 144 Piotr Michalowski 9 “Two Old Tablets”: Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in Hittite Society 169 Theo van den Hout 10 Thinking and Writing about History in Teispid and Achaemenid Persia 187 Robert Rollinger 11 Historical Texts in the Hebrew Bible? 213 Marc Zvi Brettler 12 The Many Faces of the Past in Archaic and Classical Greece 234 Jonas Grethlein 13 How the Romans Remembered, Recorded, Thought About, and Used Their Past 256 Andreas Mehl 14 Patterns of Early Christian Thinking and Writing of History: Paul – Mark – Acts 276 Eve-Marie Becker 15 Byzantine historia 297 Stratis Papaioannou 16 The Past in the Early and Medieval Islamic Middle East (circa 750–circa 1250) 314 Andrew Marsham 17 Sources and Scales of Classic Maya History 340 Nicholas P. Carter 18 The Poetics and Politics of Aztec History 372 Lori Boornazian Diel 19 Corn and Her Story Traveled: Reading North American Graphic Texts in Relation to Oral Traditions 391 Lisa Brooks Index 417

When and why did ancient peoples begin to think about the past, record, and write history? Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World explores the many ways in which ancient civilizations thought about the past, recorded it, and wrote their own histories – and the role of historical thinking and writing in ancient societies. Demonstrating how a concern about the past and thoughts of history are hallmarks of all developed civilizations, this collection discusses the ways in which such thoughts and concerns found expression in various ancient or early cultures. An international group of scholars working in many disciplines contribute chapters that address historical thinking and writing in a range of ancient cultures in East, South, and West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas. They also discuss historiography shaped by religious perspectives, including Judaism, early Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. By presenting a cross-cultural comparison of early societies’ attempts to deal with the past, Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World offers readers invaluable insights into pre-modern historical thinking and writing.

“This book meets three demands of the humanities today: transcending the Western perspective into a universal one; addressing the broad variety of cultures; and reflecting this new approach conceptually. Thus it gives new answers to the old question: what is history?” --Jörn Rüsen, Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Essen “In this excellent anthology, internationally renowned experts of historical thinking and writing embed their predecessors’ ideas in their respective contexts. Furthermore, they convincingly explain the differences between pre-modern forms of historical thinking and the conceptual categories we use today.” --Josef Wiesehöfer, The University of Kiel