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[German version] I. General Literary communication is communication by means of texts - stabilized, coherent and substantial statements. These may be written or eventually put down in writing, but they may also remain oral ( Literacy). Since for earlier societies as a rule only written texts can be studied, the term ‘literature’ focusses on such sedimented media of literary communication. Nevertheless, particularly for ancient societies the mainly oral character of literary communication must be emp…

[German version] (Attic ἱστορία; historía and Ionian ἱστορίη; historíē). Technical term first used by Herodotus, based on the meaning of ‘enquiry’ (Hdt. 2,118), then evolving towards ‘result of an enquiry’ = ‘knowledge’ (Hdt. 1, pr.), finally with the meaning of ‘written explanation of the enquiry’, that is, in the case of Herodotus, (7,96) ‘work of history’. This meaning (term for works of history) then remains constant throughout Greek literature (cf. Pol. 1,57,5) [1; 2]. In Latin, historia (in contrast to fabula) means ‘history’/‘historiography’ in the narrower sense. Fu…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. Introduction Judged by the principles of modern historiography, this discipline did not exist in the Ancient Orient. Nevertheless, the past has been treated in the literature in various ways, which indicates that history was an essential source of political and religious identity in the Ancient Orient. Frahm, Eckart (Heidelberg) [German version] B. Mesopotamia Records with a historical orientation do not emerge until the middle of the 3rd millennium BC in the form of royal inscriptions of Lagaš. Deeds are reported f…