ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 examines the proliferation of written records and archival practices that occurred in Mesopotamia and Egypt after the introduction of writing. Writing systems opened up possibilities for communication by letter, and it was soon discovered that a written letter could preserve a message across time as well as communicating it across space. In temples, palaces, and the private houses of the rich, rooms were set aside for record-keeping, and letters were often stored alongside other records. Other types of record that came into use included labour duty rosters, debt notes, wills, marriage settlements, records of lawsuits, and records of commercial trading activities. This chapter investigates the different kinds of records that were made in Mesopotamia and Egypt, who made them, and how they were stored, managed, arranged, and retrieved. The chapter also discusses later practices in classical Greece and the Hellenistic world, and it reviews the growth of formal systems for registering property titles and the development of state repositories that were more publicly accessible than those of earlier times. By the end of the Hellenistic era, archival repositories were to be found in cities across the eastern Mediterranean world.
