I chose Robert Peary’s expedition to the North Pole from 1908 to 1909 because it is both an important and controversial moment in exploration history. Peary claimed he was the first person to reach the North Pole, but people have questioned his claim for years. I thought it was interesting because it shows that exploration was not always clear or certain, and that even big achievements could be debated. It made me curious about how people at the time figured out where they were without the technology we have today.

For my Digital Tools 4 assignment, I chose to map the exploration of Henry Hudson. As a New York/New Jersey native, I have heard his name countless times, so I was honestly surprised when tracking his voyage to realize that he never actually sailed through New York on this expedition. Through this project, I also deepened my understanding of the challenges he faced, including the extreme conditions of Arctic exploration and the eventual mutiny by his own crew.

My historical map really highlighted how limited geographic knowledge was at the time. It was difficult to find a single map that included both England and northern Canada, even though voyages like Hudson’s constantly moved between these regions. While the map captured a general sense of location, it was clearly distorted—coastlines were warped, islands were mislabeled or misplaced, and some landmasses were confused entirely. Although this map was likely considered accurate for its time, it demonstrates how much uncertainty still existed in early modern cartography.

I chose Matthew Flinder’s circumnavigation of Australia for my voyage. I mostly chose this because I have gotten really into Formula One lately and my favorite driver is Australian (Daniel Ricciardo for anyone curious).

Cartography and the Real World

It’s no secret that the original cartographers and other mapmakers weree flying by the seat of their pants. More often than not, they were going off of what other explorers had mentioned, or if they did go along with the voyage, they could still be flat out wrong. Because of these discrepancies, it is fun to try to realize a voyage onto a map of the time, to show how close (or far) they were from our understandings today.

Translating Middle English Recipes

The recipe I transcribed dealt with treating certain illnesses. Specifically, it connects ailments to the astrological signs of Gemini and Cancer. The page had parts of medical advice but majority of it was based on the patient’s zodiac sign. This was very confusing to me on why they would be using astrology to give out healing advice. The two are completely disconnected. I also found myself confused of the ingredients listed in the recipe. I was unsure if they were the names of plants, substances, etc. that I wasn’t able to confidently identify them. These struggles I encountered showed me that when this was written the world was completely different.

Their was a few words like were easy to know what they were but for the most part some looked like if they were in a different language

Learning how to transcribe middle english can be very diffult because most of the words arent words we use now and days so it can be confusing when i tried because when i started doing them i felt like i was just completely off.

One question i feel like i have would be why their writing is so squished in together i feel like it would be so hard to read i mean for us its extremely difficult but for them that was their normal.

It was form of understanding how they write back then and can help us discover how to turn human understanding into structured form.

I feel like a could reveal a hidden layer of knowledge. Like to the naked eye when reading you might not even think twice about a sentence but then it could lead to more information you might have not caught the first time.

Transcription Reflection

In my transcription, the author describes various heating and cooling methods to balance the humors and help specific body parts. Prior to transcribing this piece, I had never given much thought to the healing practices of the middle ages. I was interested in the balance of how medieval and innovative some of these ideas were. For example, I had never considered the process of laxatives in this era and how the English believed that they worked.

While my transcription was not exactly a recipe, it was still an explanation retaining different medical beliefs at the time, specifically citing the different humors. This page describes different types of people and how they react to different weather and seasons. It talks about how melancholic people are the best in spring, and feel worse in autumn. It also discusses the four winds that we now know as cardinal directions, East, South, West, and North. Every wind is assigned a temperature and moisture quality, and all of these things were believed to impact human health at the time. The text also highlights different types of people, including choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic, and they are all associated with a respective humor. The environment was believed to control health as well as being dependent on balancing different body fluids as well.

The process of learning Middle English felt really difficult to me at first. I spent a lot of time first trying to understand the context of my assigned page to better fill in gaps and words I did not understand. I tried my best to pick out the words and letters that I already recognized at first glance and fill in from there. This proved to be somewhat successful, especially after I learned and better understood the different ways letters are written. Even though there were still some tricky words I had to ask for help while figuring out, and the grammar structure did not feel as natural, I still was able to understand what my page was talking about after it was fully translated.

The manuscript page that I transcribed talked a lot about zodiac signs Virgo and Libra. For the first question my post doesn’t actually contain a recipe but instead it talks about the best activities to do and not do when the moon is in certain zodiac signs. The section called “Virgo coold and drye” explains exactly how it is read that virgo is cold and dry. It talks about when the moon is in Virgo, it is a good time to get married, send letters, plant seeds and plow fields. Then it goes on to explain what should be avoided when the moon is in Virgo. It says you shouldn’t lend money, take baths, launch ships into water, go into battle, and put medicine into the body. The next section on the page is Libra hoot and moist,” says Libra is hot and moist. It also says it’s a good time to let go of all moving things, make a woman steadfast, and marry a woman. This page of my manuscript that I transcribed all seems like instructions or things to do during this time unlike a traditional receipt that gives you step by step instructions. This is really just telling you the best times to do certain things.

I honestly really enjoyed this process of learning to transcribe middle English. At first I was very intimidated and stared at it and didn’t know how to start but once I got the hang of the hard letters I got on a roll and had fun doing it. I had never had to do something like this in any of my classes so I found it really interesting. The handwriting was definitely difficult to get the hang of because the writing is so different from our writing today. They also use a ton of weird things like a capital letter in the middle of the sentence for no reason which would throw me off at times. This definitely took me some time to get through and looking over it multiple times to make sure I didn’t miss big things but it made me appreciate this writing and the attention it takes to read old manuscripts.

Transcription and Interpretation

The portion of the manuscript I transcribed consists of a table of chapters outlining different categories of medicinal preparations. These include digestives and laxatives organized according to the humoral system of medicine: choler, phlegm, and melancholy. The text lists both “symple” medicines and “compound” remedies, as well as chapters discussing dosage (“dosis”) and preparation methods. Rather than presenting a single recipe, the passage functions as a structural guide to a larger medical text, indicating how different remedies were categorized and used to treat bodily imbalances. This organization reflects a broader medieval medical framework in which health was understood through balancing the body’s humors. The manuscript I worked with can be viewed in the Dyngley Manuscript Digital Project, a student-centered effort to transcribe and digitally reconstruct the medieval medical manuscripts collected by the sixteenth-century English gentleman Henry Dyngley.

The xx. is of medicynes symple kelyng 
the stomake. and compound for the saam.
The xxi. is of medicynes symple hetyng
the lyver. and compound for the saam.
The xxii. is of medicynes symple kelynege 
the lyver. and compound for the saam. 
The xxiij. is of medicines symple hetyng 
the splene. and compound for the saam. 
The xxiiij. is of medicines symple kelyng 
the splene. and compound of the saam. 
The xxv. is of medicines symple hetynge
the reynes. and compound for the saam.
The xxvi. is of medycines symple keling
the reynes. and compound for the saam.  
The xxvii. is of medycines symple hetyng
the moder. & compound for þe same & to kele þe moder also.
The xxviij. is of medycines symple hetyng
the ioyntes. and compound for the saam.
The xxix. is of medicines symple kelynge
the ioyntes. and compound for the same
For sooth somme goode frendes whiche tro- 
wed me to have syght of konnynge praiden.

72R Transcription

Digital Transcription

69v

or to speke with fyghters, and forto touche þe feet 
of man with iren, for why that signe piscis
makith the feet of man & of womman in his
moder Wombe. And if eny man or womman
be wounded in the feet whan the mone is under-
neth that signe unnethe or evere he shal be cone-
red.

70v

This table tellith of digestives.
symple & compound of every humour. that
is to say of colere, fleume, and malencolie
The first chapiter of medicyns symple

Honestly, attempting to read these pages was quite overwhelming. The “recipes” I found are not even for food, they’re bizarre medieval medical recipes. Part of the text is curing both man and woman’s feet from wounds and what is needed to do this. The other page was a little hard to make out. It seems like the beginning of a new recipe for “digestive.” It is quite absurd to think that in the past, a “recipe” was basically a combination of science and astrology.

On page f069r of this 15th century manuscript of medical knowledge, there are various pieces of advice that were given based on the stage of the moon. In the second paragraph, I found that during the moon phase Piscis, it’s a great time to plant trees. During this time as well, you should buy land or houses. It’s also adviced to not make enemies during this time. I infered that the first paragraph was most likely talking about a different moon phase then, and how one should act during that time. In the first paragraph, we’re informed that it’s a good idea to travel, let blood and take medicine during this time. You can take a look for yourself below and anaylze the text, and don’t forget reading out loud is a lot easier for comprehension.

There were no recipes on my specific page. However, there were plenty of tips for what seasons are best or worst for certain diseases and their associated humors. The actual process of transcribing this page was quite complicated at first. There were many letters, symbols, and ways of spelling that made learning how to transcribe it difficult. Eventually I was able to start deciphering certain sentences and make out what was wrong and what was right. Slowly beginning to understand what the page was about also made it a lot easier to transcibe the full page.

My page contains not food recipes, but astrological medical guidance. The page includes the end of one zodiac entry, the full section for Capricorn, and the beginning of Aquarius. Each entry explains which medical activities were considered safe or risky depending on the moon’s position in the zodiac. The Capricorn section, for example, recommends planting seeds, setting young trees, tilling the land, and even taking a wife. At the same time, it warns against bloodletting or drinking herbal medicines and electuaries. To modern readers this might sound strange, but it actually made sense within medieval medical logic. People believed the moon controlled bodily fluids in the same way it controls ocean tides, so a cold and dry sign like Capricorn was thought to interfere with treatments that depended on the body’s fluids flowing freely.

Medieval Medicine: Horoscope for Dummies

Some things never change. The astrology girls on social media insisting that because you’re a Scorpio, you’re obviously mysterious and secretive, had to get it from somewhere. That somewhere, in fact, is medieval medicine, as discovered in my transcription and interpretation of a page in a folio of a medieval manuscript.

This is an inscryption from Salamis, an ancient city state located on the eastern coast of Cyprus. It was documented in 1973 by L’Année Épigraphique. I can tell it somehow addresses the Ceasar of it’s time, and also Germany. This clearly has some sort of declarative importance though, as describing Ceasar and the germans implies some sort of interaction between them, possibly warfare or diplomacy.

I’ve been looking at this inscription for a while, trying to figure out what it says, but I still don’t fully understand it. The lettering of this inscription is very clean and well-organized, making it easy to read for those who understand Latin. With the information given about this inscription, I know it was found in ancient Cemenelum, in the Roman province of Alpes Maritimae (modern find spot: Nice, Cimiez). I also found that this inscription is listed in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL: 05, 07904). This database does not give the exact date of this inscription, but since it was found in Cemenelum, it may have been carved in the Roman Imperial period. The database does not provide the name of the person who wrote the inscription either. Looking closely, the letters are so neatly carved, deep and evenly spaced, making me think someone very good at writing wrote this. From our lessons in class and from reading part of The Cambridge manual of Latin epigraphy by Cooley, these inscriptions were usually meant for the public and placed in public settings for others to read. This inscription probably has something meaningful on it that isn’t meant to be hidden or kept secret.

My chosen inscription was from Aquitania, or modern day France. The ancient find spot resides in Limonum Pictonum, but today the area is known as Poitiers, Mus. Sainte-Croix. The date is from 403-404 AC, and the letters state “DM ET M LIC SENODONNAE LIC PATERNVS MO SIBI ET SVIS VIVM PARVIT.” This translates to “To the Divine Spirits (of the dead) and to the memory of Licinia Senodonna; Licinius Paternus prepared this monument for himself and his family while still living.” The document is a burial acknowledgement for a family tomb, likely for a prominent family.

Stone, Space, and the Epigraphic Habit in Roman North Africa

Roman inscriptions were not just texts; they were public technologies. Cut into stone and placed in shared spaces, inscriptions shaped how memory, authority, and identity were communicated across the empire. The “epigraphic habit,” as Ramsay MacMullen describes it, was a cultural pattern in which ordinary social and political life increasingly became something written down, displayed, and preserved in durable form. In this post, I look at inscriptions from Roman North Africa (modern Algeria) to consider what mapping and high-resolution imaging can reveal about where inscriptions survive, how they worked as communication, and what digital tools add to historical interpretation.

Historical Inscriptions in Roman Sardania

The inscription I chose comes from Turris Libisonis, a Roman town in Sardinia, modern day Porto Torres. The inscription features the names CN CORNELIVS and CLADIVS, which translates to Cn(aeus) Cornelius and Cladus I(sidi) v(otum) s(olvit), meaning Cornelius dedicated a statue to the Egyptian goddess Isis. At first I was surprised to find Egyptian religious influence in Sardinia, but when I researched further I found just how influential the goddess Isis was across the Rome. In Sardinia she was worshipped as a goddess of navigation and fertitlity, similar to more common Roman deities like Venus and Aphrodite. The letters on the inscription were relatively easy to make out since they are large, deeply carved, and all capitalized.

The inscription I chose is an honorific inscription originally found In Cnossus Greece, which is now modern day Heraklion in Crete. This inscription is written in Latin by an unknown author. The inscription itself is in relatively good shape, except it looks like the top half of the monument could be missing. The translation of the inscription refers to a male by the name of Q. Refrio Thegenis f. Col. Theageni or Quintus Refrius Theagens. The inscription goes on to say that he is the son of Collina Theageni, whether this is an order, tribe, or person is not completely clear. It also mentions he is a member of local office of the decurial order. This is labeled as a honorific and not a epitaph or tombstone.

Arabia Inscriptions Leaflet Map

MacMullen argues that the rise and fall of the epigraphic habit reflects broader shifts in Roman culture. Digital tools make it easier to examine the details more closely. High-res photos allow scholars to revisit stones that earlier researchers could only partially transcribe, and digital mapping makes regional variation more obvious than it would be when working with printed catalogs.

Ancient Roman Inscriptions: What Can they Tell Us?

Ancient Romans loved to write stuff down. They etched into stone countless decrees, transactions, laws, and more, because that was the tradition of the time. But, what can they really tell us about the ways of life, the things that were held important, or were they just a tool of the elite to keep everyone in line?

http://edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/foto/F002818 (© G. Alföldy. Last Updates: 2021-07-30, Gräf) I do understand the letters but I’m not able to read or deceive what it says.

Writing and Programming Languages

The debate between Goody and Watt and Van De Mieroop is basically about whether your writing system determines what kind of thinking you can do. Goody and Watt say the Greek alphabet enabled philosophy because it made texts permanent and specific. Once Homer was written down, people could compare different versions and spot contradictions, which created the critical distance needed for philosophical thinking. In oral cultures, stories just adapt to fit current social needs, like genealogies that change when families die out. But alphabetic writing locks things in place so “succeeding generations were faced with old distinctions in sharply aggravated form” (Goody 321-322). Van De Mieroop pushes back by showing that Babylonians had sophisticated philosophy too, just different. Cuneiform signs have multiple meanings, and this wasn’t a limitation but actually enabled complex interpretive thinking. In the Enūma eliš, Marduk’s names break down into layered meanings that reveal cosmic truths. “Reality had to be read and interpreted as if it were a text” (Van De Mieroop 10). So where Greeks developed formal logic with fixed definitions, Babylonians developed relational philosophy based on reading multiple meanings.

In this post, I explore how early forms of writing and record-keeping shaped the way societies organized knowledge, and how those ideas connect to modern computer languages and digital communication. I never realized writing was considered a form of technology because, throughout my life, technology has always felt separate from writing—especially anything physical or on paper. Seeing early writing systems like cuneiform framed as tools and innovations, rather than just ordinary parts of daily life, completely shifted my perspective. Writing functioned as a way to store and transmit information, much like how we now use computers, texting, and the internet to communicate and organize knowledge. Thinking about writing this way makes it feel less distant from modern digital tools and more like an early version of them.

Communication: A Limitation or a Liberation?

As language shifts from cuneiform to alphabetic writing, this change suggests that the physical structure of language directly shapes how its speakers communicate. As the boundaries of communication expand, humans are able to convey increasingly complex ideas and thoughts. The shift from Mesopotamian cuneiform to the Grecian alphabet represents a more logical system capable of defining abstract concepts.

Historian’s Views on Language

Historians like Jack Goody and Marc De Van Meiroop argue that the way people write can shape how they think. When comparing ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform to the later Greek alphabet, the historians show us that there is more to writing systems than just keeping records. For example scribes figured out how to organize these writings and people are allowed to look back at these writings over time, which develops logic and philosophy.

The Architecture of Thought: From Cuneiform to Code

The shift from the complex writing styles of Mesopotamia to that of the Greeks was more than just a more simple means of communication. It was a shift that altered the very ways of thinking. Marc Van De Mieroop talks about the ways in which they expressed themselves through a writing style such as cuneiform. This writing style made them more inclined to think in terms of specific examples rather than broad ideas. Goody and Watt explain that the simplicity of the Greek alphabet made it possible to move beyond memorizing lists to think about formal logic and philosophy. This shows that the very structure of a language is a foundation on which the mind operates.

This argument is really interesting when you think about computer languages today. If the Greek alphabet helped everyone learn to read and think analytically, then computer languages kind of do the exact opposite by creating a new class of people that are the only ones who know how to use them. When you use a programming language, you are working with a logic that is super rigid. While the Greeks could discuss philosophy and other things, a computer language only works if the code is 100% correct. This means that while ancient languages were about observing the world or discussing philosophy, computer languages are all about procedural commands. The language is used not just to talk about something, but to actually get it done automatically.

Ultimately, looking at all of these historical shifts proves that the tools which we use for communication greatly impact how we perceive the world. Goody and Watt note that it was the drive towards consistency that allowed us for the creation of a sense of history. Currently, our language consists of code and algorithms. This likely means that our minds are being trained to think that efficiency is more important than anything else. Just as the Greeks moved away from the Babylonian method of making a list to search for “universal truths,” it is possible that our current state of digital communication is leading us down a road where the only thing that is important is something that can be calculated by a computer.

Here is a picture of a Cuneiform Tablet:

Sources used

Goody, Jack, and Ian Watt. “The Consequences of Literacy.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 5, no. 3 (1963): 304–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/177651?sid=primo

Van De Mieroop, Marc. Philosophy before the Greeks: The Pursuit of Truth in Ancient Babylonia. Princeton University Press, 2015. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1h4mhtb

Writing and technology

Goody argues that writing fundamentally alters cognitive processes by enabling abstraction, classification, and critical reflection. Lists, tables, and written records allow knowledge to be decontextualized and reorganized in ways that oral cultures cannot sustain as easily (Goody 75). Writing makes it possible to compare, revise, and systematize ideas across time and space. In this sense, literacy is not merely a neutral recording device but a “technology of the intellect” that restructures reasoning itself (Goody 19).

The capabilities of language structure

Greece’s greek and Mesopotamia’s cuneiform each had different fundamental capabilities, which caused major differences in what each society could do with literature. Mieroop first identifies that cuneiform is merged with various other languages, and concluded that “Thus there existed a large variety of potential readings and interpretations of every word and cuneiform sign.” (Mieroop 7). Cuneiform being such an amalgamation of languages, and lacking a fundamental alphabet, caused it to be difficult for a precise idea to be captured in writing. Not only that, but the history could be easily bent to fit whatever was needed in the present. The language of Greece however, eventually landed on a consistent alphabet, which was not as reserved to priestly and upper roles. Goody explains that with a consistent alphabet that was more publicly accessible, the past couldn’t be as easily bent to fit what the present needed to be. This started in Greece thoughts of questioning tradition, which began a harder drive for historical documentation and critical thinking past myths and into philosophical thought. The structure of a language therefore affects how accurate and interpretable a language is. A society that has an extremely interpretable language is much less precise in its history, making it easier to manipulate. This idea applied to computer languages, means that computer languages are incredibly accurate. This is because computer languages cannot involve interpretation. A computer language then sacrifices all interpretation for accuracy.

Here’s a link to “The Consequences of Literacy” by Goody, Jack

Here’s a link to “Philosophy before the Greeks : The Pursuit of Truth in Ancient Babylonia by Van De Mieroop, Marc

How Writing Systems Enable Us

The claim that alphabetic writing helped enable Greek philosophical thought suggests that different kinds of writing can be easier to teach, understand, and communicate than others. Goody and Watt argue that this alphabetic writing allows for easier analysis because it breaks language into small, repeatable units that can be reordered and compared. That flexibility makes it easier to build step-by-step arguments, formal definitions, and systematic categories, which are central to philosophy (Goody and Watt). When compared to a blockier and less easily structured format like cuneiform, an alphabet is much better for making and refining claims, making it a more efficient and effective tool for philosophical thought. This also paints knowledge as something concrete, to be debated and argued with. Van de Mieroop’s description of the Mesopotamian writing system portrayed a system where texts could be edited and revised, demonstrating that their knowledge was considered adaptable (Van de Mieroop). This presents two opposing perspectives on authorship; one consisting of stable line-by-line structures, and the other of fluid texts that were cumulative of multiple contributors.

Epigraphs and their effect on the Fall of Rome

My chosen inscription is a small part of a bigger stone epigraph. The top ¾ quarters of the a panel is having a warrior with a spear and a shield and on the bottom it has rectangle with very organized letters. It seems rather important since it is such a big statue. This epigraph was founded around Sea of Marmara where they primarily spoke Greek. Even though I do not understand Greek I am assuming what was written below was very important.

Writing Systems, Knowledge Structures, and Digital Technologies

Middle Babylonian kudurru (boundary stone), c. 1400 to 1100 BCE. Source: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.

Introduction

Writing systems are not neutral tools for recording language; they actively shape how knowledge is organized, preserved, and interpreted. From Babylonian cuneiform tablets impressed into clay to the alphabetic writing of ancient Greece and contemporary digital tools like Markdown, each communication technology structures the possibilities for scholarship. As Jack Goody and Marc Van De Mieroop argue, the form of writing itself influences the nature of knowledge; a relationship that remains highly relevant in the age of digital communication.

Mesopotamian

Marc Van De Mieroop discusses how Mesopotamian civilization developed in different ways. Cuneiform started as a system for keeping records and managing society. The nature of cuneiform is that every sign has multiple meanings and can be interpreted in different ways, depending a lot on context. This makes cuneiform super useful for laws and trade while but less helpful for abstract thinking. Mesopotamian writing was more focused on managing resources.

Development of Digital Media

As humans have evolved over time the more langauge is devolped and the smarter humans have become. Even nurses and doctors from 20 years ago say that school is harder now then it was back in their day. With evolution comes discoveries, everyday humans are discoverying something new and that makes the world such a cool place. What makes language possible is discoveries, with everything new thing found there has to be a new way to describe it. Innovation and techonology make language the way it was today and in the future new words will come around from innvations made today.

From the two readings, it seems that the language used in ancient Mesopotamia, specifically Babylon and Assur, was used much more for administrative and record-keeping purposes, as evidenced by the various myths and epic poems that have survived in addition to the records of business and laws that have survived. However, this doesn’t mean that the Greeks did anything better, it was merely different.

Welcome to HIST 302693, Technologies of History from Cuneiform to Coding. This course, taught at TCU in the Spring of 2026, introduces students to the history of communications technologies from the ancient world to the present day, all while engaging with the cutting-edge digital technologies that have made it possible for historians to communicate their research in new ways. Here is where you’ll find student work produced throughout the semester.