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Mesopotamia

The Land of the Four River Banks

II. Operations
4. The format

The record

Giorgio Buccellati – December 2020



Preface
Overview
Authorship
Conclusion
I. THE ARGUMENT

The core
Notes
Themes
Monographs
Hist. of discipline
II. THE RECORD

Bibliography
Excerpts
Reviews
Sources
Resources
III. UTILITIES

Linear indices
Multi-nodal index
Topical index
Data handling
Archives
Utilities

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A reference tool

Each website serves as an annotated bibliographical tool in the traditional sense, and as such it functions as a database.

The material is organized in three different directions:

  1. Bibliography with short abstracts
  2. Reviews and longer abstracts
  3. Excerpts

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1. An annotated bibliography

This is a regular bibliographical list, sorted alphabetically by the name of the author. A brief abstract summarizes the contents of the item in question, occasionally with some critical notes, generally enclosed in square brackets. The intent is to provide not only a more critical evaluation of the work, but especially to integrate it more fully within the conceptual framework of the website.

Each entry is accompanied by cross-references by means of a link to the notes in the core section, and, where applicable, to other sections in the website, both within THE ARGUMENT and within THE RECORD.

Each entry is signed and dated. Where occasionally this information is missing, the entry is due to the editors.

For an example, see an entry in the Mesopotamian religion website. It should be noted that, when hovering over the title, the symbol appears: by right-clicking on it, one can memorize the link to this particular entry.

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2. Reviews

Reviews contains longer analysis

  • either of a given bibliographical item (see for example an entry about a book by Mark Smith in the *Religion* website or one about a book by Lucas in the Critique website)
  • or of a given author (see for example an entry about Panofski in the Critique website).

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3. Excerpts

Entries in this section give extensive quotes from any given bibliographical item, arranged thematically in function of the core narrative of each version of the website. They are ordered with brief summary statements for each entry, which makes for an organic presentation of the selected texts. – For an example, see the citations from Bloch or Beaudrillard in the Critique website.

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Sources

Some websites have extensive quotes from ancient texts, see for example the relative entry in the Religion website.

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Resources

Additional material, such as maps or tables, is included in the section on resources, see for example the relative entry in the Politics website.

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