Who invented national literature? What is the relationship between script, identity, and history? Recorded history began in the ancient Near East, but we are just beginning to explore the powerful creative relationship between writing and the political identities of the Near East's cultures. This symposium was the first to bring leading philologists together with anthropologists and historians to connect theories of writing, language, and identity with the latest results of ancient Near Eastern scholarship.

Who invented national literature? What is the relationship between script, identity, and history? Recorded history began in the ancient Near East, but we are just beginning to explore the powerful creative relationship between writing and the political identities of the Near East's cultures. This symposium was the first to bring leading philologists together with anthropologists and historians to connect theories of writing, language, and identity with the latest results of ancient Near Eastern scholarship.