CLAS 100: Opening Classics (Knott/Seider): Historical Studies

SEARCHING FOR BOOKS:

CrossSearch is the Libraries' multi-search "discovery" tool. CrossSearch searches a cross-section of journal articles, newspapers, CDs, images, and many other types of resources available through the libraries. It is also our main library catalog -- the tool you use to find books, journals, films, and other items physically located in the library, as well electronic versions of those items. 

To leave out individual articles and focus on things like books and films, you can use the Catalog Only limit in CrossSearch. 

Watch our video tutorial 📺 to learn more about CrossSearch. If you're not a CrossSearch fan, you can also use the Library Catalog to find books. 

Try searching for books using a very basic keyword search. Books tend to be on broad topics, so the terms you search with should be broad, too! Once you've found a few books that look interesting to you, you can use clues from the books to help you find other books. For example.... 

• Call Numbers. Books on similar subjects are in similar areas of the library. For example, if you search for books about Herodotus, you would see pretty quickly that many books have call numbers starting with either D58, or PA4002 (or nearby). This means you can easily go to those sections of the library and look through the books in person! 
  
  
• Vocabulary. Check the records in the library catalog for vocabulary in the tables of contents, titles, descriptions or other information that you might use for future searches. 
   
• Subjects. Every book in our catalog is marked with at least 1 "tag" that tells you what the book is mostly about, and links together other books on that same topic. You can click on the tags to find a list of all other books using that tag.
  

FINDING YOUR WAY IN THE LIBRARY: 

At Holy Cross, we organize our books using a system called Library of Congress Classification or LCC. LCC is based on the subject of the books. Each letter represents a specific subject. Each subject is broken down into more specific letter sections, each of which is further broken down into number ranges for specific topics. Most call numbers have additional  numbers and letters on the end of them, which are used to give each book a unique spot on the library shelves. 

Generally: 

• Reference Books are in the Main Reading Room. These books must stay in the library.
• Books whose numbers begin with letters A through G are on the Mezzanine level (1 floor down from the Main Reading Room).
• Books whose numbers begin with N or TR are in the Visual Arts Wing on the main level. 
• Books whose numbers begin with letters H through Z are mostly on the Ground (bottom) level.
• Books whose numbers begin with M are in the Music Library in Brooks Hall.
• Books whose numbers begin with Q, R, S or T are in the Science Library in Swords Hall.

The Stacks Guide handout attached below has more information about how the stacks are organized, and the best places for you to look. 

You can also watch our video tutorial  to learn more about how call numbers work. Or, check out the Library of Congress Classification Outline for a detailed breakdown of our call number system. 

Here are some of the general sections you might visit for the Historical Studies module:

D, for history
P, for literature
 

FINDING ARTICLES IN RESEARCH DATABASES

Research Databases are tools designed to help you search the scholarly (and other) articles and resources available to you through the Holy Cross Libraries.  Article databases are like very long bibliographies of articles that might interest you -- some that are available physically at Holy Cross, some available online, and some that we have to borrow from other libraries. 

We have access to over 300 databases!

Here are the ones you might find most helpful for the Historical Studies module: 

FOLLOWING REFERENCES

Good researchers don't read books or articles in a vacuum! They use the sources or information they have already found, as clues to where they should look next. References (that is, citations -- in the text, in footnotes, and/or in a bibliography) are a source for research leads. 

As you read an article or a chapter, you will usually see that the author has worked citations into their writing. This may be in the form of an in-text citation (the same kind you will use for this course!)...

(Frahm 2017, 194)
A tablet from Assurbanipal’s library, SBTU 2, no. 46, was found in a library in Uruk whose owner was active during the time of Alexander the Great, and there are hints that scholars in Uruk used text editions strongly influenced by Assyrian traditions (Beaulieu 2010).

...a footnote, where numbers in the text correspond to citations below...

(Frahm 2004, 47) 
Other commentaries seem to have been imported from Babylonia, as can be inferred from the so-called "Library records", which mention satu and mukallimtu commentaries from cities in the south.¹⁹ Commentaries written in Babylonian script were actually found on Kuyunjik,²⁰ and some of them may be identical with those mentioned in the "Library records". 
¹⁹ S. Parpola, "Assyrian Library Records," JNES 42 (1983), 1-29; a new edition is provided in SAA 7, Nos. 49-56.

...or an endnote, where numbers in the text correspond to citations at the very end of the article, chapter or book.

Regardless of the format, these citations are your roadmap to finding out which sources the experts have read on this topic -- and therefore, which sources you may also want to read!

First, find the full citation. 

• In-text citations usually consist of the author's last name, a publication date, and page numbers. To identify the source, go to the bibliography or references list at the end of the article or chapter, and find the citation that matches the author and date. For example, this is what Beaulieu 2010 looks like in the bibliography: 
  
  Beaulieu, P.A. 2010. “The Afterlife of Assyrian Scholarship in Hellenistic Babylonia,” in: J. Stackert et al. (eds.), Gazing on the Deep: Near Eastern and Other Studies in Honor of Tzvi Abusch  Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1– 18.
   
• Footnotes and endnote citations may consist of only a name, a year, and a page number, or might contain a full citation. If only the author's name, date and page are listed, look above and at the previous pages -- there is usually an earlier note with the full citation information. 

Second, identify -- what kind of source is it? 

1. Which part is in italics? 
   • If the citation has one main title which is in italics,  it is most likely a book (it could also be a website or report, but you won't see these often in your sources!) 
     Seider, Aaron M. 2013. Memory in Vergil's Aeneid: Creating the Past. Cambridge University Press.
      
   • If the citation has a title "in quotation marks" towards the beginning, and another title in italics towards the end, the source is likely either a journal article or a book chapter. 
     Knott, Elizabeth. 2021. "Mari's Investiture Scene and the Visualization of Kingship in the Old Babylonian Period." In As Above, So Below: Religion and Geography, edited by Gina Konstantopoulos and Shana Zaia. Penn State University Press.  
      
2. Is there a publisher (like "University of Chicago Press") or publication city anywhere in the citation? 
   • If yes, then the citation is most likely either to a book, or a part of a book (a chapter). 
     Knott, Elizabeth. 2021. "Mari's Investiture Scene and the Visualization of Kingship in the Old Babylonian Period." In As Above, So Below: Religion and Geography, edited by Gina Konstantopoulos and Shana Zaia. Penn State University Press.  
      
   • If there is no publisher, but instead you see a volume and/or issue listed (this could be vol. 1, no. 2; 1, no. 2; or 1 (2), among other formats) it is most likely a journal article. 
     Candelora, Daniella. 2018. "Entangled in Orientalism: How the Hyksos Became a Race." Journal of Egyptian History 11(1-2): 45-72.  Historical Abstracts. 

​​Finally, locate the source. 

• If the source is a book, follow the instructions on the Finding Books tab, but instead of keywords, search for the title of the book. Putting the title "in quotation marks" will help make your search more accurate! If the book title has multiple parts, you can just use the first part. 
  For example, to find Prof. Seider's book cited above, we would search for, "Memory in Vergil's Aeneid" 
   
• If the source is a book chapter, follow the instructions on the Finding Books tab, but instead of keywords, search for the title of the book (not the chapter!). Putting the title "in quotation marks" will help make your search more accurate! If the book title has multiple parts, you can just use the first part. 
  Once you find the book, use the table of contents to find the specific chapter. 
  For example, to find Prof. Knott's book chapter cited above, we would search for, "As Above, So Below" 
   
• If the source is a journal article, you have a few different options: 
  • Search CrossSearch or Google Scholar for the title of the article "in quotation marks."
    For example, "Entangled in Orientalism: How the Hyksos Became a Race"
     
  • Use the Find a Journal tab on CrossSearch and search for the title of the journal. 
    For example, "Journal of Egyptian History"
    Then, find the year, volume, issue and page number that match the citation. 
    
     Instructions for using the E-Journals search to find articles

DECIPHERING ABBREVIATIONS

Secondary sources like classical encyclopedias and dictionaries, as well as commentaries and other books, sometimes provide helpful references to ancient texts that you may want to follow. These could appear in the bibliography, OR they could be presented as part of the text (or both). For example, here is the Oxford Classical Dictionary entry for Cadmus (highlighting added to show references): 

You will need to decipher these abbreviations before you can determine which ancient text the encyclopedia is referencing. Fortunately, most reference books of this kind provide information about how they use abbreviations somewhere at the front of the book (note that if you are using a multi-volume series, this information may be at the front of each volume or may be limited to the first volume). 

If the list is standard enough, you may be able to find it in other sources. For example, Oxford makes their abbreviation list available online:

The book you are using might also spell out abbreviations, if not in a preface, than in a section under References or Further Reading (pay attention to whether they mention this!). 

If you cannot find the meaning of the abbreviation, don't be afraid to ask your professor, or Google it! When you search, add in a keyword that will help specify what topic you're working on. For example, the Companion to Assyria references the abbreviation RIMA; if you google RIMA, you will get a lot of false positives, including the Rhode Island Manufacturer's Association (not helpful!). But if you Google RIMA Assyria , the first result will tell you that RIMA, in this context, stands for the series Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Assyrian Periods. 

Other Terms

Some texts use additional terminology in Latin or Greek that may not be defined in the abbreviation list. You can look these up in a Latin or Greek dictionary, in the Perseus Digital Library, or sometimes even in a reputable English dictionary like the Oxford English Dictionary. 

For example, the bibliography for the Oxford Classical Dictionary's article on Cadmus uses the term passim with several citations. 

Passim is Latin for "scattered," and is used to indicate that the article has used information from many different parts of the source being cited (instead of identifying specific pages or sections). This is not, of course, a technique that you want to use on your own assignments!

COMMENTARIES

What is a Commentary?

Commentaries are designed to help both students and scholars of the classics work more effectively with ancient texts.  

Commentaries can take many different forms. Some commentaries are written as footnotes, under or around an edition of an ancient work. Others can be found at the back of the book containing an ancient text, or in a completely separate volume. You can find commentaries which walk you through an ancient text line-by-line, and others which take more of a narrative approach to describing important themes, characters or other ideas in a text. There are even ancient forms of commentaries found in manuscripts, known as scholia. 

Commentaries may also be very different in their focus. A commentary designed for students might provide translations or explanations for important vocabulary. Commentaries might also address topics related to the text such as word choice, grammar, literary devices, or meter; historical details; themes and ideas; manuscript sources for the text; and/or questions and problems that previous scholars have had about a certain part of the work. The ultimate goal of any commentary, though, is to help the reader to better understand and to engage more fully with, the ancient text. 

Why Use a Commentary?

If you are taking a Latin or Greek course (or a religious one!), often your required textbooks will include some kind of commentary. But beyond assigned readings, it is often valuable to consult one (or more!) commentaries for a text that you are trying to read closely. A commentary will help you better understand what you are reading and ask questions about it. It will highlight important parts of the text which you should particularly pay attention to or ask questions about.  Commentaries are particularly useful if you are trying to compare different versions of the same text (or different versions of the same story told in multiple texts), or if you are doing a word study where you are looking at the use of specific words in the original language. They can also be very helpful inspiration for reflection or research paper topics, or for other long-term projects! 

How Do I Find Commentaries? 

Most of the time, commentaries will be found with the texts they comment on. So, if you are looking for commentaries on the Odyssey, you should start by looking where the books on Homer are found. Check multiple editions of the text in question to see if they contain commentaries, or look for separate commentary volumes in the same areas. There are also some useful collections of commentaries on the web.