Abstract
The motif of a stele or book in which a legendary or pre-historian figure inscribes some form of human knowledge to preserve the world’s ancient wisdom and to withstand future world destructions by water or fire is a common topos both in Asia and in Europe. The recurrence of this topos in a variety of cultural contexts calls us to consider: why is the topos of losing and finding texts/ knowledge so wide-spread? This topos also invites a consideration of its purpose: it is a tool of legitimation? A way to reconfigure (foreign?) ideas? A quest for authority? This paper will look at some examples of lost and found knowledge, try to analyse their persistence and remark on some of their lingering effects.
Publications
(i) Yoeli-Tlalim, Ronit, 2018. “Exploring Persian Lore in the Hebrew Book of Asaf.” Aleph, 18(1), pp. 123-146. ISSN 1565-1525 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/aleph.18.1.0123)
(ii) Yoeli-Tlalim, Ronit, 2021. “Exploring Eurasian transmissions of medical knowledge: cues from the Hebrew Book of Asaf,” in: Lennart Lehmhaus, ed. Defining Jewish Medicine: Transfer of Medical Knowledge in Jewish Cultures and Traditions. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 295-311. (https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/22094)
