Week 6 Seminar: Colophon reading

Close-reading a chain of translated colophons on one scroll, link by link, before the mid-semester break.

29 March 2027

Before the seminar#

Read the translated colophon chain for your assigned scroll (course drive). Note, for each colophon, who wrote it, when, and what they claim.

In the seminar#

Working in small groups, build a shared timeline of your scroll’s provenance from the colophon chain alone, treating each colophon as a claim to be weighed rather than a fact to be logged. Identify the weakest link — the claim resting on the least independent support — and be ready to defend which one that is.

Afterwards#

This is the last seminar before the break. Nothing is due, but the market lecture in week 7 assumes you can already read a provenance chain this critically; a colophon chain you took at face value here will show in week 8’s case study.