The Introduction establishes the aims and bounds of the study, which examines attitudes towards, and uses of, the written word in Kent, Mercia and Wessex from the 830s to the 920s. The Introduction provides an overview of scholarship that has informed the study, as well as the new perspectives that it seeks to provide. The structure of the study is also explained.

The conclusion brings together the findings of the previous chapters. It reiterates the importance of the mid-ninth century, since the written word was used more extensively than in prior decades to uphold and confirm social, political and economic transactions. This provides an important context for understanding the extraordinary literary endeavours of Alfred’s later reign: in the generation before Alfred, both lay and ecclesiastic people were already experimenting with – and thinking about – the social values of literary culture. It must be stressed, however, that developments were not uniform across Kent, Mercia and Wessex. Literary culture was not limited to a single agency or context, and competing visions and practices existed throughout the ninth and early tenth centuries. One of the most striking aspects to this is that, in some contexts, resources and Latin literacy levels appear to have been limited, yet documentary production continued. If anything, such limited resources intensified the value of the written word as a commodity. The Conclusion also considers what follows in the mid- and late tenth century. Several strands of continuity are identified, though social and institutional changes need to be borne in mind.

Chapter 3 is concerned with the ‘non-royal’ (or ‘private’) charter corpus – that is, documents that were issued by individuals other than kings – from Kent, Mercia and Wessex between the 830s and 880s. The chapter provides an overview of this material’s content and its production contexts and processes. Canterbury dominates, since this is where a large majority of the surviving documents comes from, though there are glimpses of other settings too. A significant portion of the material from Canterbury relates to two particular ealdormannic families, though other documents demonstrate that lay and ecclesiastic people of lesser social standing also participated in documentary activity. The picture that emerges is diverse; varying practices and contexts, and different motivations for codification, reflect the richness of contemporary documentary culture. The following important themes are considered too: female participation, the relationship between royal and non-royal documentation, and the varied uses of Latin and Old English.

This chapter considers a range of Latin documentation and poetry composed in the late ninth and early tenth centuries, with a particular focus on the social settings in which the material was produced, consumed and performed. The chapter opens with an overview of the contemporary charter corpus, which is a rich mix of Latin and Old English documents drawn up in the names of royal, non-royal, ecclesiastic and lay individuals. This survey provides several points of comparison with the material examined in Chapters 2 and 3, and it allows us to consider the possible impact of Alfredian education reform. Consideration is given to the linguistic dynamics of the corpus and to examples that employ Latin specifically to enhance the performative potential of the document. Two sets of Latin poetry are then introduced – acrostic verses in praise of King Alfred and the ‘Metrical Calendar of Hampson’ – both of which were most probably composed within, and for, the milieu of the West Saxon court. The authorship, transmission and possible sources of inspiration for this poetry are considered. It is then argued, through a comparative discussion, that the performances of this Latin documentary and poetic material were critical to their value.

Chapter 4 opens Part II of the study with an overview of literary activity during the late ninth and early tenth centuries, and the political backdrop of the emergent kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. A summary of the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons itself is provided, followed by discussion of three categories of evidence: epistolary correspondences, the corpus of Alfredian Old English literature, and Asser’s Life of King Alfred. Throughout, several points of continuity with earlier decades of literary activity are stressed, particularly the continued importance of letter-writing and international communication. It is also emphasised that contemporary investment in vernacular literary production was extraordinary, yet Latin remained a valued commodity as well. Just as there would have been competing political visions within the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, so too there would have been preferences for literary patronage of Latin or Old English. The decision specifically to compose the Life of King Alfred in Latin is assessed, particularly in light of Asser’s intended audiences. The overview provided by this chapter sets the scene for the case studies explored in the subsequent two chapters.

The cultural discontinuities following the collapse of the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean kingdoms include the abandonment of major centers and smaller settlements accompanied by loss of social structures, literacy, quarried stone architecture, and figured representations. Archaeological evidence from four centuries later, in the eighth century BCE, shows that there were also important continuities, e.g., the Greek language, names of divinities, a warrior ethos, and communal feasting. Greek commerce both eastwards and westwards increased, and Greeks began to settle in the West Mediterranean and North Africa. This volume examines the Greek Iron Age, ca. 1200–700 BCE, between the Mycenaean collapse and the beginning of the Archaic period. The relative chronology of this period, based on carefully constructed sequences of pottery styles, provides a stable framework. However, recent radiocarbon dates have suggested that the absolute dating of the pottery styles should be revised upwards.

The chapter is concerned with non-archaeological evidence pertaining to the Early Iron Age in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. Since this was the only period in Greek history that completely lacked literacy, we are left with oral tradition as the only means of transmitting information between ca. 1200 and ca. 750 BCE. However, numerous anachronisms found in the Homeric poems show that not everything Homer says about the past should be taken at face value. Much more reliable is the evidence of the dialects, another kind of nonarchaeological evidence that throws light on this period. The regional distribution of the historical Greek dialects fits in well with the destruction levels and depopulation attested at many Mycenaean sites, in that both suggest a sharp break in cultural continuity at the end of the Bronze Age. Nothing of this can be found in Homer. Instead, the epics convey an impressive demonstration of cultural continuity and of religious, social, and military uniformity in polities sharing a common identity. It was this picture of an imagined past that became canonical, and the memory of the collapse of Mycenaean Greece and of the period that immediately followed it was effectively wiped out.

This chapter explores Nuer experiences of encountering the urban frontier and the Ethiopian state in the borderlands. It does so by tracing the history and evolution of Gambella town and Newland, the Nuer dominated peri-urban settlement at its eastern edges. Newland has long been a place that attracted people seeking modern education and links with new actors and institutions. Over the past two decades, this peri-urban settlement expanded significantly and emerged as an important node in global Nuer networks. The chapter highlights the salience of fears of manipulation, trickery, and embarrassment in people’s engagements with the urban frontier, and central role such sentiments played in motivating people’s quest for education, knowledge, and global connectivity in the urban environment. The attitudes concerning learning and modern education that this chapter explores are essential for understanding the religious dynamics described in the rest of the book.

A novel approach of this book is its reliance on experimental evidence primarily drawn from well-controlled comparisons between completely illiterate and literate individuals, highlighting the mind-enhancing powers of reading. To properly interpret this evidence, it is necessary to clarify the evolving definitions of literacy and often inconsistent terminology used to describe individuals with varying literacy levels.

New media create new realities, and, more than we often realize or acknowledge, new ways of thinking: new minds. Reading and the written medium transform not only societies but also individual minds.

The medium is not merely a channel for transmitting information or a passive carrier of content. While we tend to focus on the content, it is the medium that brings about the deeper, transformative effects. Extending McLuhan’s insight, one compelling conclusion emerges: The mind is the medium. The science of the benefits of the written medium for individual minds elucidates the myriad ways in which reading reshapes and enhances human cognition.

The study of memory resilience and cognitive aging remains in its early stages. Nevertheless, growing evidence suggests that a lifetime of literacy engagement and continued reading in older age confer significant cognitive benefits. High literacy levels are associated with increased cognitive reserve; which may offer a buffer against age-related memory decline. Once forgetfulness begins to interfere with daily functioning, this additional reserve may help avid readers maintain cognitive performance. In people at elevated risk for age-related memory disorders, such reserve may even delay or mitigate the onset of full-blown dementia.

The destructive competition hypothesis views the brain as a system with finite processing resources, where new cognitive functions compete with evolutionary older ones for cortical space. In contrast, our combined neuroimaging and behavioral evidence points to a different conclusion: The human brain has the remarkable capacity to accommodate new cultural skills, such as reading, while simultaneously enhancing related preexisting abilities, such as face recognition. Rather than impairing older functions, reading acquisition appears to support and refine them.

Reading is not just a cognitive skill; it is neural training. It fine-tunes attentional focus, oculomotor coordination, and the coupling of deep-brain circuits with visual cortex regions. Moreover, the direction and complexity of writing systems shape spatial cognition and aesthetic preferences. This makes literacy a powerful cultural force that rewires ancient neural networks to enhance how we see, search, and attend to the world.

Reading leads to the development of an extensive and sophisticated vocabulary, which increases the size, complexity, and interconnectivity of information stored in long-term memory. Frequent reading helps maintain this stored information and supports efficient retrieval. In addition, reading enhances short-term memory skills, particularly the ability to actively manipulate temporary information in working memory.

We need to consider that influences of reading on cognition are not restricted only to knowledge effects obtained from the content of what is read. Reading enhances cognitive skills that are highly relevant and useful for doing well in intelligence tests. There is robust evidence that reading massively trains and consequently improves many different perceptual and cognitive abilities: The science of how reading enhances the human mind reveals the many perks of being a bookworm.

Learning to read any script requires paying close attention to the orientation of the character because it is a crucial part of what defines it. Learners of any script therefore get extensive practice of some of the skills that underlie mirror image discrimination. Proficient and automatic mirror discrimination abilities, however, only develop when the reader learns to read a script with mirror characters such as English. Thus, learning to read in general, and learning to read a script with mirror letters specifically, enhances visual discrimination skills.

Learning to read an alphabetic writing system enables individuals to segment spoken language into fine-grained speech sound units. This increased awareness of the phonological structure of spoken language enhances literate people’s ability to analyze and reflect on speech. Reading may also improve spoken word recognition; however, current research suggests that such benefits depend on the specific writing system and the degree of transparency with which language maps speech sounds onto graphemes.

Reading and writing impose the logic of language more directly on thinking than speech does, as they foster deeper awareness of and sustained engagement with the rules and linear structure of language. Literacy enables readers to reason about topics that extend beyond personal experience, cultivating the ability to apply universal formal principles when evaluating events. This, in turn, enhances one’s understanding of the causal chains of reasoning required for deductive thinking.