Forgotten books: The application of unseen species models to the survival of culture

Mike Kestemont; F.B. Karsdorp; Elisabeth de Bruijn; Matthew Driscoll; Katarzyna Kapitan; Pádraig  Ó Macháin; Daniel Sawyer; Remco Sleiderink; Anne Chao

doi:10.1126/science.abl7655

Forgotten books: The application of unseen species models to the survival of culture

Mike Kestemont, F.B. Karsdorp, Elisabeth de Bruijn, Matthew Driscoll, Katarzyna Kapitan, Pádraig Ó Macháin, Daniel Sawyer, Remco Sleiderink, Anne Chao

Onderzoeksoutput: Bijdrage aan wetenschappelijk tijdschrift/periodieke uitgave › Artikel › Wetenschappelijk › peer review

21 Citaten (Scopus)

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The study of ancient cultures is hindered by the incomplete survival of material artifacts, so we commonly underestimate the diversity of cultural production in historic societies. To correct this survivorship bias, we applied unseen species models from ecology to gauge the loss of narratives from medieval Europe, such as the romances about King Arthur. The estimates obtained are compatible with the scant historic evidence. In addition to events such as library fires, we identified the original evenness of cultural populations as an overlooked factor in these assemblages’ stability in the face of immaterial loss. We link the elevated evenness in island literatures to analogous accounts of ecological and cultural diversity in insular communities. These analyses call for a wider application of these methods across the heritage sciences.

Originele taal-2	Engels
Pagina's (van-tot)	765-769
Tijdschrift	Science
Volume	375
Nummer van het tijdschrift	6582
DOI's	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl7655
Status	Gepubliceerd - 2022

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10.1126/science.abl7655

Forgotten books: supplementary materials (data and code)
Kestemont, M. (Maker), Karsdorp, F. B. (Maker), de Bruijn, E. (Maker), Driscoll, M. (Maker), Kapitan, K. (Maker), Ó Macháin, P. (Maker), Sawyer, D. (Maker), Sleiderink, R. (Maker) & Chao, A. (Maker), Zenodo, 02 feb. 2022
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5947206
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title = "Forgotten books: The application of unseen species models to the survival of culture",

abstract = "The study of ancient cultures is hindered by the incomplete survival of material artifacts, so we commonly underestimate the diversity of cultural production in historic societies. To correct this survivorship bias, we applied unseen species models from ecology to gauge the loss of narratives from medieval Europe, such as the romances about King Arthur. The estimates obtained are compatible with the scant historic evidence. In addition to events such as library fires, we identified the original evenness of cultural populations as an overlooked factor in these assemblages{\textquoteright} stability in the face of immaterial loss. We link the elevated evenness in island literatures to analogous accounts of ecological and cultural diversity in insular communities. These analyses call for a wider application of these methods across the heritage sciences.",

author = "Mike Kestemont and F.B. Karsdorp and {de Bruijn}, Elisabeth and Matthew Driscoll and Katarzyna Kapitan and {{\'O} Mach{\'a}in}, P{\'a}draig and Daniel Sawyer and Remco Sleiderink and Anne Chao",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.1126/science.abl7655",

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AU - Kestemont, Mike

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AU - Driscoll, Matthew

AU - Kapitan, Katarzyna

AU - Ó Macháin, Pádraig

AU - Sawyer, Daniel

AU - Sleiderink, Remco

AU - Chao, Anne

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

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Forgotten books: The application of unseen species models to the survival of culture

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Forgotten books: supplementary materials (data and code)

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