Elementary Education in Early Second Millennium BCE Babylonia

Despite the fact that it was a dead language at the time, Sumerian was considered a crucial part of scribal training due to its cultural importance. This book provides transliterations and translations of 715 cuneiform scribal school exercise texts from the Jonathan and Jeanette Rosen Ancient Near Eastern Studies Collection at Cornell University. These tablets, consisting mainly of lexical texts, illustrate the process of elementary foreign-language training at scribal schools during the Old Babylonian period. Although the tablets are all without provenance, discrepancies between these texts and those from other sites, such as Nippur and Ur, strongly suggest that the texts published here do not come from a previously studied location. Comparing these tablets with previously published documents, Gadotti and Kleinerman argue that elementary education in Mesopotamia was relatively standardized and that knowledge of cuneiform writing was more widespread than previously assumed.

By refining our understanding of education in southern Mesopotamia, this volume elucidates more fully the pedagogical underpinnings of the world’s first curriculum devised to teach a dead language. As a text edition, it will make these important documents accessible to Assyriologists and Sumerologists for future study.

Alhena Gadotti is Professor of History at Towson University. She is the author of "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the NetherworldÓ and the Sumerian Gilgamesh Cycle and coeditor of Cuneiform Texts in the Carl A. Kroch Library (CUSAS 15), also published by Eisenbrauns.

Alexandra Kleinerman is a faculty research associate at Cornell University. She is the coauthor of The Nesbit Tablets, also published by Eisenbrauns.

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Catalog of Texts

1. Introduction

2. Historical Background

3. The Nippur Curriculum

4. The Sumerian Elementary Curriculum Outside Nippur

4.1. Ur

4.2. Uruk

4.3. Sippar

4.4. Kish

4.5. Susa

4.6. Other Sites

4.7. The Schøyen Collection

4.8. The Cotsen Collection

4.9. Discussion

5. The Rosen School Tablets

5.1. Tablet Typology and Tablet Shape

5.1.1. Type I (Multicolumn)

5.1.2. Type II (Student-Teacher)

5.1.3. Type III (Imgida)

5.1.4. Type IV (Lenticular)

5.1.5. Prisms

5.1.6. Other

5.2. The Exercises

5.2.1. Sign Exercises

5.2.2. Personal Names

5.2.2.1. Sumerian Personal Names

5.2.2.2. Akkadian Personal Names

5.2.2.3. Sumero-Akkadian Personal Names

5.2.3. Legal Phrasebooks

5.2.4. Thematic Lists

5.2.4.1. Ura 1: Trees and Wooden Items

5.2.4.2. Ura 2: Crafts

5.2.4.3. Ura 3: Animals and Cuts of Meat

5.2.4.4. Ura 4: Objects Found in Nature

5.2.4.5. Ura 5: Geography

5.2.4.6. Ura 6: Food Items

5.2.4.7. Other Thematic Texts: ED Word List C

5.2.5. Advanced Sign Lists

5.2.6. Lists of Human Beings

5.2.7. Acrographic Lists

5.2.8. Ugu-Mu

5.2.9. God Lists

5.2.10. Proverbs

5.2.11. Literary Text

6. Signatures

7. Conclusion

8. Conventions

Transliterations, Translations, and Remarks

1. Sign Exercise Lists

2. Sumerian Personal Name Lists

3. Akkadian Personal Name Lists

4. Mixed Personal Name Lists

5. Legal Phrasebooks

6. Ura 1: Wooden Items

7. Ura 2: Crafts

8. Ura 3: Domestic and Wild Animals, Cuts of Meat

9. Ura 4: Stones; Plants; Birds; Fish; Textiles

10. Ura 5: Geography

11. Ura 6: Food Items

12. Thematic, Other

13. Advanced Sign Lists

14. List of Human Beings

15. Acrographic Lists

16. Ugumu

17. God Lists

18. Proverbs

19. Model Contracts

20. Literature

21. Undetermined Lists

Appendix

References

Plates