The author wishes to express appreciation to Ms. Jane W. Heimerdinger, Research Associate in the Tablet Collection of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania; to Professor Samuel Noah Kramer, formerly Curator of the Tablet Collection; to the research staff of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; and to Mr. Sameer Khayri Al-Ni'ma, formerly head of the A-Nidhal Secondary School, Baghdad, for technical assistance with source materials utlized in the preparation of this manuscript; and to Robert Rowland, Jr. who kindly consented to review an earlier draft of the paper.

1. Leo Oppenheim, A., “A Note On The Scribes In Mesopotamia,” in Studies In Honor Of Benno Landsberger On His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, April 21, 1965, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago Assyriological Studies No. 16, edited by Güterbock, Hans G. and Jacobsen, Thorkild (Chicago, 1965), p. 253.Google Scholar

2. The earliest reference of record to schooling in Egypt appears in the “Instruction of Duauf (or Khety),” dating to the early portion of the second millennium: “Instruction … composed for his son … when he voyaged up to the Residence, in order to put him in the School (or House) of Books, among the children of the magistrates… .” Cited in Erman, Johann A., The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, translated by Blackman, A.M. (London, 1927), p. 68. For a discussion of “wisdom” or teaching texts (sebayet) and the difficulty of dating schools earlier than the fourteenth century, see Wilson, John A., “Scribal Concepts of Education,” in City Invincible, A Symposium on Urbanization and Cultural Development in the Ancient Near East , edited by Kraeling, Carl H. and Adams, Robert M. (Chicago, 1960), pp. 102–104; and Hawkes, Jacquetta, The First Great Civilizations (New York, 1973), pp. 435–436. Still less can be said authoritatively about schooling in ancient India. Note the dated but still useful discussions in Piggott, Stuart, Prehistoric India (London, 1962), chapter V and VI; Mackay, Ernst J., Early Indus Civilization, 2nd edition (London, 1948), pp. 123–128; Wheeler, R.E.M., The Indus Civilization (Cambridge, 1953), passim.; and the reference in Hawkes, , op. cit., p. 279. For a more general analysis, see Gadd, C.J., Teachers And Students In The Oldest Schools, An Inaugural Lecture (London, 1956), pp. 1–2. The claim that Sumerian-Akkadian schools enjoy chronological priority is advanced by, among others, Kramer, Samuel Noah in History Begins At Sumer (Garden City, New York, 1959), chapter 1.Google Scholar

3. Falkenstein, Consult Adam, Archaische Texte aus Uruk (Leipzig, 1942), passim, and especially pp. 64ff.Google Scholar

4. The bulk of documents presently available which reveals the work of scribes in keeping economic and political records dates mainly from the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods (c. 2220 1600 B.C.). Refer, to Oppenheim, , Letters From Mesopotamia; Lutz, Henry Frederick, “Sumerian Temple Records Of The Late Ur Dynasty,” Semitic Philology 9 (May 31, 1928): 117–268; Jones, Tom B. and Snyder, John W., Sumerian Economic Texts from the Third Ur Dynasty (Minneapolis, 1961); Jones, Tom B., “Sumerian Administrative Documents: An Essay,” in Sumerological Studies In Honor Of Thorkild Jacobsen, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago Assyriological Studies No. 20, edited by Lieberman, Stephen J. (Chicago, 1976), pp. 41–1; and Sollberger, Edmund, Business and Administrative Correspondence under the Kings of Ur (Locust Valley, New York, 1966).Google Scholar

5. The following discussion of Scribal titles follows Landsberger, Benno, “Scribal Concepts of Education,” in Kraeling, and Adams, , op. cit., pp. 94 95; and his “Babylonian Scribal Craft and its Terminology,” Proceedings of the Twenty-Third International Congress of Orientalists (London, 1954), pp. 123–127.Google Scholar

6. For an illuminating discussion of the notion of a “strategic elite” and its contrast with the concept of a “ruling class,” consult Keller, Suzanne, Beyond the Ruling Class: Strategic Elites in Modern Society (New York: 1963), pp. 4–58. While her observations are intended to apply to modern societies, her analysis of elitist recruitment, internal organization, degree of specialization, and social standing can be adapted readily to an archaic society with equal facility.Google Scholar

7. See Weidner, E.F., Politische Dokumente aus Kleinasien (Leipzig, 1923), p. 108; and Schroeder, Oscar, “Ein mündlich zu bestellender altbabylonischer Brief,” Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 21 (1918): 5ff.Google Scholar

8. See Leon Oppenheim, A., Ancient Mesopotamia (Chicago, 1964), pp. 157 ff.; and Roux, Georges, Ancient Iraq (London, 1964), chapter 11.Google Scholar

9. The case for the essential continuity of the Old Babylonian literary tradition with the earlier Ur III period is made persuasively by Alster, Bendt in “On The Earliest Sumerian Literary Tradition,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 28 (1976): 109-126. See also Kraus, F.R., Wandel und Kontinuität in der sumerisch-babylonischen Kultur (Leiden, 1954), pp. 24 ff.Google Scholar

10. This abbreviated analysis depends in part upon the interpretation and summation offered in Oppenheim, , Letters From Mesopotamia, p. 36.Google Scholar

11. References to the edubba were First collected by Falkenstein, Adam, “Der ‘Sohn des Tafelhauses,”’ Welt des Orients 1 (1948), pp. 174–175. Note also the citation of variant renderings in Sjöberg, Åke W., “The Old Babylonian Eduba,” in Lieberman, , op. cit., p. 159, note 1.Google Scholar

12. Castellino, G.R., “Two Sulgi Hymns,” Studi Semitici 42 (1972): 30–31. The specific citation is to Hymn B, lines 13–20, which refers to the education of Ishme-Dagan, , Viceroy of Ekallatum (c. 1781–1742 B.C.). The translation is modified following Sjöberg in Lieberman, , op. cit., p. 176, note 60. Nisaba, , goodness of science, “who in her hand holds the stylus,” was the patron deity of scribes and the art of writing. Consult Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia, p. 242.Google Scholar

13. Castellino, , op. cit. , p. 62. Refer, to Falkenstein, , op. cit., p. 185; and for a more extended discussion, see Römer, W.H.P., Sumerische “Königshymnen” der Isin-Zeit (Leiden, 1965), pp. 21–29; and Hallo, William W., “Toward A History Of Sumerian Literature,” in Lieberman, , op. cit., p. 193, note 79.Google Scholar

14. This, at any rate, is the interpretation offered in Civil, M. and Biggs, R.D., “Notes sur des textes sumériens archaiques,” Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientate 60 (1966): 1–16. The reasonable assumption is that the royal court ordered hymns to the king from the edubba and that the teaching scribes composed hymns for the palace while also using them for instructional purposes.Google Scholar

15. Frankena, R., “Altbabylonische Briefe in Umschrift and Übersetzung,” Briefe aus dem British Museum, Vol. 2 (Leiden, 1966), p. 48, #81; and British Museum, Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum 2 (London, 1896), plate 11, lines 29–31.Google Scholar

16. Nederlandsch Archaeologisch Philologisch Instit voor het nabije ossten, Tabulae Cuneiformae a F.M. Th de Liagre Böhl Collectae (Leiden, 1954), #84, lines 21–23. See Also Gelb, I.J., et. al., The Assyrian Dictionary Vol. Z (Chicago and Gluckstadt, 1956), p. 75; and University (of Pennsylvania) Museum, Babylonian Section, Publication No. VII (1911), #89.Google Scholar

17. Ebeling, Erich, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiösen Inhalts (Leipzig, 1919), p. 200, #122, line 10.Google Scholar

18. Meier, Gerhard, “Ein akkadisches Heilungsritual aus Bogazköy,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archaologie, 45 (1935): 200, line 4.Google Scholar

19. Consult the additional references cited in Sjöberg, , op. cit. , p. 160, note 4.Google Scholar

20. Landsberger, Benno, “Scribal Concepts of Education,” in Kraeling, and Adams, , op. cit., p. 97. Landsberger's judgment is that the tablet-house disappeared after the Old Babylonian II period (ends with Samsu-ditana, c. 1625–1595 B.C.) and that scribal education, paralleling the change from a form of democracy to feudalism under the Kassites, fell into the hands of individual families, a kind of nobility who traced their ancestry back ten or twelve generations. For a discussion and analysis of the lineage of prominent scribal families, consult Lambert, W.G., “Ancestors, Authors, and Canonicity,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 11 (1957): 1 ff.Google Scholar

21. The rendition follows Sjöberg, , op. cit. , p. 159; a variant translation is given in Kramer, Samuel Noah, The Sumerians, Their History, Culture, and Character (Chicago, 1963), p. 236.Google Scholar

22. Illustrative reports include McCown, Donald E., “Writing and History: The New Tablets from Nippur,” The University (of Pennsylvania) Museum Bulletin 16 (July, 1951): 21–27; and McCown, Donald E., “Interim Report on the Excavations at Nippur,” Sumer 6 (1950: 90–100.Google Scholar

23. For a representative sample of archaeological reports and technical commentary, see Falkenstein, Adam, “Zu den Inschrifttenfunded der Grabung in Urak-Warka, 1960–61” Baghdad Mitteilungen 2 (1963): 41–42; Woolley, Leonard, “Excavations at Ur, 1930–1,” Antiquaries Journal 11 (1931): 365 ff.; and Woolley, , Excavations at Ur, A Record of Twelve Years' Work (London, 1954), pp. 185 ff.; Gadd, C.J., op. cit., p. 25; Sjöberg, , op. cit., pp. 176–178; and McCown, D.E. and Haines, R.C., Nippur I, Chicago University, Oriental Institute Publication No. 78 (1967), pp. 148–49. For a detailed description of temple schools, albeit for a later period, consult the references in Lensen, H., “Mesopotamien Tempelanlagen,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 18 (1955): 1–36; and, most recently, preliminary press reports of newly-uncovered school sites near Baghdad, at Harmal, Tell Abu (Šaduppûm) which appeared in Baghdad's official newspaper Althawra for July 20, 1977.Google Scholar

24. See Luckenbill, D.D., Inscriptions from Adab, Chicago University, Oriental Institute Publication No. 14 (1930), pp. 53–56; Civil, and Biggs, , op. cit., pp. 1–5; and for a report on inscriptions presumed to be products of a tablet-house at Telloh, , refer to Thureau-Dangin, F., Nouvelles fouilles de Telloh (Paris, 1910 1914), passim. Inscriptions from Kisurra and Tell Ed-Dēr appear in Iraq Museum, Texts in the Iraq Museum 7 (Baghdad, n.d.), #236–253.Google Scholar

25. See Harris, R., “The Organization and Administration of the Cloister in Ancient Babylonia,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 6 (1963): 138–139; and Landsberger, Benno, Materialienzum sumerischen Lexikon 9 (Rome, 1937), p. 148. The subscript munus preceding dubsar (“scribe”) following a tablet inscription shows the female gender of the writer, as in SU-MUNUS DUB.SAR on a Sippar tablet. Refer to Berlin Staatliche Museen, Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler der Königliche Museen 10 (Leipzig, 1907): #207. For another example, see British Museum, Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum 6 (London, 1896), plate 35a. A third inscription is recorded in Leo Oppenheim, A., Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets of the Wilberforce Eames Babylonian Collection. American Oriental Series No. 32 (New Haven, 1948), p. 21 22.Google Scholar

26. Full reports appear in Parrot, André, “Mission archéologique de Mari II: Le Palais, Architecture,” Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 68 (Paris, 1958), pp. 186-191 (plates XLI XLII); Parrot, , “Les fouilles de Mari, deuxième campaigne (Hiver, 1934–35),” Syria 17 (1936): 21 (plates 3, 4); and in “Les fouilles de Mari, troisième campaigne (Hiver 1935–36),” Syria 18 (1937): plate VIII. See also Adam Falkenstein's discussion in “Die babylonische Schule,” Saeculum 4 (1953): 127; and the more cautious identification in Kraus, F.R., “Briefschreibübungen im altbabylonischen Schulunterricht,” in Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap “Ex Oriente Lux,” 16 (Leiden, 1964), p. 33.Google Scholar

27. Van Dijk, J.J.A., La Sagesse suméro-accadienne (Leiden, 1953), p. 24. For further explication of the important concept of namlulu or “humanity,” see Kramer, , The Sumerians, p. 243, 264, 285 286; and a commentary in Gadd, , op. cit., p. 13, note 1.Google Scholar

28. Kramer, Samuel Noah, Cradle of Civilization (New York, 1967), p. 124.Google Scholar

29. Kramer, Samuel Noah, “Schooldays: A Composition Relating to the Education of a Scribe,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 69 (1949): 203; 206, line 52.Google Scholar

30. Haupt, Paul, “Arab, Tajr and Assyrian, Tamkaru,” Berträge zur Assyriologie 10 (Baltimore, 1913) p. 36; and Haupt, , “Ishtar's Azure Necklace,” ibid., p. 99. See also Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum 2 (London, 1896), #K4815.Google Scholar

31. Text A comes from the library of Assurbanipal, at Nineveh, , and is preserved in Musée national du Louvre, Textes cunéiformes (Paris, 1910), #1696. The translation and summary appears in Landsberger's “Scribal Concepts of Education,” op. cit., pp. 99–101. See also Sjöberg, Åke W., “Examenstext A,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 64 (1975): 137–176.Google Scholar

32. Landsberger, , ibid., p. 101.Google Scholar

33. Sjöberg, Ake W., “In Praise Of The Scribal Art,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 24 (1972): 126–129.Google Scholar

33. Sjöberg, Åke W., “In Praise Of The Scribal Art,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 24 (1972): 126–129.Google Scholar

34. See Landsberger, Benno, “Zum ‘Silbenalphabet B.”’ Zwei altababylonische Schulbücher aus Nippur (Ankara, 1959) p. 98.Google Scholar

35. For example, the sign ilu as a heading signified that the entries to follow were names of divinities; matu indicated that the next list designated various peoples; and the sign for “wood” preceded “box” or the name of a type of tree, and so on. An illustrative list containing the sixty names of a deity appears in Meissner, Bruno, “Textkritische Bemerkungen zu einem medizinischcn Kompendium,” Archiv für Keilschrift-forschung 1 (1923): 12.Google Scholar

36. Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, Ur Excavations, Texts, 6/2 (London, 1928), #167, lines 16–17; and Landsberger, Benno, Materialien zum Sumerischen Lexikon 8 (Rome, 1937), #14; and the same phrase from a longer dialogue in Kramer, Samuel Noah, “Sumerian Literary Texts from Nippur in the Museum of the Ancient Orient at Istanbul,” Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 23 (New Haven, 1944): #116, obverse, lines 3 4.Google Scholar

37. Lines 198 200 of the bilingual vocabulary Erimhus I, for example, read: dulla = redutu (“succession”), édulla = édullu (“a building”), lahlah = šalālu (“to lead into captivity,” “to plunder”). See Leichty, E., “The Omen Series Šumma Izbu,” Texts from Cuneiform Sources (Locust Valley, New York, 1970), p. 232; Gelb, , op. cit., vol. E, p. 38b and vol. L, p. 173 b. Old Babylonian lexical and grammatical texts are similarly divided into sections of etymologically unrelated words, each pair given in Sumerian and a translation. See Landsberger, Benno, Materialien zum sumerischen Lexicon 2 (Rome, 1937), pp. 142 146; and Rolles, Godrey Driver, , Semitic Writing from Pictograph to Alphabet (Oxford, 1976), pp. 65 ff.Google Scholar

38. A good discussion of sign lists is supplied in Leo Oppenheim, A., Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 244 ff. Since some passages (as distinct from single words) were quite lengthy, it is doubtful whether they were memorized as was the case with the simpler bilingual vocabulary lists.Google Scholar

39. Gordon, Edmund J., Sumerian Proverbs, Glimpses of Everyday Life In Ancient Mesopotamia (New York, 1968), p. 208, #2.49.Google Scholar

40. Chiera, Edward, Sumerian Epics and Myths, University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Publication No. 15, Cuneiform Series III (Chicago, 1934), #67, obverse, lines 7 8.Google Scholar

41. Gordon, , op. cit., p. 206, #2.47.Google Scholar

42. See Cooper, J.S., “Sumerian and Akkadian in Sumer and Akkad,” Orientalia, new series 42 (1973): 239–246. For the contrary interpretation, see Gadd, , op. cit., p. 18; and the discussion in Sjöberg, “The Old Babylonian Eduba,” op. cit., pp. 161–162.Google Scholar

43. Ur Excavations, Texts 6/2, op. cit., #150, line 10.Google Scholar

44. Jena, Universität, Texte und Materalien der Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities im Eigentum der Universität Jena, Neue Folge 3 (Leipzig, 1932), #42ii, line 13.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., line 6: and see also Kramer, Samuel Noah, “Sumerian Literary Texts,” op. cit., line 56 of the same dialogue. In the exchange between Enkimansi and Girnishag, the one protagonist challenges his opponent with the question, “Do you, as I do, speak Sumerian?” Loc. cit., line 66.Google Scholar

46. See Civil, M., “Notes on Sumeriar Lexicography I,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 20 (1966): 123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47. Many examples of stele inscriptions survive. Note, for instance, the copy of a stele of Išme-Dagan of Isin reproduced in Chiera, E., Sumerian Religious Texts (Upland, Pensylvania, 1924), #13. For other illustrations, consult Van Dijk, J.J.A., “Textes divers du Musée de Baghdad,” Sumer 11 (1955): 110, plate XVI. and Sjöberg, Åke W., “Ein Selbstpreis des Königs Hammurbai von Babylon,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebeite 54 (1961): 51–70.Google Scholar

48. Ur Excavations, Texts 6/2, op. cit., #150. Note also the reference: “to write a stele, to draw a field, to settle accounts,” in Sjöberg, , “In Praise of the Scribal Art,” op. cit. , p. 127, line 15.Google Scholar

49. See also line 48 with its reference to “counting and accounting,” in Kramer, , “Schooldays,” op. cit. , p. 206.Google Scholar

50. See the discussion in Falkenstein, Adam, “Die Babylonische Schule,” Saeculum 4 (1955): 132, note 28; and in his “Der 'Son des Tafelhauses,” op. cit., p. 185.Google Scholar

51. Sjöberg, , “Examenstext A,” op. cit. , p. 142. Other references to the teaching of music appear in Kramer. “Sumerian Literary Texts,” op. cit., lines 94 97; and in Texte und Materialien der Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection …, op. cit., #42, obverse 11, lines 10–15.Google Scholar

52. For commentary, consult Renger, J., “Untersuchungen zum Priestertum der altbabylonischen Zeit,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 59 (1969): 181.Google Scholar

53. See Jacobsen, Thorkild, “An Ancient Mesopotamian Trial for Homicide,” Studia Biblica et Orientalia 12 (Rome, 1959): 130–150.Google Scholar

54. Goetze, A., The Laws of Eshnunna (New Haven, 1956), p. 14.Google Scholar

55. Landsberger, , “Scribal Concepts of Education,” op. cit. , pp. 116–117.Google Scholar

56. Gordon, , op. cit. , p. 202, #2.40.Google Scholar

57. Ibid., p. 204, #2.43. Alternatively: “A scribe who writes illegibly or cannot take accurate dictation is as useless as a mute (or untalented) singer.” Google Scholar

58. Quoted in Sjöberg, , “The Old Babylonian Eduba,” op. cit. , p. 170. Kramer, , The Sumerians, p. 241, translates “cannot take dictation.” Google Scholar

59. Note the technical analysis appearing in Falkenstein, Adam, “Zur Chronologie der sumerischen Literatur,” Compte rendu de la seconde Rencontre assyriologique international (Paris, 1951), pp, 12–30; and the discussion in Civil, M., “Remarks on Sumerian and Bilingual Texts,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 26 (1967), pp. 201 ff.Google Scholar

60. See Hallo, William W., “Toward A History of Sumerian Literature,” in Lieberman, , op. cit. , pp. 181–203. Hallo's judgment is that many of the finest compositions from the courts of Lagash, Ur, and elsewhere in Neo-Sumerian times (c. 2200–1900 B.C.) derived wholly or in part from prototypical exemplars dating back to Old Sumerian times (c. 2500–2200 B.C.), and were either revised or updated subsequently by Babylonian scribes. See also his “On the Antiquity of Sumerian Literature,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 (1963): 167–176.Google Scholar

61. See Von Soden, W., Zweisprachigkeit in der geistig en Kulture Babylonians (Vienna, 1960); and Edzard, D.O., Heidelberger Studium zum alten Orient (Weisbaden, 1967), pp. 185–199.Google Scholar

62. An interesting account is given in Hallo, William W., “Individual Prayer in Sumerian: The Continuity of a Tradition,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 88 (1968): 71–89. Also useful for a broader perspective is Kramer, Samuel Noah, Sumerian Mythology (Philadelphia, 1972).Google Scholar

63. Gadd, , op. cit. , pp. 39–42. See also Phiffer, R.H., “Fables and Didactic Tales,” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts , edited by Pritchard, James B. (Princeton, 1955), p. 411.Google Scholar

64. Ibid., p. 36.Google Scholar

65. Ibid., p. 38.Google Scholar

66. Kramer, , “Schooldays,” op. cit. , p. 199; Kramer, , The Sumerians, p. 237. See also Kramer, , History Begins At Sumer, chapter 2.Google Scholar

67. Sources are given in Kramer, , “Schooldays,” op. cit. , pp. 200–201.Google Scholar

68. Quoted passages are free renditions from the German translation in Sjöberg, Åke W., “Der Vater Und Sein Missratener Sohn,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 25 (1973): 105–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69. A contrary interpretation holds that the character of the father in this essay claims to be a “singer” (nar). For reasons too complex to treat succinctly, one scholar's settled conclusion is that the entire composition should be viewed as a satire of the profession of singers, composed by scribes. Alster, Consult Brendt, “On the Sumerian Composition ‘The Father and His Disobedient Son’,” Revue d' Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale 69 (1975): 81–84.Google Scholar

70. See Gadd, , op. cit. , p. 31; and Sjöberg, “The Old Babylonian Eduba,” op. cit., p. 170.Google Scholar

71. The term galam huru or “clever fool” shares the literal sense of the Greek “sophosmoros,” or in English, “sophomore.” Kramer, , The Sumerians. p. 241; and Gadd, , op. cit., p. 34, note 1.Google Scholar

72. The narrative is freely adapted and selectively rendered after several published sources, according to whatever seems to yield the clearest sense. Consult the variants in Texte une Materialen der Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection …, op. cit., #42; Kramer, , The Sumerians, pp. 242–243; and in Gadd, , op. cit., p. 35.Google Scholar

73. Kramer, , The Sumerians, pp. 247–248.Google Scholar

74. Gordon, , op. cit. , pp. 200, 204. 207, 210, 211; respectively, #2.37, 2.44, 2.48, 2.53, 2.54.Google Scholar

75. Oppenheim, , Letters From Mesopotamia, pp. 9-10.Google Scholar