Abstract
Thousands of texts documenting the activities of scribes and scholars that shed light on the social context of scholarship and scientific inquiry survive from the first half of Mesopotamian history (c. 3400 bc to c. 1600 bc). Since these texts provide ample evidence that scholarship occupied a central place in Mesopotamian culture and society during the period in question, examining their content is essential to reconstructing what can be known about scientific knowledge and practice in the ancient world. In this chapter some of this evidence will be considered in order to present a modest overview of the social position and intellectual processes of knowledge acquisition and inquiry during the first phase of Mesopotamian history and to address preliminarily some of the many questions that can be asked about scholarship and inquiry in early Mesopotamia.
Bibliography
Althusser, L. 1984. Essays in Ideology. London: Verso.Suche in Google Scholar
Black, J. A. 2002. En-hedu-ana not the author of the Temple Hymns. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 1: 2–4.Suche in Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Translated by R. NiceSuche in Google Scholar
Brusasco, P. 1999–2000. Family Archives and the Social Use of Space in Old Babylonian Houses at Ur. Mesopotamia 34: 3–173.Suche in Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 1986. Le clergé d’Ur au siècle d’Hammurabi (XIXe-XVIIIe siècles av. J.-C.) (Hautes Études Orientales 22). Paris: Libraire Droz.Suche in Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 2010. Reading and Writing in Babylon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Translated by J.M. Todd.Suche in Google Scholar
Civil, M. 1969. Old Babylonian Proto-Lu: Types of Sources. Pp. 27–8 In Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon, Volume 12, eds. E. Reiner, and M. Civil. Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.Suche in Google Scholar
Civil, M. 1979. Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon, Volume 14. Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.Suche in Google Scholar
Civil, M. 1980. Les limites de l’information textuelle. Pp. 225–32 In L’archéologie de l’Iraq du début de l’époque néolitique À 333 avant notre ère: Perspectives et limites de l’interprétation anthropologique des documents, ed. M. Barrelet. Paris: CNRS.Suche in Google Scholar
Cohen, M. 1981. Sumerian Hymnology: The Eršemma. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College. Hebrew Union College Annual Supplements 2.10.2307/j.ctt16f99bgSuche in Google Scholar
Cohen, M. 1988. The Canonical Lamentations of Ancient Mesopotamia. Potomac: Capital Decisions Limited.Suche in Google Scholar
Connerton, P. 1989. How Societies Remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511628061Suche in Google Scholar
Cooper, J. S. 1983. The Curse of Agade. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Cooper, J. S. 2006. Genre, Gender, and the Sumerian Lamentation. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 58: 39–47.10.1086/JCS40025222Suche in Google Scholar
Delnero, P. 2006. Variation in Sumerian Literary Compositions: A Case Study Based on the Decad. Dissertation: University of Pennsylvania.Suche in Google Scholar
Delnero, P. 2010a. Sumerian Extract Tablets and Scribal Education. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 62: 53–69.10.1086/JCS41103871Suche in Google Scholar
Delnero, P. 2010b. Sumerian Literary Catalogues and the Scribal Curriculum. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 100: 32–55.10.1515/za.2010.003Suche in Google Scholar
Delnero, P. 2011. ‘Inana and Ebih’ and the Scribal Tradition. Pp. 123–49 In A Common Cultural Heritage: Studies on Mesopotamia and the Biblical World in Honor of Barry L. Eichler, eds. G. Frame, E. Leichty, K. Sonik, J. Tigay, and S. Tinney. Bethesda: CDL Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Delnero, P. 2012a. The Textual Criticism of Sumerian Literature. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research. The Journal of Cuneiform Studies Supplemental Series 3Suche in Google Scholar
Delnero, P. 2012b. Memorization and the Transmission of Sumerian Literary Compositions. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 71: 189–208.10.1086/666645Suche in Google Scholar
Delnero, P. 2013. On the Sumerian Liturgical Tradition. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 108: 145–52.10.1524/olzg.2013.0023Suche in Google Scholar
Durand, J.-M. 1988. Archives èpistolaires de Mari I/1, Archives royales de Mari 26/1. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations.Suche in Google Scholar
Ebeling, J., and G. Cunningham. 2007. Analysing Literary Sumerian: Corpus-based Approaches. London: Equinox.10.1558/isbn.9781845535766Suche in Google Scholar
Englund, R. 1998. Texts From the Late Uruk Period. Pp. 15–236 In Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und frühdynastische Zeit, eds. P. Attinger, and M. Wäfler. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Falkenstein, A. 1966. ‘Wahrsagung’ in der sumerischen Überlieferung. Pp. 45–68 In La divination en Mésopotamie ancienne et dans les régions voisines – Travaux du Centre d’études supérieures spécialisé d’histoire des religions de Strasbourg (anonymous), Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Suche in Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books. Translated by A. Sheridan.Suche in Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Frahm, E. 2011. Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries: Origin of Interpretation. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record 5.Suche in Google Scholar
Gadotti, A., and A. Kleinerman. 2011. ‘Here Is What I Have. Send Me What I Am Missing.’ Exchange of Syllabi in Ancient Mesopotamia. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 101: 72–77.10.1515/za.2011.002Suche in Google Scholar
George, A. R. 2005. In Search of the É.DUB.BA.A: The Ancient Mesopotamian School in Literature and Reality. Pp. 127–137 in An Experienced Scribe Who Neglects Nothing’: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Jacob Klein, eds. Y. Sefati, P. Artzi, C. Cohen, B. L. Eichler, and V. Hurowitz. Bethesda: CDL Press.Suche in Google Scholar
George, A. R. 2013. Babylonian Divinatory Texts Chiefly in the Schøyen Collection. Bethesda: CDL Press. Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 18.Suche in Google Scholar
Gibson, M., D. P. Hansen, and R. Zettler. 2001. Nippur B. Archäologisch. Reallexikon Der Assyriologie 9: 546–65.Suche in Google Scholar
Glassner, J.-J. 2009. Écrire des livres à l’époque paléo-babylonienne: Le traité d’extispicine. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 99: 1–81.10.1515/ZA.2009.001Suche in Google Scholar
Guinan, A. 1996. Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination. State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 10: 5–10.Suche in Google Scholar
Hallo, W. W., and J. J. A. van Dijk. 1968. The Exaltation of Inana. New Haven: Yale University Press. Yale Near Eastern Researches 3.Suche in Google Scholar
Heimpel, W. 2003. Letters to the Kings of Mari: A New Translation, with Historical Introduction, Notes, and Commentary. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575065441Suche in Google Scholar
Jeyes, U. 1989. Old Babylonian Extispicy. Omen Texts in the British Museum. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul.Suche in Google Scholar
Krebernik, M. 1998. Die Texte aus Fara und Tell Abu Salabih. Pp. 237–430 In Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und frühdynastische Zeit, eds. P. Attinger and M. Wäfler. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Lambert, W. G. 1962. A Catalogue of Texts and Authors. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 16: 59–77.10.2307/1359154Suche in Google Scholar
Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780199256044.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Lehoux, D. 2002. The Historicity Question in Mesopotamian Divination. Pp. 209–22 In Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 297, eds. A. Imhausen, and J. Steele. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Liverani, M. 2014. The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315879895Suche in Google Scholar
Loehnert, A. 2009. ‘Wie die Sonne tritt heraus!’: Eine Klage zum Auszug Enlils mit einer Untersuchung zu Komposition und Tradition sumerischer Klagelieder in altbabylonischer Zeit. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 365.Suche in Google Scholar
Ludwig, M.-C. 2012. BM 96740 – eine altbabylonische Liste von Textanfängen. Pp. 201–13 In Altorientalische Studien zu Ehren von Pascal Attinger, eds. C. Mittermayer, and S. Ecklin. Fribourg: Academic Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Maul, S. 2013. Die Wahrsagekunst im Alten Orient: Zeichen des Himmel und der Erde. München: C.H. Beck Verlag.10.17104/9783406645150Suche in Google Scholar
Michalowski, P. 2006. How to Read the Liver – in Sumerian. 247–57 In If a Man Builds a Joyful House: Assyriological Studies in Honor of Erle Verdun Leichty, eds. A. Guinan et al. Leiden: Brill. Cuneiform Monographs 31.10.1163/9789047408239_024Suche in Google Scholar
Michalowski, P. 2012. Literacy, Schooling and the Transmission of Knowledge in Early Mesopotamian Culture. 39–57 In Theory and Practice of Knowledge Transfer: Studies in School Education in the Ancient Near East and Beyond, eds. W. S. Egmond and W. van Soldt. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. PIHANS 121.Suche in Google Scholar
Nissen, H., P. Damerow, and R. Englund. 1993. Archaic Bookkeeping. Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Peterson, J. 2010. A New Old Babylonian Sumerian Literary ‘Catalog’? Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 100: 169–76.10.1515/za.2010.009Suche in Google Scholar
Richardson, S. 2010. On Seeing and Believing: Liver Divination and the Era of Warring States (II). Pp. 225–66 In Divination and the Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World (Oriental Institute Seminars 9, ed. A. Annus. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Suche in Google Scholar
Robson, E. 2001. The Tablet House: A Scribal School in Old Babylonian Nippur. Revue D’assyriologie 95: 39–66.10.3917/assy.093.0039Suche in Google Scholar
Robson, E. 2002. More Than Metrology: Mathematical Education in an Old Babylonian Scribal School. Pp. 325–65 In Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 297, eds. A. Imhausen, and J. Steele. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Robson, E. 2008. Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691201405Suche in Google Scholar
Rochberg, F. 2004. The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511617409Suche in Google Scholar
Rochberg, F. 2010. If P, Then Q. Pp. 19–27 In Divination and the Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World (Oriental Institute Seminars 9, ed. A. Annus. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Suche in Google Scholar
Rubio, G. 2009. Sumerian Literature. Pp. 11–75 In From an Antique Land: An Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature, ed. C. S. Ehrlich. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar
Schretter, M. 1990. Emesal-Studien. Sprach- und literaturgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur sogennanten Frauensprache des Sumerischen. Innsbruck: Verlag des Instituts für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck.Suche in Google Scholar
Sjöberg, Å. 1975. In-nin ša3-gur4-Ra: A Hymn to the Goddess Inanna by the en-Priestess Enheduanna. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 65: 161–253.10.1515/zava.1975.65.2.161Suche in Google Scholar
Sjöberg, Å., and E. Bergmann. 1969. The Collection of Sumerian Temple Hymns. Locust Valley, New York: J.J. Augustin Publisher. Texts from Cuneiform Sources 3.Suche in Google Scholar
Starr, I. 1983. The Rituals of the Diviner. Malibu: Undena Publications. Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 12.Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 2005. Of Stars and Men: The Conceptual and Mythological Setup of Babylonian Extispicy. Pp. 11–47 In Biblical and Oriental Essays in Memory of William L. Moran (Biblica et Orientalia 48, ed. A. Gianto. Roma: Pontificio Istituto Biblico.Suche in Google Scholar
Stone, E. 1987. Nippur Neighborhoods. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, Volume 44.Suche in Google Scholar
Tambiah, S. 1977. The Galactic Polity: The Structure of Traditional Kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 293: 69–96.10.1111/j.1749-6632.1977.tb41806.xSuche in Google Scholar
Taussig, M. 1997. The Magic of the State. New York: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Tinney, S. 1999. On the Curricular Setting of Sumerian Literature. Iraq 41: 159–72.10.2307/4200472Suche in Google Scholar
Tinney, S. 2011. Tablets and Schools and Scholars: A Portrait of the Old Babylonian Corpus. Pp. 577–96 In The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture, eds. K. Radner and E. Robson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199557301.013.0027Suche in Google Scholar
Van De Mieroop, M. 1999. Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History. London: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Van De Mieroop, M. 2007. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000–323 BC. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Suche in Google Scholar
Veldhuis, N. 1997. Elementary Education at Nippur: The Lists of Trees and Wooden Objects. Dissertation: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.Suche in Google Scholar
Veldhuis, N. 1999. Reading the Signs. Pp. 161–74 In All Those Nations … Cultural Encounters Within and with the Near East: Studies Presented to Han Drijvers, ed. H. L. J. Vanstiphout. Groningen: Styx Publications.10.1163/9789004502161_019Suche in Google Scholar
Veldhuis, N. 2004. Religion, Literature, and Scholarship: The Sumerian Composition ‘Nanše and the Birds. Leiden: Brill.Cuneiform Monographs 22.10.1163/9789047405771Suche in Google Scholar
Veldhuis, N. 2006. Divination: Theory and Practice. 487–97 In If a Man Builds a Joyful House: Assyriological Studies in Honor of Erle Verdun Leichty, eds. A. Guinan et al. Leiden: Brill.Cuneiform Monographs 31.10.1163/9789047408239_039Suche in Google Scholar
Wilcke, C. 1975. Formale Gesichtspunkte in der sumerischen Literatur. 205–316 In Sumerological Studies in Honor of Thorkild Jacobsen, ed. S. Lieberman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Assyriological Studies 20.Suche in Google Scholar
Wilcke, C. 2000. Wer las und schrieb in Babylonien und Assyrien: Überlegungen zur Literalität im Alten Zweistromland. München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Sitzungsberichte 6.Suche in Google Scholar
Woods, C. 2010. Visible Language: The Earliest Writing System. Pp. 15–25 In Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond, ed. C. Woods. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago: Chicago.Oriental Institute Museum Publications 32.Suche in Google Scholar
Yoffee, N. 2005. Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511489662Suche in Google Scholar
Zgoll, A. 1997. Der Rechtsfall der En-hedu-Ana im Lied nin-me-šara. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 246.Suche in Google Scholar
Žižek, S. 1989. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso.Suche in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter