Elementary Education in Early Second Millennium BCE Babylonia

Alhena Gadotti and Alexandra Kleinerman's book explores how Akkadian speakers learned Sumerian during the Old Babylonian period in areas outside major cities. It 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, illustrating the process of elementary foreign-language training. The tablets suggest that elementary education in Mesopotamia was standardized and that knowledge of cuneiform writing was more widespread than previously assumed.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 07 December 2021
Publisher: Eisenbrauns

In this captivating volume, Alhena Gadotti and Alexandra Kleinerman delve into the fascinating journey of Akkadian speakers as they acquired the ancient language of Sumerian during the Old Babylonian period in regions outside major cities. Despite the fact that Sumerian had become a dormant language by that time, its cultural significance made it an essential component of scribal training. This book presents a comprehensive collection of 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, primarily composed of lexical texts, offer a captivating glimpse into the process of elementary foreign-language training at scribal schools during the Old Babylonian period. While the provenance of these tablets remains uncertain, notable discrepancies between them and those from other sites, such as Nippur and Ur, strongly suggest that they originate from previously unexplored locations. By conducting a comparative analysis of these tablets with previously published documents, Gadotti and Kleinerman make a compelling argument that elementary education in Mesopotamia exhibited a remarkable degree of standardization. Moreover, their research reveals that knowledge of cuneiform writing was more widespread than previously assumed, shedding light on the broader societal implications of this linguistic acquisition.

By expanding our understanding of education in southern Mesopotamia, this volume provides valuable insights into the pedagogical foundations of the world's first curriculum designed to teach a dead language. As a text edition, it ensures that these important documents are accessible to Assyriologists and Sumerologists, fostering further exploration and study of this rich linguistic and cultural heritage.

Weight: 1060g
Dimension: 287 x 221 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781646021383