The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)

a situation whereby writing and written traditions travel between sites via scribes rather

than just tablets, perhaps through inter-city relations of various sorts.

The emergence of Akkadian

One of the most remarkable revelations to arise from the excavations at Abu Salabikh
was that about half of the scribes who wrote the scholarly texts had names which were
not Sumerian as would have been expected, but Akkadian (Biggs 1974 ). Other glimpses
of Akkadian can be found. One royal inscription belonging to Meskiagnuna of Ur
looks every bit Sumerian except for a single sign that makes it clear that it is written
in Akkadian. At least two of the Abu Salabikh administrative texts are written in
Akkadian, and a more widespread practice is no doubt concealed by the writing system.
Many texts that look Sumerian may in fact have been read in Akkadian; the
relationship between the language in which a text is written and that in which it is
read is not entirely straightforward. We may speculate that the writing of Akkadian was
a factor behind the move toward routinely writing signs in the order in which they were
to be read. This language was less well suited to logographic cuneiform than was
Sumerian. While the latter was agglutinative – with morphemes being added in strings

• the former utilizes internal variations to convey distinctions in meaning. Accordingly,
  Akkadian writing developed a style that made much greater use of syllables. Signs come
  to be written in order by around the twenty-fifth century BCin Lagash, although
  slightly earlier at Abu Salabikh this convention is followed with personal names.
  The rise of the Akkadian empire elevated the Akkadian language to official status. By
  now the old habits had given way to writing in lines, with signs routinely written in order.
  The rise of an empire also brought with it other changes for the scribes to master. Now
  in addition to their own local traditions, they had to master an elaborate imperial style
  for government business. Sargon’s conquests did not immediately herald a revolution in
  scribal practices, however. The old systems seem to continue until the reforms of Naram-
  Sin. These included measures that brought a greater degree of standardization across
  Mesopotamia, and saw explanatory phrases become more frequent (Visicato 2000 : 9 );
  Old Akkadian texts are slightly easier to understand than their predecessors.

ADMINISTERING AN EMPIRE – THE UR III PERIOD

A Sumerian renaissance?

The collapse of the Akkadian empire and rise of the Third Dynasty of Ur saw the

balance of power swing back in favor of the south, and provoked a resurgence of

Sumerian identity. Sumerian regained its status as official language of government,

although the kings would not shy away from commissioning bilingual Sumerian–

Akkadian inscriptions. Sumerian seems to have been falling out of ordinary daily use,

however, and we see increasing explicitness in written Sumerian.

The scribes of this period have gained a reputation for being excessively zealous

bureaucrats. They have given us almost one-fifth of all cuneiform texts so far recovered,

most of these coming from just a fifty-year period, and many of those from just a few

large archives. Waetzoldt ( 2009 : 254 ) claims more than 2 , 000 active scribes during this

time. This is far more than is known from earlier periods. It has often been argued that

–– Jon Taylor ––