Before looking more closely at these new lists, it is useful to look at the context in
which they were produced. Fortunately, we are relatively well informed about Old
Babylonian schools.
LITERACY AND THE OLD BABYLONIAN
SCHOOLNowadays ‘school’ conjures up a picture of large numbers of children sitting in massed
ranks at desks, with separate teachers for each subject. Old Babylonian schools were
not like this at all. Literacy in Babylonia was always somewhat restricted. Unlike us
today, the average Babylonian was not surrounded by writing and could go about
daily life without having to read or write anything. Large households would use
writing to keep track of goods and employees. Members of the administration would
write letters to each other to give or respond to orders or otherwise conduct business.
But the average citizen had little or no use for writing. They did not have books to
read or forms to fill in, nor would they write their own personal letters or diaries, or
perform any of the other literate activities that are such a major part of modern daily
life. This is not to say that they might not possess a few documents. For example,
they might own the deeds to their house or contracts stipulating the terms of a
marriage or adoption. These would have been written by professional scribes, however.
They would be needed only in the event of a dispute and even then would have been
handed over to the authorities to be read. Written documents did not list all terms
and conditions and were not considered as having the final say in a dispute. Greater
trust was placed on testimony and oaths. It was not necessary even to be able to sign
one’s name. This was done using a cylinder seal (for the better off) or by impressing
into the clay the hem of one’s garment or a fingernail. There was no general education;
writing was a specialised craft. Most daily business was conducted orally. The number
of scribes was always low, and they would be employed (for one-off jobs or for the
longer term) whenever required, mostly by the administration. There were no school
buildings as such in the Old Babylonian period. Education took place in the courtyard
of ordinary houses. There individual teachers (probably in many cases the owner of
the house) taught small numbers of children, including their own sons; literacy seems
largely to have been a male preserve.
LISTS IN THE SCRIBAL CURRICULUMThe first thing apprentice scribes would learn to do was to make the clay tablets
upon which writing was inscribed. Next would come practice in strokes of the stylus,
forming ‘wedges’ in the clay (such as , , ). Having mastered the basic technique,
the next step was to put wedges together to make the various characters (known as
‘signs’) of the cuneiform script,^3 starting with simple ones such as and. At this
point the student learned the sounds represented by the signs. The next step involved
putting the signs together in meaningful combinations, first people’s names then
various words. This is where the lists come in. Lists taught the students to read and
produce signs and words. After this came training in mathematics, drafting contracts
and letters and the study of proverbs and literary texts. Thus lists occupy a position
— Jon Taylor —