10 , 500 on 32 tablets. In addition there are also seven tablets of Erimhush, more than
ten of Antagal, more than 30 of Izi and yet more besides. The canonical lists preserved
a truly vast corpus of learning.
Not all lists were treated in the same way. Some of the older ones seem to have
been treated mostly as scholarly reference works, useful for the interpretation of other
ancient texts. Other lists formed the corpus of standard scribal training texts. For
example, among the lists of signs, Aa was used as a scholarly reference work, and the
related but much simpler Syllabary A (known already in the late Old Babylonian
period) and Syllabary B were used as elementary practice texts. The Neo-Babylonian
scribes were also heir to several traditions. During the Old Babylonian period,
compositions existed in slightly different versions in each of the various scribal centres.
More than one of these versions might survive, but they might be treated now in
very different ways to each other; the one as a reference work, the other as a practice
text. Among the school texts, some lists had fixed forms (the ‘canonical’ forms that
had taken shape during the Middle Babylonian period), while others – such as the
new professions list ummia = ummianu ‘scholar’ – did not (these are known as ‘non-
canonical’). The scribes respected the bank of knowledge accumulated by their forebears
but they did not behave as automata, reliant upon and slavishly reproducing a fossilised
body of texts. They actively preserved their traditions, differentiating and categorising
them according to source and quality. The scribes also reflected upon and utilised
their inheritance and remained free to innovate.
— Babylonian lists of words and signs —Figure 30. 2 BM 108862 : an example of the
first tablet of Ea, from Assur, c.eleventh century
BC. (Courtesy of the Trustees of the British
Museum.)
Figure 30. 3 BM 92693 : an example of the
second tablet of Aa, from Sippar, fifth century
BC. (Courtesy of the Trustees of the British
Museum.)