liqinnû qabû “to learn” and liginnû sˇuqbû “to teach” convey the same idea. They mean
literally “to recite excerpt tablets” and “to cause to recite excerpt tablets,” the basic
meaning of the root qabû being “to speak” (Beaulieu 1992 ). That reading, learning,
and teaching were conducted by recitation and repetition of the texts orally is also
suggested by mistakes in manuscripts that can be attributed only to poor hearing.
Higher education involved years of reciting and copying scholarly series and
supplemental texts, and above all discussing them with the teachers who initiated
their students into the oral tradition of the masters.
Thus, higher education and scholarship were private and often secretive, and only
a small number of individuals ever became proficient in cuneiform learning. These
two factors eventually gave rise to the notion that knowledge had been preserved
since the beginning of time through a long line of sages and masters who had
transmitted it to a select number of pupils. This tradition culminated in the lists of
antediluvian sages (apkallus) and postdiluvian masters (ummânus) who were ascribed
the authorship of works of literature and scholarship and remembered as advisors to
real and legendary kings. The first apkallu according to the late tradition was U’anna,
identified with the mythical sage Adapa and sometimes appearing under the name
U’anna-Adapa. He is better known as Oannes from the writings of Berossus, who
wrote his Babyloniaca in Greek at the beginning of the third century BC. Berossus
tells us that Oannes was half fish and half man, came out of the sea in the First Year
to teach humans all they needed to know in order to lead a civilized life, and that
after him nothing more had been discovered (Verbrugghe and Wickersham 1996 :
44 ). Other apkallus came later but only explained in greater detail what Oannes
had revealed. This tradition is nothing but a projection back into mythical time of
the conservative and incremental nature of late Babylonian scholarship. The role
of the learned was essentially to preserve, explain, and transmit an immutable body
of knowledge revealed once and for all in primeval time. Such refusal to entertain
the possibility of progress is very typical not only of the Babylonian world view, but
pervades the thinking of all ancient civilizations.
Progress, however, did take place. In the Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods, for
instance, the Babylonians invented mathematical astronomy, which ranks as the first
exact science in history. The possibility of progress was denied mainly because of the
belief that knowledge ultimately resided with the gods. This hierarchy is very apparent
in the Catalogue of Texts and Authors found in the library of Ashurbanipal (Lambert
1962 ). The Catalogueranks second the works attributed to the culture bringer U’anna-
Adapa, giving first place only to those attributed to Ea, the god of wisdom. Ea is
thus attributed authorship of the entire corpora of the exorcist and lamentation singer.
He is also given paternity of a number of other series. These include Enu ̄ ma Anu Enlil
and Sagigga (medical diagnoses and prognoses), and even Lugaleand Angim-dimma,
the ancient Sumerian epics of the god Ninurta that had been provided with intralinear
Akkadian translations in the course of the second millennium. Other sources trace
the craft of the diviner to the gods Sˇamasˇ and Adad, who had entrusted it at the
beginning of time to Enmeduranki, the antediluvian king of Sippar (Lambert 1967 ).
He, in turn, taught it to the men of Sippar, Babylon, and Nippur and thus became
the spiritual ancestor of all diviners. The goddess Gula and her consort Ninurta were
credited with the art of medicine (asûtu). A number of minor gods were given the
patronage of various crafts. Kulla was the god of brickmaking, and Gusˇkinbanda was
— Paul-Alain Beaulieu —