tion-driven learning process. Carr calls this process “education-enculturation.”^1327 In this
view of the ancient scribal craft, the memory of the scribe is the most important tool in
the composition and propagation of long-duration texts.
According to Carr the formalisation of education in the Old Babylonian period meant that
scribes were inducted into their profession through the memorisation of a standardised set
of texts. From around the Kassite period, and extending into the first millennium B.C.E.,
access to specialised literature, such as divination and magical texts, beyond the standard-
ised curriculum used in the early stages of education became increasingly restricted
through the specialisation of extended curricula for different scribal professions.^1328
As a result, the transmission of specialised texts became the task of a more selective body
of professional scribes. Specific form and content became important aspects of these spe-
cialised texts. This is indicated by the appearance in the first millennium of colophons
that claim that a given tablet was “written and checked according to its original.”^1329 Such
evidence indicates that written texts had begun to serve as “authoritative reference points
for the checking of scribal memory.”^1330 The ongoing training of scribes under this pro-
(^1327) See the description in D.M. Carr, (^) Writing on the Tablet of the Heart, 12.
(^1328) D.M. Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart, 20-26.
(^1329) Several indications contribute to this view. Aside from the colophons that claim review according to an
original exemplar, we also see evidence of counting lines, notation of breaks or damage in Vorlagen, and
the extent of such damage. Occasionally variants are noted, or the older script of the Vorlage is imitated
and glossed. On this see S.J. Lieberman, "Canonical and Official Cuneiform Texts," 330. These types of
variation in the manuscripts were already noted in C. Bezold, L.W. King, and E.A.W. Budge, Catalogue,
5.xxvi-xxix. 1330
D.M. Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart, 38.