Therefore, even long after its death as a living tool of communication, late Babylonian
continued for some time to be transmitted both orally and in writing in the schools
alongside Standard Babylonian and Sumerian. Cuneiform civilization remained
surprisingly alive in this form until the last decades of Seleucid rule. The large
temples, especially the Esagil in Babylon, continued to function as centers of intellectual
life and science and as repositories of texts. Babylonian scholars, better known as
Chaldeans, even began to spread, with some success, their astronomical science and
religious doctrines throughout the Mediterranean world. Only with the installation
of Parthian rule at the end of the second century BCcan we gather evidence for the
disintegration and collapse of Babylonian institutions and the end of cuneiform
learning. The last known cuneiform tablet, which is, not surprisingly, an astronomical
text, is datable to the year 75 of our era (Sachs 1976 ).
BIBLIOGRAPHYAl-Rawi, F.N.H. and George, A.R. ( 1994 ), “Tablets from the Sippar Library III. Two Royal
Counterfeits,” Iraq 56 , 135 – 148.
Beaulieu, P.-A. ( 1992 ), “New Light on Secret Knowledge in Late Babylonian Culture.” Zeitschrift
für Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie 82 ( 1992 ) 98 – 111.
–––– ( 2000 ), “The Descendants of Sîn-le ̄qi-unninni,” in J. Marzahn and H. Neumann, eds,
Assyriologica et Semitica. Festschrift für Joachim Oelsner anläßlich seines 65. Geburtsages am 18. Februar
1997 .(Alter Orient und Altes Testament 252 ; Münster: Ugarit Verlag) 1 – 16.
Boiy, T. ( 2004 ), Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 136 ;
Leuven: Peeters).
— Paul-Alain Beaulieu —Figure 33. 1 Kudurru of the Babylonian king Marduk-zakir-shumi (left) which shows him
handing a document to his scribe (right) (ninth century) (Louvre).