Scribe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Mesopotamia== {{See also|Sumerian literature|Cuneiform}} [[File:Sumerian - Record of Temple Workers - Walters 481767 - View A.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Third Dynasty of Ur|Neo-Sumerian]] clay tablet with 24 columns on the front and back listing the names of almost 20,000 temple workers (2094β2047 BCE)]] The [[Sumerians]] developed one of the earliest [[writing system]]s, the first body of written literature, and an extensive scribal profession to further these activities. The work of [[Near East]]ern scribes primarily exists on [[clay tablets]] and stone monuments written in [[cuneiform]], though later in the period of cuneiform writing they begin to use [[papyrus]], [[parchment]], and writing tablets.<ref>Roger Matthews, "Writing (and Reading) as Material Practice: The World of Cuneiform Culture as an Arena for Investigation," in ''Writing as Material Practice: Substance, Surface and Medium'' (Ubiquity, 2013), p. 72.</ref> The body of knowledge that scribes possessed belonged to an elite urban culture, and few had access to it.<ref>Massimo Maoicchi, "Writing in Early Mesopotamia: The Historical Interplay of Technology, Cognition, and Environment," in Beyond the Meme: Development and Structure in Cultural Evolution (University of Minnesota Press, 2019), p. 408.</ref> Traveling scribes played a vital role in the dissemination of literary culture.<ref>Daniel Arnaud, "Scribes and Literature," ''Near Eastern Archaeology'' 63:4, The Mysteries of Ugarit: History, Daily Life, Cult (2000), p. 199 (</ref> During the middle to late 3rd millennium BCE, Sumerian literature in the form of [[Sumerian disputations|disputations]] proliferated, such as the ''[[Debate between bird and fish]]'';<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.5.3.5&display=Crit&charenc=j&lineid=t535.p2#t535.p2 |title=The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature |website=Etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk |date=2006-12-19 |access-date=2017-03-09}}</ref> the ''[[Debate between Summer and Winter]]'', in which Winter wins; and others between the cattle and grain, the tree and the reed, silver and copper, the pickaxe and the plough, and the millstone and the gul-gul stone.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.5.3 |title=The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature |website=Etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk |date=2006-12-19 |access-date=2017-03-09}}</ref> Nearly all known Sumerian literary works were preserved as a result of young scribes apprenticing for their profession.<ref>Paul Delnero, "Memorization and the Transmission of Sumerian Literary Compositions," ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'' 71:2 (October 2012), p. 189.</ref> In addition to literary works, the contents of the tablets they produced include word lists, [[syllabary|syllabaries]], [[grammar book|grammar forms]], and lists of personal names.<ref>Delnero, "Memorization and Transmission," p. 189.</ref> To the extent that the curriculum in scribal schools can be reconstructed, it appears that they would have begun by studying lists and syllabaries and learning [[metrology]], the formulas for writing [[Cuneiform law|legal contracts]], and [[proverb]]s. They then might have advanced to praise poems and finally to copying more sophisticated works of literature.<ref>Delnero, "Memorization and Transmission," p. 190.</ref> Some scholars have thought that apprentice scribes listened to literary compositions read aloud and took dictation; others, that they copied directly from master copies. A combination of dictation, copying, and memorization for reproduction has also been proposed.<ref>As reviewed by Delnero, "Memorization and Transmission," p. 191.</ref> {{clear}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page