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The Scribal Tablet-House in Ancient Mesopotamia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
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The pivotal role of the scribe in the development of Mesopotamian culture can scarcely be exaggerated. His was the cohesive force that helped preserve and enrich one of mankind's very earliest civilizations throughout its long historical career, that impressed upon it its unique form and character, and that maintained and revitalized its vast body of traditions, customs, and ideals over the span of almost three millennia, doing so in spite of repeated social, political, and intellectual changes. With the deployment of the first practical system of writing — an innovation which obviously lent societal mores a permanence and continuity heretofore lacking — the scribe emerged early as a central figure in the workings of Mesopotamia. Thus armed with a means of fixing thought on clay, it was inevitable perhaps that the tablet-writer should come to occupy a strategic position in his several roles as temple functionary, court secretary, royal counselor, civil bureaucrat, commercial correspondent, poet, and scholar. The role and importance of the tupšarru, it has been rightly observed, might be likened to those of the clergy in medieval Europe; his lore, tupšarrūtu, to that extensive body of knowledge, skills, and savoir-faire covered by the Islamic term adab. Any holistic appreciation for the Mesopotamian cradle of civilization, arguably, will accord pre-eminence to the scribe and his craft in ancient Near Eastern society.
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The author wishes to express appreciation to Ms. Jane W. Heimerdinger, Research Associate in the Tablet Collection of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania; to Professor Samuel Noah Kramer, formerly Curator of the Tablet Collection; to the research staff of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; and to Mr. Sameer Khayri Al-Ni'ma, formerly head of the A-Nidhal Secondary School, Baghdad, for technical assistance with source materials utlized in the preparation of this manuscript; and to Robert Rowland, Jr. who kindly consented to review an earlier draft of the paper.
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70. See Gadd, , op. cit. , p. 31; and Sjöberg, “The Old Babylonian Eduba,” op. cit., p. 170.Google Scholar
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73. Kramer, , The Sumerians, pp. 247–248.Google Scholar
74. Gordon, , op. cit. , pp. 200, 204. 207, 210, 211; respectively, #2.37, 2.44, 2.48, 2.53, 2.54.Google Scholar
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