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August 01, 2006
The Sitz im Leben of Scribal Schools
Paolo Merlo from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome left a very interesting comment on my most recent post on "How to Recognize a Scribal School." Because of its importance and a difficulty that it highlights I want to further discuss it in a post of its own. Here is what Paolo wrote:
I read your interesting post. I would only tell you that if you would recognize a scribal school in Ugarit (or in Jerusalem), you have to pay attention also to the find spots of the tablets.I agree with you that there are possible signs within the tablet that allow to recognize the tablet as scribal exercise, but it would be even more interesting to find out a scribal school (with its Sitz im Leben)!
For example, the ugaritic house known as "house of Binu Agaptarri" or "du prête magiciens" should be also a "religious scribal-school". Actually we have two different archives of tablets in two different zones of the house: the first archive has 86 texts (almost all alphabetic): 56 texts are religious, 10 economic, 3 lexical (sillabic ones), 2 letters and 15 difficult to classify (fragments, or scribal exercises or only signs). Near this first archive it was found out many cultic vessels and many liver models (extispicies) that strengthen the religious character of the rooms.
The second archive of the same house (the famous "lamaštu") has 76 texts (all sillabic!): 35 texts are lexical or school exercises, 13 religious (against Lamaštu), 9 economic, 8 literary, 6 letters and 5 juridical.
If these two catalogs of data (and others) are joined, it is plausible that this house had two functions: religious in the northern part (the first archive) and scribal religious school in the southern part (the second archive).
Here you could recognize a real scribal school with its "Sitz im Leben"!
Paolo cites J.-C. Courtois, «La maison du prête aux modèles de poumon et de foies d’Ugarit», in Ugaritica VI, Paris 1969, pp. 91-119).as a reference.
First I want to thank Paolo for taking the time to leave this comment. All that he says is true and I agree that it is possible to identify the Sitz im Leben (setting in life) of the scribal school in the "house of Binu Agaptarri" on the basis of the find spots of the tablets. But is the Sitz im Leben of all scribal schools religious or even partly religious? Take for example the Amarna archive. In so far as we know the find spots of the tablets, most of the "school" texts were found some what removed from the international correspondence but still in the context of the "House of the Letters of the Pharaoh." If you believe that there was a scribal school at Amarna (and I think the evidence supports this view) then the evidence also points to the Sitz im Leben of that school as international (and vassal) relations rather than religious. And based on the only evidence we have, IF you believe that there was a scribal school in Amarna Age Jerusalem (and I think it is best to keep an open mind on this) then its Sitz im Leben would also be vassal relations.
But the real problem is that in the places and times that we would like to know about the presence and Sitz im Leben of a scribal school there are no archives (Why are humans so driven to know the unknown?). I am putting together a list of possible evidence for scribal schools in Bronze and Iron Age Israel and Judah for my next post on this subject and while one could argue that there are around 80 texts, not counting the Amarna tablets, that have bearing on this question, there are no real archives. Yes, there are three small caches of tablets, one from Middle Bronze Age(!) Hazor, one from Late Bronze age Taanach and the other from Late Bronze Age Aphak but none of these collections rise to the level of the Amarna, Ugaritc or Emar archives. Nearly everything else, with the exception of the somewhat late Lachish ostraca, is a tablet here and an ostracon there and an inscription over yonder, many out of context.
As I have said, what I am trying to find is a set of diagnostic tools that can be applied to individual finds that would help us identify the presence of a scribal school as opposed to a single learned scribe or a small group of scribes. The ultimate goal is to see if there is a coherent way to demonstrate the presence of a scribal school in 10th or 9th century BCE Jerusalem. On the basis of my current understanding, it is just as likely that the Sitz im Leben of that school, IF there was one, was administrative as opposed to religious. It is true that religious traditions were compiled and expanded within the larger context of scribal activity in Jerusalem and elsewhere within Israel and Judah, but when and why? I plan to take up these questions in my fifth and sixth posts in this series.
Posted by DuaneSmith at August 1, 2006 09:41 AM | Read more on Scribal Schools |
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