Scribal Schools Archive
June 5, 2011
The Other Side of Scribal Culture
If you haven seen it, you might want to drop by Seth Sanders' place and read his discussion of what he calls “Scribal Culture's Shadow Tradition.” I may be giving too much away but here are his concluding remarks. When...Read all of "The Other Side of Scribal Culture"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:36 PM
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November 18, 2010
Seth Sanders On Scribes and Craftsmen
Over at Service the Word, Seth Sanders has an interesting set of seven "modest proposals" concerning “Scribes and Craftsmen, Inscriptions and Audiences in the Iron Age Levant.” He’s even threatens us with more in the future. So far, all of...Read all of "Seth Sanders On Scribes and Craftsmen"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:45 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
October 6, 2010
Literacy Among the Pharaohs?
When Semitists think of literacy, they tend to think of literacy (or lack of it) among the ancient Israelites and their Northwest Semitic neighbors or they think of the possibility of literacy among those who wrote in cuneiform. But Semitists...Read all of "Literacy Among the Pharaohs?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:10 PM
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June 19, 2010
A “Tasteless Tablet” And The Beginning of Scribal Training
When did students start scribal training in Mesopotamia? This is one of those perennial questions. Ann Guinan and Erle Leichty published a report and discussion of Niek Veldhuis’ discovery of a “tasteless” Old Babylonian tablet that seems to shed some...Read all of "A “Tasteless Tablet” And The Beginning of Scribal Training"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:53 PM
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April 22, 2010
The Megiddo Gilgamesh Fragment As A Graded Exercise
Among my many unfinished projects is the series “How to recognize a scribal school.” I wrote my most recent post in the series, “Evidence for the training of scribes in Late Bronze Age Canaan,” in October of 2006. At that...Read all of "The Megiddo Gilgamesh Fragment As A Graded Exercise"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:33 AM
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April 14, 2010
Tomb Of Ancient Egyptian Scribe Uncovered
Discovery News and Fox News have the story with pictures. I'm sure many others will follow. Here's how the Discovery News story begins. The elaborate burial tomb of an ancient royal scribe has been unearthed near Ismailia, 75 miles (120...Read all of "Tomb Of Ancient Egyptian Scribe Uncovered"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:26 AM
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April 13, 2010
Horsing Around With Scribal Training At Ugarit
Somewhat by accident, I ran across a paper by Robert Hawley on the alphabetic scribal curriculum at Ugarit. Interestingly, he called his paper “On the Alphabetic Scribal Curriculum at Ugarit.” To a very large degree, Hawley’s paper rests on several...Read all of "Horsing Around With Scribal Training At Ugarit"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:33 PM
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May 12, 2009
No Rest For The Retired
My very own copy of Yoram Cohen's The Scribes and Scholars of the City of Emar in the Late Bronze Age just arrived. Now I suppose I need to read it. The Scribes and Scholars of the City of Emar...Read all of "No Rest For The Retired"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:10 PM
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December 31, 2008
Scholarly Tablets from the Royal Palace at Ugarit
For a variety of abnormal reasons, I'm building a database of the scholarly tablets from Ugarit. By "scholarly tablets" I mean tablets used by master scribes to teach students or the work of the students themselves on such tablets: lexical...Read all of "Scholarly Tablets from the Royal Palace at Ugarit"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:20 PM
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December 30, 2008
Scribal Culture of the Heart
While traveling last week I read David Carr's Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature (Oxford University Press, 2005) and finished reading the endnotes to Karel van der Toorn's Scribal Culture and the Making of...Read all of "Scribal Culture of the Heart"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:22 AM
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May 20, 2008
Scribal Schools in Canaan
Charles at Awilum, quotes from a review of Wayne Horowitz and Takayoshi Oshima, Cuneiform in Canaan: Cuneiform Sources from the Land of Israel in Ancient Times by Yuram Cohen in the February 2008, BASOR. Charles has complete references. Please go...Read all of "Scribal Schools in Canaan"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:56 PM
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December 1, 2007
How Shallow Was Ancient Hebrew?
Some scholars have suggested that it is easier to learn to read and write languages written with "shallower orthographies" than languages with "deeper orthographies." Not only is this issue supposedly germane to literacy, it also enters into discussions of scribal...Read all of "How Shallow Was Ancient Hebrew?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:28 AM
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November 27, 2007
It Takes Guts to Write Like That
Well, the pattern of intestines may have motivated writing in spirals and in boustrophedon. Over the last week or so, I've exchanged emails with Rochelle Altman on scribal schools, literacy and related subjects. In one email, she said the following...Read all of "It Takes Guts to Write Like That"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:38 AM
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November 19, 2007
Oral Tradition Is Not a Concept
I'm back for the Society of Biblical Literature meeting. Over the next few days, I will post a few brief thoughts on some of the papers and sessions. On Saturday afternoon, I attended the "Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature Section...Read all of "Oral Tradition Is Not a Concept"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:09 PM
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September 11, 2007
In Which Direction Should One Write?
Last Thursday I took a clay tablet to lunch to show to a couple of the people that Shirley and I have lunch with almost every week. After the question, "Can anyone really read this?" the next question was "In...Read all of "In Which Direction Should One Write?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:15 PM
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June 26, 2007
On the Absence of the Paragogic nun in Epigraphic Hebrew
Warning: this post contains obscure points of ancient Hebrew grammar. I finally got my hands on Kaufman's article about the Hebrew paragogic nun and scribal training (see postscript below). You may remember that Charles Halton at Awilum told us about...Read all of "On the Absence of the Paragogic nun in Epigraphic Hebrew"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:45 PM
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June 21, 2007
On the Need to Learn From Egyptian Scribes
The other day Egyptology News featured a story on "The School of Scribes at the Ramesseum" Andie quoted from an article in Le Journal de CNRS describing various things of interest uncovered at the Ramesseum. Like Andie, I found the...Read all of "On the Need to Learn From Egyptian Scribes"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:44 PM
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June 15, 2007
The Ever Popular Paragogic Nun and Scribal Training in Ancient Israel
Charles Halton at Awilum has a very interesting post about Kaufman's understanding of the paragogic nun in Biblical Hebrew and how such a thing might contribute to an argument for a standardized scribal curriculum in Ancient Israel. Like most of...Read all of "The Ever Popular Paragogic Nun and Scribal Training in Ancient Israel"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:53 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
June 9, 2007
Scribes and the Economy of Cities
I've been working through the archaeological evidence that some scholars suggest limits or even negates the likelihood of a scribal school in early 10th century BCE Jerusalem. In its simplest form, the argument says that Jerusalem was too small and...Read all of "Scribes and the Economy of Cities"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:59 PM
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June 1, 2007
It's Still Gibberish
A couple of days ago I learned via ABZU that back issues of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists are online and can be accessed without charge. Most of what they cover is not normally within my abnormal...Read all of "It's Still Gibberish"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:24 PM
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May 18, 2007
The Seal of Lugal-Dúr, the Scribe
While looking for something else I came across a beautiful cylinder seal from Nippur. While it is neither from a location (Mesopotamia) nor from a time (3rd millennium BCE) normally among my abnormal interests, its wonderful workmanship struck me. You...Read all of "The Seal of Lugal-Dúr, the Scribe"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:34 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
May 15, 2007
Ninth Century BCE Seals from Jerusalem (?)
There's a report that archaeologist Ronny Reich found a number of seal impressions in the same context as 9th century BCE potsherds "at the bottom of the quarry/pool by the Gihon spring." I quote from Yigal Levin's observations as reported...Read all of "Ninth Century BCE Seals from Jerusalem (?)"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:47 AM
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May 13, 2007
Where are ‛Izbet Sartah and Tel Zayit?
This post is a bit of an experiment. I have been looking for good mapping software for the Ancient Near East. The other day Todd Bolen of Bible Places directed us to Bible Mapper, so I thought I'd give it...Read all of "Where are ‛Izbet Sartah and Tel Zayit?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:50 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
May 5, 2007
Were Seal Engravers Trained Scribes?
The evidence for the southern Levant seems to indicate that they were not. Christopher Rollston (1966) argued that there is sufficient evidence to hold that formal scribal training was part of the eighth through the sixth centuries BCE process of...Read all of "Were Seal Engravers Trained Scribes?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:46 PM
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May 1, 2007
More Excuses! All I Ever Have are Excuses.
For about the last two or three weeks I thought that I was one good working day away from publishing my next mega-post on scribal schools. But sometime yesterday evening I realized that the approach I was taking to presenting...Read all of "More Excuses! All I Ever Have are Excuses. "
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:30 PM
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April 28, 2007
The Challenge of the Alphabet
While working on my next, now very belated, post on scribal schools I took a break to see what was going on in the blogosphere. And guess what, via John Wilkins', Evolving Thoughts, I found an amazing account of a...Read all of "The Challenge of the Alphabet"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:11 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
April 27, 2007
The Weapon of God
I found, via ABZU, a 1997 dissertation by Niek Veldhuis called Elementary Education at Nippur; The Lists of Trees and Wooden Objects. It's over 400 pages long so I haven't read it through as yet but it contains a good...Read all of "The Weapon of God"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:00 PM
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February 15, 2007
Some Observations on the Tel Zayit and ‘Izbet Sartah Abecedaries
I have previously written about the ‘Izbet Sartah abecedary and made a few preliminary remarks about the Tel Zayit abecedary. As I indicated in my post on it, the ‘Izbet Sartah abecedary was written between 1200 and 1000 BCE. On...Read all of "Some Observations on the Tel Zayit and ‘Izbet Sartah Abecedaries"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:18 PM
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February 14, 2007
What Isn't Written in Stone
I just finished a preliminary reading of Tappy, McCarter, Lundberg and Zuckerman, "An Abecedary of the Mid-Tenth Century B.C.E. from the Judaean Shephelah." I was as interested in what the paper didn't tell me as what it did. There have...Read all of "What Isn't Written in Stone"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:05 PM
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February 13, 2007
It Looks Like I Need to Get Back to School, Scribal School That Is
The November issue of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research is at last out. So off to the library tomorrow. See Jim West's post for the Table of Contents. With the material by Ron E. Tappy, P....Read all of "It Looks Like I Need to Get Back to School, Scribal School That Is"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:49 PM
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Titles Only From Here On
December 26, 2006
May Ba'al, Even the God Himself, Watch Over Your Life!
November 13, 2006
Bowing, Scraping and Scribal Traditions
October 18, 2006
On The Gezer Calendar
October 10, 2006
On the ‘Izbet Sartah Sherd
October 9, 2006
The Tell Zayit Inscription to Be Published Soon
September 28, 2006
Not Completely Wasted Thoughts on the Manahat Sherd
September 20, 2006
How to Recognize a Scribal School
September 14, 2006
Was Abdi-Heba a New Man in Jerusalem?
September 7, 2006
A Not So Simple Quiz
September 2, 2006
Literacy at Lachish
August 31, 2006
Further Reflections on Kuntillet ‛Ajrud Pithos II
August 30, 2006
Some Text from Kuntillet ‛Ajrud Pithos II
August 24, 2006
Partial Abecedaries from Gezer
August 22, 2006
Egyptian Loanwords in Epigraphic Hebrew?
August 19, 2006
Hypothesis Testing
August 17, 2006
Always Read the Notes: Foot or End
August 14, 2006
Is a na‛ar Ever a Scribe? Could One Really Write?
August 8, 2006
Trying to Define a Question in the Hopes of Finding an Answer
August 2, 2006
An Interesting Coincidence
August 1, 2006
The Sitz im Leben of Scribal Schools
July 30, 2006
How to Recognize a Scribal School
July 16, 2006
A Scribal Exercise or Only a Scribal Error
June 26, 2006
How to Recognize a Scribal School
June 19, 2006
A Pseudo-Letter on the Teaching of Writing
June 17, 2006
The Role of Readers, Present and Future, in Motivating Literature
June 11, 2006
Overcoming Sexism - Mine
May 31, 2006
How to Recognize a Scribal School