Schools of Scribes

There were schools of scribes who had their leaders for writing and editing purposes. They would copy older compositions and number the tablets for each composition and then number the lines to each tablet. They would compile their catalogs and then signed its work with the name of the head of the scribal school.

To train their scribes, secretaries, archivists, and other administrative personnel, they adopted the Sumerian system of formal education, under which schools served as the cultural centers of the land. The curriculum consisted primarily of copying and memorizing both textbooks and Sumero-Babylonian dictionaries containing long lists of words and phrases, including the names of trees, animals, birds, insects, countries, cities, villages, and minerals, as well as a large and diverse assortment of mathematical tables and problems. In the study of literature, the pupils copied and imitated various types of myths, epics, hymns, lamentations, proverbs, and essays in both the Sumerian and the Babylonian languages.

See also Schools under Economy and Social Structure.