Editing Scribe (section)

==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 (2094–2047 BCE)]]
The [[Sumerians]] developed one of the earliest [[writing system]]s (the  [[Cuneiform]]), 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.&nbsp;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>
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