Knowledge, Literacy, and Elementary Education in the Old Babylonian Period (SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology)

This book examines education as a means to explore knowledge and literacy in the Old Babylonian period. It further employs a new method to research these topics. Contrary to numerous existing studies on the subject, the author examines elementary education globally, that is, in pursuit of Old Babylonian education in its entirety. Typically, education is examined in a piecemeal fashion. It's as if education centered on lexicography alone or mathematics alone. This work encompasses a view about educational content and knowledge systems, as opposed to only specific aspects or branches of them. In doing so, a characterization of institution and society is made possible allowing the work to open new general perspectives on Mesopotamian knowledge, literacy, and education. Acknowledgements About This Book Contents Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction 1.1 Historic Context 1.2 Knowledge and Literacy 1.3 Knowledge Systems References 2 At the Eduba 2.1 Signs and Lexicality 2.2 Numbers and Metrology References 3 The Old Babylonian Shift 3.1 Sexagesimal Place Value Notation 3.2 The Tabular Format 3.3 Signs and Numbers 3.4 Change References 4 Variety and Uniformity 4.1 The Document 4.2 Educations 4.2.1 Nippur 4.2.2 Ur 4.2.3 Larsa 4.2.4 Uruk 4.2.5 Isin 4.2.6 Babylon 4.2.7 Kiš 4.2.8 Sippar 4.3 Metatextual Variety References 5 Stabilizing Knowledge 5.1 Lagaba 5.2 The Texts 5.3 Learning by Doing 5.4 Additional Tablet Illustrations References 6 Outside the Eduba 6.1 Technical Literacy 6.2 Localizing Functional Literacy References Tablet Index General Index