literacy in ancient Assyria

A couple of comments that I’ve made in previous posts are that we should not always believe what is written in ancient texts (for example, that Assurbanipal was the scholar that he claims to have been), and that literacy was most likely the preserve of social elites. An article that finally came through from Document Delivery makes these two points very well. The title of this article is ‘Ashurbanipal: literate or not?’, by Alasdair Livingstone, and the fact that it asks such a question at all distinguishes it from most of the more accessible sources of information on this subject. The article concludes that it is highly likely that Assurbanipal was literate, but the important point here is that Livingstone has not taken the word of the ancient texts at face value. This is not the only source to do so, and in fact, it references several other articles that address the same question (way too hard to source with my limited time frame), but it is a good example, and an interesting article.

The article looks at some of the tablets from Assurbanipal’s library that appear to be evidence of students learning to write – these feature rather large and clumsy writing, which Livingstone describes as equivalent to how children write before they’ve learned to join up their letters, and they are usually copies of what were probably set texts. One is particularly interesting because the author claims to be Assurbanipal, and as there were very harsh punishments for those who took the king’s name in vain, there is good reason to believe that this really was his work.

A letter exists, in which a senior scribe named Balasî thanks Assurbanipal’s father Esarhaddon for making him Assurbanipal’s tutor. It is clear that members of the Assyrian social elites in general were expected to have some degree of literacy. There is evidence that Esarhaddon was literate too. There is also a very interesting letter from Assurbanipal’s sister to his wife, in which the reading and writing practice that they were expected to do is discussed. It is not clear how advanced they were expected to be, though, and it’s suggested that professional scribes had a much higher standard, but it is particularly interesting evidence of literacy in ancient Assyria, particularly because it shows that this was the case for women as well as men.

Livingstone quotes Janet Fincke, the director of the British Museum’s Ashurbanipal Library Project, who believes that Assurbanipal was literate, but questions whether he was quite the scholar that he claimed to have been – she discusses tablets in which it is hypothesised that scholars may have dumbed down texts for the king’s benefit. But Assurbanipal had to start somewhere, and he could well have progressed. Another tablet exists, a letter from a member of the scholarly elite, in which Assurbanipal is addressed and treated as a fellow scholar. This is more convincing evidence than the tablet that reads:

Marduk, the sage of the gods, gave me wide understanding and broad perceptions as a gift. Nabû, the scribe of the universe, bestowed on me the acquisition of all his wisdom as a present. Ninurta and Nergal gave me physical fitness , manhood and unparalleled strength. I learnt the lore of the wise sage Adapa, the hidden secret, the whole of the scribal craft. I can discern celestial and terrestrial portents and deliberate in the assembly of the experts. I am able to discuss the series “If the liver is a mirror image of the sky” with capable scholars. I can solve convoluted reciprocals and calculations that do not come out evenly. I have read cunningly written text in Sumerian, dark Akkadian, the interpretation of which is difficult. I have examined stone inscriptions form before the flood, which are sealed, stopped up, mixed up. [this inscription is known as ‘L’ to modern scholars]

This quote contains references to Assyrian gods and the practice of divination, which are rather opaque, but we get the gist: Assurbanipal has a deep interest in the written word and what it can express, and he wants his subjects to believe that he’s a scholar. It is clear that the Library at Nineveh that was so extensively developed during Assurbanipal’s rule reflected his own personal interests.

Livingstone, A, 2007, ‘Ashurbanipal: literate or not?’, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäeologie, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 98-118.