Sumerian Literary Catalogues and the Scribal Curriculum

Abstract

In recent reconstructions of the Old Babylonian Sumerian scribal curriculum it has been proposed that at the beginning of the second or advanced phase of scribal training pupils learned a group of ten literary compositions called the Decad. These reconstructions are based primarily on the assumption that two OB incipit lists, known as the Nippur and Louvre catalogues, list the content and sequence of the advanced curriculum. In this article this assumption is re-evaluated, and it is argued that the Nippur and Louvre catalogues are inventories and not curricular lists.