Knowledge, Literacy, and Elementary Education in the Old Babylonian Period - Paperback

by Robert Middeke-Conlin (Author)

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.

Back Jacket

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.

Author Biography

Robert is an historian of knowledge and assyriologist whose work concentrates on knowledge production, acquisition, and change in the ancient world. Robert has won numerous research grants, including a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship at the University of Copenhagen, visiting postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and Berlin Center for the History of Knowledge, as well as a postdoctoral grant to work at Yale University's Babylonian Collection. His Ph.D. work was carried out in the SPHERE Laboratory at the University of Paris (formerly the University of Paris Diderot) with a pre-doctoral fellowship from the European Union's Mathematical Sciences in the Ancient World project. His book, "The Making of a Scribe: Errors, Mistakes and Rounding Numbers in the Old Babylonian Kingdom of Larsa," examines numeracy and mathematical education in an ancient kingdom.