in literature and reality*

typical genre of the traditional literature copied out in the Old Babylonian period, when young boys learning to be scribes had to master a complicated and progressively difficult corpus of sign-lists, lexical texts and literary compositions. Their school-work survived to be excavated, particularly at Nippur and Ur but also at Isin, Uruk and other sites. The tablets left behind by these young Babylonian apprentices are the principal source that modern scholars in Philadelphia and elsewhere have used over the past sixty years to reconstruct the canonical corpus of Sumerian literary texts, the first important body of literature anywhere in the world. Texts such as ‘Schooldays ’ (Kramer 1949) and ‘Edubba D ’ (Civil 1985) provide witty insights into the life and times of learner scribes. So in Schooldays we encounter the memorable passage that tells of the boy who can do no right. Everything he does attracts punishment by one or other of the school staff. Falling foul of every regulation, he laments, lú ká.na.ke4 a.na.·e.àm gá.da nu.me.a íb.ta.è e.·e in.túd.dè.en lú dugla¿tan.na.ke4 a.na.·e.àm gá.da nu.me.a x ·u ba.e.ti e.·e in.túd.dè.en lú eme.gi7.ra.ke4 eme.uri bí.in.dug4 e.·e in.túd.dè.en um.mi.a.mu ·u.zu nu.sa6.sa6 e.·e in.túd.dè.en Schooldays 38–412 The door monitor (said), ‘Why did you go out without my say-so? ’ He beat me. The jug monitor, ‘Why did you take [water or beer] without my say-so? ’ He beat me. The Sumerian monitor, ‘You spoke in Akkadian! ’ He beat me. My teacher, ‘Your handwriting is not at all good! ’ He beat me. This passage serves incidentally to remind us that until quite late scribal education i