3 - 4 pm (CET)

Venue:

Einstein Center Chronoi

Otto-von-Simson-Straße 7, 14195 Berlin

Prof. Dr. Paul Delnero

There is a wealth of evidence for education in ancient Mesopotamia exceeding that of any culture or period of the ancient or pre-modern world. At the city of Nippur, the religious center of Mesopotamia in the early second millennium BCE, the entire sequence of lists and texts that were taught to pupils learning to read and write can be reconstructed. The first and most elementary exercise was Syllable Alphabet B, a list consisting of little more than short sequences of simple and frequently repeated cuneiform signs preserved in hundreds of copies produced by beginning pupils with varying, but mostly modest degrees of success. In this paper, the content and lengths of the extracts, and improvement in the execution of the script across the exercise copies of Syllable Alphabet B, and the personal name lists, thematic word lists, and advanced sign list that followed it, will be examined to determine how long it took to learn to write in early Mesopotamia, and how the temporality of the learning process might have been experienced.

Participants can join the online Chronoi Talk by clicking on the following link:

https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin/j.php?MTID=me1a3c51df7971d42b5db3e17dbffa29d

The conference room can be accessed using the following methods:

• Joining directly in your browser; simply click the link above, and look for a button with this option near the bottom of the webpage.

• Downloading the program to your computer (instructions can be found by following the meeting link)

• Using the smartphone app called "Cisco Webex Meetings."

You are welcome to enter the online conference room up to 15 minutes in advance of the start time.