The transmissional and functional context of the lexical lists from Ḫattuša and from the contemporaneous traditions in Late-Bronze-Age Syria

Abstract

The study attempts to reconstruct

aspects of the culture and knowledge transfer as involved in the import

of cuneiform writing from Mesopotamia to Anatolia and Syria in the Late

Bronze Age. It therefore analyzes the manuscripts called 'lexical lists' that were excavated at the Anatolian and Syrian sites of Hattusha, Ugarit, and Emar. Lexical lists are structured, often bilingual or multilingual lists of words and cuneiform signs; they were the essential tools of scribal education in that period. The analysis follows three main research foci, i.e., (1) the geographical transmission of the lists from Mesopotamia to Anatolia and Syria ('long-distance transmissional context'), (2) their local reproduction at the mentioned sites ('short-distance transmissional context'), as well as (3) their role within the actual education procedures ('functional context'). Thereby, the analysis particularly takes into consideration t he specific role that oral vs. writing-based techniques of transmission played within those processes.