Schools in Babylonia (called the house of tablets ) served to teach Babylonian children cuneiform writing and other sciences. They studied mainly children of the privileged class.
Content
History
Schools were created to teach the scribes the Sumerian language . Basically, they began to appear at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. when the Sumerian language began to go out of use, and there was a need to teach it to future scribes (for the same reasons, a large number of literary works in this language began to appear at that time) [1] .
Mostly children of wealthy parents received education; of the several hundred famous scribes, all were sons of governors , high officials, priests or scribes. Sometimes children from a low-income family, or orphans, also fell into schools if they were previously adopted by rich people [1] .
Contrary to popular belief, schools were part of temples, according to Henry Suggs , in the second millennium BC. e. this was not so, which is obvious from the literary sources of that time, not related to temples [1] .
Student Life and Staff
Student Life
The exact age at which classes began at school is unknown: in the Babylonian tablet it is called “early adolescence”, which, presumably, means ten years of age [1] .
At least at an early age, students came to school for a full day. At sunrise, they took food from their mother and came to school, leaving there only for the night. In case of delay or misconduct, a flogging was supposed [1] .
The process of education consisted of rewriting and, possibly, learning by heart texts [1] .
The school curriculum consisted of the Sumerian language and mathematics [1] .
Staff
Each school had its own head, literally his title translates as "father of the house of tablets", or "expert". His assistants were the class teacher and teachers of various subjects, such as cuneiform writing or mathematics [1] .
Perhaps there was also a system in which the older students commanded the younger ones, further training them. Moreover, sometimes younger students who already had experience refused to obey their elders [1] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Henry Suggs, 2004 , Scribe in Babylonian society.
Literature
- Suggs, Henry . The scribe in Babylonian society // Babylon and Assyria. - Centerpolygraph , 2004. - (Genesis, Religion, Culture). - ISBN 5-9524-1461-3 .