Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226101590.003.0010
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on writing and literacy in Mesopotamia during the second millennium bce. The Old Babylonian period is no doubt the era of Mesopotamian history when writing covered the broadest range of reality compared to the third millennium bce. There was considerable diversity in the types of contracts used and more abundant letters with more varied and vivid contents. Despite the widespread writing and use of written text, the transmission of knowledge remained largely within the sphere of the oral and writing for the most part only preserved information whose interest was limited in duration.
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