The Colophons of the Archaic Lists and their Social Setting

The colophons of the archaic lexical lists, to which little attention has hitherto been paid, are re-edited and analyzed. Tablets with colophons are examined within their archaeological context, revealing clusters of lexical lists. Additionally, the colophons provide insights into the onomasticon and vocabulary of the Late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods. The lack of an unambiguous term for “scribe” and the occurrence of several professional designations not seemingly connected with writing raise questions about the training of scribes and the broader social organization of writing during those periods. We wish to thank Margarete van Ess, Kathryn Kelley, Szilvia Sövegjártó, and Konrad Volk for their suggestions. We wish also to express our gratitude to Christian W. Hess and A.-C. Parr for correcting our English and to Walther Sallaberger and Manfred Krebernik for their important and insightful observations. The archaic signs are cited following the publication by Green/Nissen in ZATU, as well as the sign list compiled by Englund available online at https://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=late_uruk_period.