“The Rules of the School”

Abstract

“The Rules of the School,” or Eduba R, is a previously unedited Sumerian literary composition that describes a day in the life of an Old Babylonian student. In this paper, we examine the nature of Eduba R, its place within the corpus of scribal life texts (and particularly its relationship to the more popular composition Eduba A), and its pedagogical role within the Old Babylonian scribal school curriculum as a whole. In addition, we publish a transliteration, translation, commentary, and photos of the two primary manuscripts of the composition.