The figure of the scribe looms large in our understanding of the culture and history of ancient Mesopotamia. Scribes composed, copied, edited, and collated the thousands of cuneiform tablets that are such a rich source of information on the ancient past. But what can be learned from examining the career of an individual scribe? “Living in a Culture of the Past: The Life and Work of a Scribe in Hellenistic Uruk” is a microhistorical study of the life and work of a particular scribe who lived in the southern Mesopotamian city of Uruk in the time of Alexander the Great. His name was Iqīšā, the son of Ištar-šum-ereš, of the Ekur-zakir clan. This talk reconstructs Iqīšā’s career as a scribe, ritual expert, and teacher, examines the ways that Iqīšā identified himself in the traditional cuneiform texts that he copied, and demonstrates how the study of a single ancient individual’s life and work can lead to productive new insights about continuity, change, and power in Babylonia in the fourth century BCE.

By Dr. Abigail Hoskins Research Scholar