The ''Catalogue of Texts and Authors'' is a work of

Akkadian literature Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the East Semitic languages, East Semitic Akkadian language (Assyrian people, Assyrian and Babylonian language, Babylonian dialects) in Mesopotamia (Akkadian Empire, Akkadian, Assyria and Bab ...

. The ''Catalogue'' represents the most important

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

metatext Metatextuality is a form of intertextual discourse in which a text makes critical commentary on itself or on another text. This concept is related to Gérard Genette's concept of transtextuality in which a text changes or expands on the content ...

: its compiler grouped together texts or text categories under the names of authors "from whose mouth" they purportedly stem. Works are ascribed to Ea (the god of wisdom), to antediluvian sages and semi-mythical kings; but also to famous family ancestors and scholars from a less remote past. Additionally, some compositions are said to result from divine revelation or from dictation by certain animals.

Composition and manuscripts of the text

The composition of the ''Catalogue'' can be tentatively dated at some point between the 10th (the plausible composition date of the latest works included in it) and 7th centuries BCE (the date of its earliest manuscripts). Furthermore, as all post-diluvian scholars mentioned in it are said to either stem from

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...

Eridu Eridu (; Sumerian: eridugki; Akkadian: ''irîtu'') was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain (), also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in Lower Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, near the ...

, a Babylonian origin of the text is more than likely. At present, the ''Catalogue'' is preserved in two versions: one from 7th century

Nineveh Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...

and a less well-preserved one from

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

Arsacid The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...

. Both use the same basic pattern and overlap in some of the titles listed, but seem to belong to two divergent recensions.

Authorship in ancient Mesopotamia

The ''Catalogue'' shows that Babylonian scholars wondered who created their canonical texts. This fact in itself is remarkable, since for the most part of its history Mesopotamian scholarly tradition showed little interest in understanding works of literature as creations of inspired individuals (see

Author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

). For this reason, it has been argued that the main raison d'être of the ''Catalogue'' was not the concern for the biographies of individual authors, but rather the wish to underline the professional and familial heritage of the scribes whose prerogative it was to engage with and maintain cuneiform scholarship.

References

External links

0.0 Catalogue of Texts and Authors
critical edition and translation of the text (electronic Babylonian Library). {{improve categories , date=June 2023 Akkadian literature