The Sumerian disputation or Sumerian debate is a topical

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

created in the middle-to-late 3rd millennium BC. Seven major debates are known, with specific titles. The list of the majority of the known debates is as follows (from Kramer): (alphabetical) :#–''

Debate between bird and fish The "Debate between bird and fish" is an essay written in the Sumerian language on clay tablets, dating back to the mid to late 3rd millennium BC. Seven ''"debate"'' topics are known from Sumerian literature, falling in the category of ' disputa ...

'' :#–'' Debate between cattle and grain'' :#–''Debate between the millstone and the gulgul-stone'' :#–''Debate between the pickaxe and the plough''
translation
:#–'' Debate between silver and mighty copper''
translation
:#–'' Debate between Summer and Winter'' :#–'' Debate between tree and the reed'' Additionally, four compositions of the disputation type with the Sumerian school, and its graduates or teachers: :#–''The Disputation between Enkmansi and Girnishag'' :#–''The Colloquy between an'' ungula ''and a

Scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

'' :#–''The Disputation between Enkitalu and Enkihegal'' :#–'' Disputation between Two School Graduates'' An additional text concerns women: :#–'' Disputation between two unnamed ladies''

References

* Kramer, 1963. ''The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character,''

Samuel Noah Kramer Samuel Noah Kramer (September 28, 1897 – November 26, 1990) was one of the world's leading Assyriologists, an expert in Sumerian history and Sumerian language. After high school, he attended Temple University, before Dropsie and Penn, both i ...

, c 1963, The University of Chicago Press, Chapter 5, ''Literature: The Sumerian Belles-Lettres,'' pp. 165–228; Disputation literature, pp. 217–228.

External links

Disputations or Literary Debates, at Gateway to Babylon
Rhetoric Sumerian language {{MEast-myth-stub