Carr, David M., Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. xiv + 330. Hardcover. U$S 65.00. ISBN 0195172973

Abstract

This exceptionally erudite and readable book examines the educational curriculum in several ancient Near Eastern and Eastern Hellenistic cultures. In the wake of the renewed scholarly interest in the interplay between orality and textuality in pre-modern societies (especially the studies of Susan Niditch on ancient Israelite literature), Carr’s study breaks new ground by investigating the ways in which both writing and oral traditions worked in tandem in shaping the social identities of literate elites. Part I investigates the educational curriculums of two pre-alphabetic cultures, Mesopotamia and Egypt, which are then compared to the alphabetic cultures of early Israel and Greece. In cuneiform cultures the written media of instructional texts have survived in large numbers and provide a wealth of information pertaining to the subsequent revisions of the learning curriculum over the course of more than two thousand years. Though less abundant, the Egyptian educational materials demonstrate even more clearly how textuality was used as part of a broader process of enculturation of literate elites. The emphasis in both educational systems was not so much in preparing the students for everyday scribal tasks, but rather on passing on the basic core of “cultural texts”, which, as defined by Jan Assman, were highly authoritative compositions by virtue of their extreme antiquity and numinosity...