Mesopotamian Education

Mesopotamian education was invented by the Sumerians following the creation of writing c. 3500 BCE. The earliest schools were attached to temples but later established in separate buildings in which the scribes of ancient Mesopotamia learned their craft as they created and preserved the first written works in history.

The scribal school was known as the edubba ("House of Tablets") as students wrote their works in cuneiform script on clay tablets. Scribal houses were first discovered in the mid-19th century when European and American archaeologists engaged in extensive excavations throughout the region of the Near East, especially in Iraq.

Based on information from tablets discovered in the ruins of the city of Nippur (primarily) and elsewhere, students entered school before the age of ten and graduated around twelve years later having mastered cuneiform script, Sumerian and Akkadian, and an array of subjects including agriculture, architectural design, astronomy, botany, engineering, history, literature, medicine, philosophy, religion, and zoology.

Source: www.worldhistory.org

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