Lexical Lists
Lexical lists are among the distinctive features of the culture of ancient Mesopotamia. They include the enumeration and classification of all cultural and natural entities, organized into structured lists. Some of these lists focus on elements of the writing system (syllables), serving as vocabulary compilations that allow us to reconstruct a significant portion of the intellectual interpretations of the ancients.
The earliest documented emergence of these lexical lists dates back to the very beginning of cuneiform writing in the second half of the fourth millennium BCE. Their use continued as long as cuneiform writing remained in use, up to the Seleucid period.
These lexical texts formed an essential part of the curriculum in the ancient Iraqi schools, representing an encyclopedic body of knowledge accumulated over Mesopotamian history. They can be regarded as an ideal model for introducing students to the full scope of knowledge relevant to their time and cultural context. Schools in the ancient Near East, especially in Mesopotamia, played a crucial role in preserving knowledge and ensuring its transmission from one generation to the next—thus safeguarding societal standards and values. Those who possessed this critical knowledge were responsible for passing it down, thereby maintaining the ideal values and perspectives of the community.
Schools emerged when knowledge became too extensive to be transferred informally and thus required organized educational systems. Literacy became essential for any administrative function, driven by the need to document increasingly complex economic transactions, the rise of labor specialization, social stratification, and the growing efficiency of administrative work. This in turn contributed to the development of writing, which became vital for tracking labor, raw materials, production, and food rations. Although writing was not the first tool of its kind, it was undoubtedly the most complex and diverse. In the context of increasing workforce specialization, writing itself became a specialized craft.
These professional scribes not only composed administrative texts but also created standardized lists of trade terms and symbols. Some of these lists, for instance, catalog professions. In Mesopotamia, it was customary for sons to follow the professions of their fathers. Education was largely dependent on the father’s social status, with entire families of scribes known across generations—a trend seen in other professional groups as well.
Although the writing system underwent changes over time, these lists were transmitted with minimal alterations. The lexical tradition developed the capacity to preserve various forms of information, from lists of basic signs to groups of words. Lexical texts are recognizable by their typical features: they are generally longer than average administrative texts and are systematically organized. Typically, they contain columns of lexical entries, listing elements such as professions, materials, personal names, deities, etc. As written texts, they embody the craft of scribal copying.
In Mesopotamia, it was customary to name these lists after the first phrase they contained. If a list was too long to fit on one tablet, scribes would divide it into parts, with each part inscribed on a separate tablet. To prevent confusion or loss of order, the tablets were marked with their sequence number and the name of the lexical series they belonged to. For example:
DUB.1.KAM₂ KI.KI.KAL.BE.ŠE₃ = ana it-ti-šu₂
"First tablet of the KI.KI.KAL.BE.ŠE₃ series = ana it-ti-šu₂"
The second tablet would be marked in the same manner, and so on. Additionally, scribes used another technique to preserve sequence: they would begin each tablet with the final entry from the previous one, thus maintaining continuity throughout the series.
Although the primary use of writing in the third millennium BCE was administrative—with most surviving cuneiform tablets from this era being archival in nature—archaeological findings of clay tablets often also include lexical texts and school exercises.
Al-Mustaqbal University—The Premier University in Iraq.
The Official Website of Al‑Mustaqbal University