While the end of the 1st Babylonian dynasty is often portrayed as a phase of decline, with the emphasis on the decline of its political power and the fragility of its economic life, it has to be said that this is not the case from the point of view of literature in the broadest sense, even if this aspect of things has not always been presented as it shouldbe : the decline of Sumerian literature is generally emphasized, but the extraordinary development of literature in Akkadian, i.e. Babylonian, is not sufficiently highlighted.
We began by examining the learning of writing and the work of the " ordinary " scribes. The excavation of the house of Ur-Utu at Tell ed-Dēr led to the discovery ofa kind of basin where school tablets were found, which were published by M. Tanret. He proposed that these were the remains of the training received by Ur-Utu himself. According to the excavators' observations, the basin ceased to be used when the courtyard floor was last resurfaced, while Ur-Utu had been chief-lamentator for 14 years. How can we explain the fact that exercises dating back to his childhood were kept there ? It's unlikely. It seems more logical that the exercises were performed just before the courtyard was renovated. M. Tanret had concluded that Ur-Utu had only mastered the rudiments of cuneiform: in reality, he would have been capable of training students himself. The archives of the House of Ur-Utu have had another advantage: they have enabled us to better understand the work of scribes in its most concrete aspects. This is the paradox of the situation: professional scribes are still very little known. In 2004, M. Tanret published an in-depth study of a scribe named Šumum-liṣi, already attested by 23 texts and for whom the Ur-Utu archives provided 151 additional references. In all, 174 texts document him for 18 years, from the year 33 of Ammi-ditana to the year 18 of Ammi-ṣaduqa: this is a record case for the entire Paleo-Babylonian period. Šumum-liṣi worked extensively for Inanna-mansum and his son Ur-Utu, but without exclusivity. And vice versa: the two kalamahhûm preferred to use his services, but when he was unavailable, they turned to other scribes to write the contracts they needed.
