Scribal Culture in the Ancient World TRS5126

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Critical Studies
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No
  • Curriculum For Life: No

Short Description

Scribal culture can be defined as the study of the materiality and mechanics of writing and reading. This course uses the multicultural worlds of the Ancient World, with particular focus on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and Rome, as a backdrop to exploring the scribal education, its outputs, and the broader societal effects of the production and consumption of writing in competitive environments. 

Timetable

Weekly, 2-hour seminars.

 

This is one of the options in and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Requirements of Entry

Standard entry to Masters at College level.

Excluded Courses

TRS4121 Scribal Culture in the Ancient World 

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Two case studies (800 words each) - 20% each

Essay (3,000 words) - 60%

 

Case studies will require engagement with material culture objects. Some can be found online, but others will be located in the Hunterian and University Library's special collections. These will be curated and presented in class, wherein students will have an opportunity to take photographs.

Course Aims

This course aims to: 

■ immerse students in the written cultural landscape of the Ancient World with a focus on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and Rome as case studies, considering in particular the relationship between literacy and orality in those cultures

■ critically engage with the primary evidence for scribes, their training, and their cultural and social spheres

■ recognise and articulate the cultural differences evident in communities using different scripts

■ contextualise the study of texts against the backdrop of the physical and intellectual environments in which they were produced.  

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ situate the nature and role of the scribe in the multicultural world of antiquity comparing the ways in which this might differ across cultural communities

■ critically compare pedagogical practices and educational dynamics in the various cultural communities of Egypt, Israel, and other ancient societies

■ engage with and analyse scholarship on the relationship of literacy and orality and the ways in which these manifest in texts

■ contextualise scribal practices associated with different cultural communities in their physical and geographic settings, and argue for ways in which these practices were affected by the multicultural environment. 

 

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.