ṭupšarrūtu and the Historiography of Science

Francesca Rochberg

doi:10.35305/cl.vi20.53

Authors

Francesca Rochberg University of California

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35305/cl.vi20.53

Keywords:

ṭupšarrūtu, scribal knowledge, demarcation, representation, presentism

Abstract

Over the course of many centuries, cuneiform scribe-scholars produced a textual culture of learning that organized knowledge of the phenomenal world as defined by their particular interests. The ancient term for this culture was ṭupšarrūtu “the art of the scribe.” That we grant this culture the designation scientific is not without problems from the perspectives both of modern philosophy of science and of conventional historiography of science. This essay reflects on the anachronisms entailed in transposing such ideas about science to the premodern cuneiform world and the consequences these ideas have on a historiography of science inclusive of cuneiform scientific texts.

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