Lexical texts

Be it part of the scribes' education, a reference tool at the court of the Assyrian king, or the source for a late commentator, lexical texts are not only among the longest attested texts from Mesopotamia, but also by far the earliest texts of this genre attested anywhere. The knowledge organized in these lists allow for many insights into Mesopotamian society and highlight many aspects of the socio-economic and religious life in the ancient Near East.

The pages on this text genre offer a brief general overview of the known sources on lexical texts together with a selected bibliography. The articles provide a more detailed insight into various aspects of these texts. In order to highlight the developments in this text genre, the articles are offered diachronically.

It should be noted that lexical texts were of major importance for the scribal education, which at least is testified in the ancient textual record from the early second millennium onwards. Since education comprises more than these lists, the (scribal) curriculum and its various contents are dealt with in Education.

General overview
* Sources
* The format of lexical texts
* Types of lists
* Lexical texts and their role in Assyriology
4^th millennium

• Archaic lexical texts from Uruk and elsewhere
  
• Ur, the first stop towards the Early Dynastic period
  
• Word lists and their impact on contemporary economic records
  

3^rd millennium
* Lexical texts in the scribal centres of Mesopotamia
* Newly compiled lists
* The transfer of lexical texts to Syria
* The survival of the lexical tradition in the Old Akkadian period
* Lexical lists in the Ur III period
2^nd millennium

• The last stage of archaic lexical texts in the Old Babylonian period
  
• New developments in the lexical corpus in the first half of the second millennium
  
• Bi- and multilingual lists and the status of equivalents
  
• The Kassite period
  
• The dissemination of lexical texts towards the North and the West
• The Middle Assyrian period
  
• New developments in the second half of the second millennium
  

** 1^st millennium

• The Neo and Late Babylonian periods
  
• Lexical texts and commentaries
  
• Palaeographical lists and number syllabaries