Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Raymond de Hoop <rdehoop AT keyaccess.nl>]

Dave, 

to be exactly, I did not say they could not. I said that the data at hand
SUGGEST they DID not. The data I refer to, is the fact that especially the
writing of cuneiform demanded a very intensive education to become a writer
which was a kind of office in that time. Women were not educated for that
profession because women did not hold public offices. Moreover, what we know
about writing and writers (Mesopotamia, but also Egypt) is that they were
men; cf. for example the pictures of scribes in ANEP, 71ff; ABD, vol. 5,
1012ff).

The difference between the cuneiform and alphabetic script is that the
learning of the writing was less difficult. This made it possible that
knowledge of writing was not restricted to the scribes alone.

Raymond

> Van: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
> 
> What exactly is this "data that are at hand"?  Why would
> cuneiform script imply that women couldn't write it?  I don't follow
> you.
> 
> Dave Washburn