Literacy Very few Mesopotamians could read and write. Not only were there hundreds of signs to learn, many of these were complex (see p. ). If a king could read, he made sure that this was recorded in one of his boastful inscriptions!
For the most part, however, writing reflected the mode of speaking. A letter from an official would have to be read out to the king. So it would begin: ‘To my lord A, speak: … Thus says your servant B: … I have carried out the work assigned to me ...’ A long mythical poem about creation ends thus: ‘Let these verses be held in remembrance and let the elder teach them; let the wise one and the scholar discuss them; let the father repeat them to his sons; let the ears of (even) the herdsman be opened to them.’