On the Alphabetic Scribal Curriculum at Ugarit

International audience ; In proposing and developing the typology contained in this article, the author attempts to formulate a viable theoretical approach to the interpretation of the corpus of Ugaritic texts which reflects scribal education. The paper is ultimately intended as a contribution to the ongoing project of the Franco-Syrian Mission de Ras Shamra to republish the Ugaritic texts by literary genre and on the basis of renewed systematic collation, and, in this case, to the preparation of a volume devoted to the school texts. The epigraphic portion of the project is nearing completion: over twenty of the Ugaritic school texts conserved in the museums of Syria and France have been copied and collated over the course of four summer-long study seasons, from 2001 to 2005. In moving beyond epigraphy, however, and in the direction of a synthetic overview of the local school curriculum, it quickly became clear that Ugaritologists have little choice but to begin by following in the footsteps of Assyriologists who have already done a good deal of work on this subject. [A proposed typology of the preserved Ugaritic school texts follows]. Conclusions: The Ugaritian attempt to affirm an independent and distinctive local identity through the establishment and maintenance of a written alphabetic tradition can be characterized as structurally calqued from the Mesopotamian tradition, but genuinely local in terms of content. Judging from the very different alphabetic material known from the Iron Age Levant, this attempt at establishing a local written tradition ultimately failed, at least in this particular form. But the fact that such an attempt was even made, and the great originality with which the endeavor was pursued, ensures a privileged place for the scribes of Ugarit in the history of writing.