Dr. Robert W. Middeke-Conlin (He, Him, His)
Main Focus
Robert’s current research examines changes in knowledge as seen in professional practice with what may be called the surveyor’s tradition during the Old Babylonian Period in southern Iraq. This project really arises out of work carried out at Yale University between 2016 and 2017. There, Robert took high quality images and then drew copies of one hundred texts dealing with what is often called the surveyor’s tradition. The surveyor’s tradition is well documented in the mathematical tradition and in administrative texts, especially in the second millennium BCE. From these texts it’s clear that surveyors were tasked with administering land in the forms of both agricultural output and water works. They were experts in altering the Babylonian landscape and had a long lasting, wide reaching, and well documented tradition that lasted from the fourth millennium BCE through the sixth century CE and from Southern Mesopotamia to the lands of Greece and Egypt during the Hellenistic period. The very end of the third millennium BCE saw a significant development in how numbers were exploited with the development of what is often called sexagesimal place value notation (SPVN) by modern researchers. This system afforded an easier method to multiply dissimilar objects or values, such as length by width to produce area. What may be called a “controversy” probably appeared with this development that would not be resolved until the middle of the Old Babylonian period (around 1750 BCE). The scribes and administrators were exploring whether and how to integrate this new development into their knowledge economy. Thus, this project adds to ongoing research at the MPI-GEA by exploring the early development of knowledge that would lead to the Technosphere as a complex system, by exploring land-use and regenerative practices in an ancient and remote society, and by adding new insight into how collective behaviour is transformed.
At the same time, Robert is diligently working to organise and document the legacy of Peter Damerow at the MPIWG. Peter Damerow was an important figure to this institution, the history of knowledge in general, education, and in Assyriology. At his death in 2011 he left behind rooms of books, papers, and notes as well as computers, hard drives, and other storage devices from throughout his time at the MPIWG and before. In 2019, Robert worked on Peter’s digital legacy. He is now working on the physical objects – his books and notes left to posterity. This work will afford research on a seminal figure whose work preceded and informed the ideas behind the MPI-GEA, and it will offer research and insight into the history of the Max Planck Society in general.
Curriculum Vitae
Robert is an historian of knowledge and Assyriologist whose current work concentrates on knowledge production, acquisition, and change in the ancient world, with a special focus on mathematics and knowledge systems in southern Mesopotamia (southern Iraq) during the Old Babylonian Period (c. 2000-1600 BCE). Robert has won numerous research grants, including a Marie Skłodowska- Curie fellowship at the University of Copenhagen, visiting postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and Berlin Center for the History of Knowledge, as well as a postdoctoral grant to work at Yale University's Babylonian Collection.
Robert's interest in the history of knowledge come from his days pursuing his Master's in the Yale in its Babylonian Collection, where he examined the aromatics industry in an ancient city as a means to elucidate ancient chemistry technology and trade. Interest in knowledge production and acquisition derive from his PhD work at the SPHere lab in Paris where he examined rounding numbers in administrative and educational contexts. At the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, Robert continued this work and developed a technique to exploit discrepancies found in the administrative texts to elucidate mathematical processes and knowledge. A discrepancy in a figure encountered in a text is a deviation between what is expected and what is stated. When it is observed in an administrative text, it yields clues about a practice that produced the figure. When compared with student practice, both elementary and advanced, it helps us to understand what knowledge was transmitted through education. The results of this project can be seen in Robert’s 2020 book, The Making of a Scribe: Errors, Mistakes, and Rounding Numbers in the Old Babylonian Kingdom of Larsa.
Robert became interested in changing knowledge at the university of Copenhagen’s department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies. There, he focused on numeracy and literacy, asking, "How and to what extent did education relay the practical knowledge necessary for a professional career?" From this primary question came three driving questions:
- How and to what extent did education relay the practical knowledge necessary for a professional career?
- How was mathematics expressed in education and in professional practice between time and place?
- How did mathematical practice transfer and changebetween communities?
The Old Babylonian period was chosen as a starting point for research because it is one of the best documented in history in both economic/administrative texts as well as mathematical texts. Numeracy was chosen because it affords as-yet understudied evidence for economic practices, intellectual thought, and technological innovation. Literacy was chosen because it affords an image of general knowledge within a period and place. This research resulted in the conference, Exchange of Knowledge Between Literate Cultures, held at the University of Copenhagen between the 19th and 21st of July, 2021, and then his 2023 book, Knowledge, Literacy, and Elementary Education in the Old Babylonian period.