This essay examines evidence for the interplay of memory recall and written technology in ancient Israel and surrounding cultures. The essay begins with a summary of the comparative evidence for writing-supported textual transmission in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Israel (based on the author’s Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature [2005]). This is followed by a survey of studies in the humanities and social sciences on how memory shifts affect textual transmission. The article concludes with a preliminary summary of the author’s research on memory shifts and other trends in documented cases of transmission history.