Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Sumer, ca. 3rd millennium BCE. An interesting group of 3 hand-built clay tablets of rectangular forms, each bearing several lines of inscribed cuneiform script. Each tablet features convex faces, slightly rounded peripheries, and a coarse, age-commensurate surface texture. The first tablet bears 8 lines of cuneiform text, with the medium-sized tablet showing 16 lines, and the largest displaying 8 lines. While untranslated, these tablets perhaps provide an accounting of payments rendered to workers, or shipping manifests for certain types of goods, or even messages to loved ones. Size of largest: 2.7" W x 1.9" H (6.9 cm x 4.8 cm)
Provenance: East Coast collection, New York Gallery, New York City, New York, USA, acquired before 2010
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#138539
Condition
Medium-sized tablet is a fragment of a larger tablet. Largest and medium-sized tablets each have one large but stable hairline fissure running diagonally across one face; smallest tablet is intact and very good. All pieces have minor abrasions and nicks to faces, peripheries, and corners, with softening to some cuneiform characters, and light encrustations within some characters. Great preservation to most cuneiform characters.