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THBLot of 3 Mesopotamian Clay Cuneiforms
Lot 84a
About Seller
Artemis Gallery
686 S Taylor Ave, Ste 106
Louisville, CO 80027
United States
Selling antiquities, ancient and ethnographic art online since 1993, Artemis Gallery specializes in Classical Antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Near Eastern), Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal / Oceanographic art. Our extensive inventory includes pottery, stone, metal, wood, glass and textil...Read more
Live Auction in Progress ... Currently on Lot Estimate:
$2,500 - $3,500
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About Auction
Live
By Artemis Gallery
Aug 30, 2018
Set Reminder
2018-08-30 10:00:00
2018-08-30 10:00:00
America/New_York
Bidsquare
Bidsquare : Fine Antiquities / Asian / Ethnographic Art
https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/fine-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-art-3402
Featuring classical antiquities, Asian, ancient and ethnographic art from cultures encompassing the globe, plus fine art. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com
Featuring classical antiquities, Asian, ancient and ethnographic art from cultures encompassing the globe, plus fine art. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com
View Full Catalog (396)
- Lot Description
Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Old Babylonian Period, ca. 2000 to 1600 BCE. A fabulous trio of Old Babylonian works, each one impressed with Cuneiform script including a pair of cuneiform tablets, also known as "biscuits", each with a partial translation - one discussing sending oil, the other sesame - as well as a foundation cone from the same time period, untranslated. Size: 2.2" W x 4" H (5.6 cm x 10.2 cm)
Cuneiform tablets like these are a few of the roughly 2 million known from this culture; of these, between 30,000 and 100,000 have been translated. The earliest translations came in 1836 from the work of French scholar Eugene Burnouf and by the 1850s multiple scholars were able to produce similar translations, meaning the language had been deciphered. Similar to many other known cuneiform tablets, this one is concerned with property. Cuneiform tablets seem to have been used mainly as a way of tabulating economic concerns. Although it might be more romantic to imagine that these tablets discussed the doings of kings and gods, from a historical standpoint, it is much more interesting to learn about the daily transactions of humanity's first great urban center.
Clay nails like this are also referred to as dedication pegs or foundation pegs; they were inscribed, baked, and stuck into walls made of mud-brick to mark ownership either by a god or a ruler. These dedications sometimes include stories or boasts about the rulers they describe, and are some of our earliest sources of written royal history. These objects most likely decorated the facades of tombs, but only two of them have ever been found in situ. Instead, they are often found in groups together inside of tombs, including cones not from the tomb where they were found - it seems that people have been picking up and moving these highly portable objects since they were first made!
Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-Recanati collection, Israel, collected in the 1970s
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
#137750One of the tablets is repaired from three pieces. The second has a stable crack that is a result of drying. The cone is missing its tip, with some encrustation.Condition
- Shipping Info
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