A Mesopotamian Clay Cuneiform Tablet, ca. 2000 BCE

An administrative clay cuneiform tablet with nine clear registers of script on both sides and traces of a seal roll.

The cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Created by the Sumerians around 3000 BCE (with predecessors dating to the late 4th-millennium Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. Over time, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract.

Cuneiforms were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed called a stylus. The name cuneiform is derived from two Latin words: cuneus, meaning "wedge," and forma, meaning "shape."

This picture language, similar to but more abstract than Egyptian hieroglyphics, eventually developed into a syllabic alphabet under the Semites (Assyrians and Babylonians) who eventually came to dominate the area. It was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite (and Luwian), Hurrian (and Urartian) languages, and it inspired the Old Persian and Ugaritic national alphabets. Cuneiform was succeeded by Aramaic script, which in turn was replaced by Arabic in the 7th century CE.

Medium: Terracotta

Dimensions: Length: 2 1/4 inches (5.7 cm), Width: 1 7/8 inches (4.76 cm)

Condition: Loss to one corner, otherwise intact and in good condition.

Provenance: Victor Pafundi (1949 - 2018) private collection, Florida, acquired from the English trade in 2004.

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