Cuneiform inscriptions: Archaic administration (2023-04-01)

Created by: Englund, Robert K.

Clay tablet from the Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3100-2900 B.C.), likely from the southern Mesopotamian city of Uruk. The tablet was gifted to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City in 1988, following its purchase at a famous Christie’s London auction of a Swiss collection of cuneiform artifacts.

Without the discernable use of involved syntax in early texts, it is difficult to interpret tablets with any certainty. This small tablet likely reports on the grain (barley) distribution of a large temple. A cylinder seal has been rolled over the tablet, illustrating a man walking two dogs on leashes while they hunt boar. Consistent with the southern Mesopotamia region, the man appears to be active in wetlands. The Jemdet Nasr period is particularly known as one of the formative stages in the development of cuneiform. While the Uruk IV period claims the oldest clay tablets, the Jemdet Nasr period made great advancements away from a pictographic style of text. CDLI entry: P005393

credit: Deline, Julian