Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet
Clay
1.96 x 2.63
CT.027
Sumerian cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. First appearing in the 4th millennium BC in what is now Iraq, it was dubbed cuneiform (‘wedge-shaped’) because...
Sumerian cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. First appearing in the 4th millennium BC in what is now Iraq, it was dubbed cuneiform (‘wedge-shaped’) because of the distinctive wedge form of the letters, created by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay. Early Sumerian writings were essentially pictograms, which became simplified in the early and mid 3rd millennium BC to a series of strokes, along with a commensurate reduction in the number of discrete used (from c.1500 to 600). The script system had a very long life and was used by the Sumerians as well as numerous later groups – notably the Assyrians, Elamites, Akkadians and Hittites – for around three thousand years. Certain signs and phonetic standards live on in modern languages of Middle and Far East, but the writing system is essentially extinct. It was therefore cause for great excitement when the ‘code’ of ancient cuneiform was cracked by a group of English, French and German Assyriologists and philologists in the mid 19th century AD. This opened up a vital source of information about these ancient groups that could not have been obtained in any other way.
Cuneiform was used on monuments dedicated to heroic – and usually royal – individuals, but perhaps its most important function was that of record keeping. The palace-based society at Ur and other large urban centres was accompanied by a remarkably complex and multifaceted bureaucracy, which was run by professional administrators and a priestly class, all of whom were answerable to central control. Most of what we know about the way the culture was run and administered comes from the cuneiform tablets, which record the everyday running of the temple and palaces complexes in minute detail, as in the present case. The Barakat Gallery has secured the services of Professor Lambert (University of Birmingham), a renowned expert in the decipherment and translation of cuneiform, to examine and process the information on these tablets. The following is a transcription of his analysis of this tablet:
This tablet consists of 11 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on obverse and reversr. The whole surface was rolled with the scribe’s cylinder seal after the writing, which has made reading much more difficult, but the seal design can be made out: a god is seated, and a human (the seal owner) is being led into the god’s presence by an introducing goddess; the seal inscription reads; “Mashum, son of Ili-shaliq”, the scribe.
The text is an administrative document recording receipt of certain items from official stores by a named person:
Translation:
2 grass-fed sheep.
75 . . . . . . fish.
3 talents of . . . . . . (a plant).
Unnene received.
Overseer: Mashum, overseer: Ur-Tummal.
Offerings for/of (the god) Enlil.
Month: Nig-Enlilla.
Year: the high priestess of Inanna of Uruk was chosen by divination.
As usual, the ancient scribes were not concerned to explain things for us. A person called Unnene receives three kinds of foodstuffs, with, curiously, two officials watching over the event. Then we are told that it has some connection with the major Sumerian god Enlil. This is certainly some transfer within the official; bureaucracy, which was very prevalent under this dynasty.
Meat was a rare commodity in Sumer, since there was little pasture for much of the year, so fish provided most protein for the human diet. Whatever the theological assumptions of the wording here, it is certain that humans eventually consumed all the foods listed.
Cuneiform was used on monuments dedicated to heroic – and usually royal – individuals, but perhaps its most important function was that of record keeping. The palace-based society at Ur and other large urban centres was accompanied by a remarkably complex and multifaceted bureaucracy, which was run by professional administrators and a priestly class, all of whom were answerable to central control. Most of what we know about the way the culture was run and administered comes from the cuneiform tablets, which record the everyday running of the temple and palaces complexes in minute detail, as in the present case. The Barakat Gallery has secured the services of Professor Lambert (University of Birmingham), a renowned expert in the decipherment and translation of cuneiform, to examine and process the information on these tablets. The following is a transcription of his analysis of this tablet:
This tablet consists of 11 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on obverse and reversr. The whole surface was rolled with the scribe’s cylinder seal after the writing, which has made reading much more difficult, but the seal design can be made out: a god is seated, and a human (the seal owner) is being led into the god’s presence by an introducing goddess; the seal inscription reads; “Mashum, son of Ili-shaliq”, the scribe.
The text is an administrative document recording receipt of certain items from official stores by a named person:
Translation:
2 grass-fed sheep.
75 . . . . . . fish.
3 talents of . . . . . . (a plant).
Unnene received.
Overseer: Mashum, overseer: Ur-Tummal.
Offerings for/of (the god) Enlil.
Month: Nig-Enlilla.
Year: the high priestess of Inanna of Uruk was chosen by divination.
As usual, the ancient scribes were not concerned to explain things for us. A person called Unnene receives three kinds of foodstuffs, with, curiously, two officials watching over the event. Then we are told that it has some connection with the major Sumerian god Enlil. This is certainly some transfer within the official; bureaucracy, which was very prevalent under this dynasty.
Meat was a rare commodity in Sumer, since there was little pasture for much of the year, so fish provided most protein for the human diet. Whatever the theological assumptions of the wording here, it is certain that humans eventually consumed all the foods listed.