Description:

Ancient Near East, Mesopotamian, Old Babylonian Period, ca. 1900 to 1700 BCE. An impressive pair large clay tablets of rectangular forms boasting planar top and bottom ends, slightly rounded lateral sides, and convex faces. The tablets contain twenty-one and thirty-four lines of inscribed cuneiform characters, respectively, which are made by impressing a sharpened reed or stick into the still-wet clay before placing into a kiln. A rough translation of the smaller tablet concerns sheep and goats, and the larger tablet is untranslated. Cuneiform was generally a pictographic style of writing in its infancy, though it became a more abstract style of letter-based script around the 3rd millennium BCE. Lucite display stands for photography purposes only. Size: 2.25" W x 4.25" H (5.7 cm x 10.8 cm).

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection

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#137739

  • Condition: Larger tablet repaired from multiple large pieces with some restoration and light adhesive residue along break lines. Both tablets have minor nicks on faces and around peripheries, with fading to some inscribed cuneiform characters, and some stable hairline fissures. Nice earthen deposits throughout.

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January 10, 2019 7:00 AM MST
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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