Old Babylonian Clay Cuneiform Tablet

Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Old Babylonian period, ca. early 2nd millennium BCE. A hand-built clay tablet of a rectangular form containing 25 lines of cuneiform text inscribed across its slightly convex faces. Cuneiform is one of the world's oldest systems of structured writing and is impressed into the still-wet clay with a sharpened reed or stick just before being placed inside a kiln. Inscribed clay tablets like this example offer us a glimpse at what those in the past regarded as important or what messages they wished to communicate. Size: 2.1" W x 3.875" H (5.3 cm x 9.8 cm)

Provenance: East Coast collection, New York Gallery, New York City, New York, USA, acquired before 2010

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#137744
Condition Report: Repaired with restoration in areas of loss, and resurfacing with overpainting along new material and break lines. Encrustations and nicks to peripheries and faces, with minor softening to some cuneiform characters. Nice earthen deposits throughout.