A journey to search my soul

This is a blog of my personal collections. The purpose of this blog is to educate myself and public in regards to antiquities especially related to religion and calligraphy. I welcome everyone to input their feedback in this blog which they think would be helpful. I do not watermark the photos in this blog so everyone is free to use them as long as they are not used for illegal and unethical reasons. I appreciate if you could notify me if you plan to use any of the photos here. Enjoy browsing!!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Ancient Artifact Review 9 : Antique Akkadian Clay Tablet ( 2350-2150BC)



This is a genuine ancient clay tablet with old Akkadian inscription from 2350-2150BC. I purchased this item from a reputed seller of an auction about 10 years ago.
Besides Egypt, Mesopotamia also adopted cuneiform writing in their literary system.
When I purchased this item, it was in a good condition. However due to the weather where this item was stored, some of the fragments were chipped off. I have lost the document in regards to the content of this inscription, however I still remember that it was regarding the prayer for constructing a building or so.
The front side is full of incused inscription in old akkadian language whereas the back is blank.
Dimension is 120mm x 60mmx30mm

Below is an excerpt I quoted from Wikipedia in regards to this clay tablet tradition :


"In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ṭuppu(m) 𒁾[1]) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.
Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus often made of reed (reed pen). Once written upon, many tablets were dried in the sun or air, remaining fragile. Later, these unfired clay tablets could be soaked in water and recycled into new clean tablets. Other tablets, once written, were grilled in a kennal or fired in kilns (or inadvertently, when buildings were burnt down by accident or during conflict) making them hard and durable. Collections of these clay documents made up the very first archives. They were at the root of first libraries. Tens of thousands of written tablets, including many fragments, have been found in the Middle East.[2][3]
In the Minoan/Mycenaean civilizations, writing has not been observed for any use other than accounting. Tablets serving as labels, with the impression of the side of a wicker basket on the back, and tablets showing yearly summaries, suggest a sophisticated accounting system. In this cultural region the tablets were never fired deliberately, as the clay was recycled on an annual basis. However, some of the tablets were "fired" as a result of uncontrolled fires in the buildings where they were stored. The rest are still tablets of unfired clay, and extremely fragile; some modern scholars are investigating the possibility of firing them now, as an aid to preservation."

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