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PLEASE NOTE


The tablets shown in the photos in this section, placed here between 2006 and 2009, are in private collections in various countries and are not offered for sale.


Most, apart from just a few which are in my own collection, were sent to me many years ago to take better photographs to aid reading of them. I placed these photos  here  to illustrate the types of tablet which were on the market at this time when the cuneiform reading service was launched. We very much encourage collectors to have their tablets read and to share them with academic resources. I thought that by showing how very interesting such tablets can be, this would encourage collectors to have their tablets read.

 

 

9.16.075 (N)

 

An Old Akkadian tablet being concerned with numbers of sheep and goats for several named persons including Lugal-x, Ur-Alla, Ur-Inana, Lugal[?] ud-su3 and another , Ur-[?]

 

45mm x 40mm

 




9.16.058

An Old Akkadian tablet with somethng especially interesting about it: being an account of amounts of grain (?) for Lugalda, Lugalkan and....? It is dated only to "the 30th day".

What is interesting is that other signs not yet readable, were scratched onto the reverse after the tablet had partly dried.

44mm x 34mm

 




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These tablets below are comparatively  rare and extremely interesting ancient documents: messenger text tablets. These are not, as most shown in this section tablets  sent to me for readings, but I include this information here because it is so interesting!

  

A "messenger  text"  is a tablet which is a voucher for rations to be collected by specified people at way station during a journey.

 

State employees were entitled to receive provisions in the course of their travels on the job, and provisions were supplied at the way stations or rest houses of the Ur III state road system. These "messenger texts" apparently served as vouchers for the receipt of food and drink at such rest houses (information courtesy Miguel Civil). At the end of each month the vouchers were collected and put in a sack, which was sealed with a clay tag inscribed with the total quantities of provisions dispensed, summed up on the basis of the vouchers; the sack of tablets was sent back to central administration at the provincial capital, where records were stored.

Additionally other cuneiform tablets were kept upon which totals of various disbursments to various individuals were recorded.

 

These two below are from the Kelsey Museum. The third photo was shown the wrong way (!) up online and I've rotated it to show correctly.

 








More URIII cuneiform tablets