1983.105: Cuneiform Tablet: Old Assyrian Text

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1983.105

Title

Cuneiform Tablet: Old Assyrian Text

Classification

Tablets

Work Type

tablet

Date

c.1900-1750 BCE

Period

Bronze Age, Middle

Culture

Assyrian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/289669

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Clay

Technique

Impressed

Dimensions

2.6 x 4 x 1.3 cm (1 x 1 9/16 x 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Nanette Rodney Kelekian, New York, formerly in the possession of her father Charles Dikran Kelekian; gift to Fogg Art Museum, 1983.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Nanette B. Rodney

Accession Year

1983

Object Number

1983.105

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

Small rectangular clay tablet with cuneiform writing. The tablet is inscribed with ruled lines of text written in the Old Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language. Tablet is whole with 4 lines of text on obverse, 1 on lower edge and 1 on reverse. The rest of tablet is uninscribed and there are no seal impressions. The tablet probably comes from the trading colony (karum) by the mound of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kaiseri in Cappadocia (central Anatolia).

The text is very short and records the writer of the tablet (line 5: "I gave") entrusting 7 shekels of second-quality silver, presumably for transport.

IMAGE: Top row, first on left.

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/08/2020; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/02/2022; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/02/2023 - 12/30/2023

Verification Level