Search Results: Cuneiform

Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3500 BCE. It is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian...

Lexical lists are compilations of cuneiform signs and word readings written on clay tablets throughout Mesopotamia. From the late 4th millennium BCE up to the 1st century CE, scribal communities copied, modified, and passed on these cuneiform...

A relief of cuneiform writing from Assyria. Exhibited in the British Museum London.

This is the upper surface of the earring. Note how the cuneiform signs were carved and distributed and their distance from the center. The cuneiform text is read vertically, from the upper surface downwards on each segment, and it continues...

Occasionally, cuneiform text scribes encounter difficult or rare words. The list on this clay tablet explain such words. From the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (modern-day Ninawa Governorate, Iraq), northern Mesopotamia. Neo-Assyrian...

A stone ring of a well curb with cuneiform inscriptions which mention the name of the king Shu-Sin of Ur. Ur III, 2030 BCE. From southern Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The Pergamon Museum).

Carved stone cuneiform tablets in Sumerian. Left: Temple of Ningirsu, Girsu. Right: Temple of Nindara, Ur. Dating around 2141-2122 BCE.

The famed "Cuneiform of Arguishti," which celebrates his construction of the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BCE and his martial exploits in nearby regions. (Erebuni Historical and Archaeological Preserve, Yerevan, Armenia.)

A clay tablet with cuneiform from an Assyrian trading post, c. 1875-1840 BCE. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, L.A.).

The cuneiform text of this clay tablet orders men to go to Babylon for a court hearing. This letter from Hammurabi is addressed to an official named Sin-iddinam. Old Babylonian Period, reign of Hammurabi, 1792-1750 BCE. From Larsa, Southern...