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Browse Content (p. 1600)
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Proto-Elamite Tablets
The so-called proto-Elamite script is still undeciphered. The influence of contemporary Mesopotamian writing and sealing is clear, however. From Susa, Iran. Circa 3000-2800 BCE. Lent by the Musee de Louvre. It is currently...
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Mesopotamian Beer Rations Tablet
The temples issued workers with daily rations of barley beer, the staple drink of Mesopotamia. The tablet was impressed with five different types of numerical symbol. From Mesopotamia, Iraq. Late Uruk Period, 3100-3000...
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Bread Rations from Mesopotamia
In this food issue list, "rations" is written by combining a human head a bowl (a triangular object in front of the head). This combination, in later Sumerian texts, means "to eat". The triangular object was the regular...
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Mesopotamian Record of Barley
On this clay tablet, barley appears 4 times, depicted as a single stalk with ears at the top. Emmer wheat is different from barley, by writing numbers with extra strokes. Three different types of numerical symbol were...
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List of Place Names from Jemdet Nasr
Apprentice scribes learned the writing system through lists of related signs, like this one dealing with place names. The tablet was partially repaired from fragments; there 3 columns of inscriptions on either...
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Distribution of Barley Rations Tablet from Girsu
Adult workers received standard rations of 30 to 40 pints of barley per month while children received 20; the barley was distributed as rations to about 200 workmen and their children. This scribe was...
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Summary Account of Silver for the Governor
This almost square-shaped clay tablet records a Sumerian account of silver and other commodities. There are 8 columns of inscriptions; by this stage, the reed strokes are fully wedge-shaped and the writing...
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The Blau Monuments
These 2 unusual green schist stone tablets seem to belong together and record a land sale; it appears that there was a transaction, in which land was exchanged for various goods, with the carved figures representing the individuals...
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A 5-day Ration List Tablet from Jemdet Nasr
On this clay tablet, the lines are read from left to right and the day numbers appear at the left side (days 1-5). Several different types of rations were issued, possibly bread. Each line mentions the name...
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Flood Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh
This is the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The cuneiform text on this tablet is startlingly similar to the Biblical story of Noah and his ark in the Book of Genesis. When George Smith, an assistant in the...
