Cuneiform Tablet
Cuneiform is a script, originally developed for writing the Sumerian language during the 3rd millennium BCE, consisting of characters impressed in clay with a wedge-shaped reed stylus. The name comes from the Latin word cuneus, or “wedge.” Generically speaking, cuneiform is any writing system that uses wedge-shaped symbols.
Originally a kind of crude picture-writing, cuneiform evolved into a true alphabet as characters were simplified and abstracted. Over time, the use of cuneiform spread throughout the ancient Near East, and was adapted for use with other languages. Cuneiform inscriptions were sometimes carved onto stone monuments, such as the famous Babylonian Stele of Hammurabi.
Ancient Sumerian cities such as Uruk, Nippur, and Ur compiled some of the world’s earliest known libraries and archives, recording information such as land ownership and tax records in cuneiform on thousands of clay tablets. These small, palm-sized rectangular tablets were inexpensive and easy to produce in quantity. When the clay was moist, it was easy to impress cuneiform characters onto their surfaces – and even to correct mistakes. But once a record was complete, it could be baked in the sun until hard, and became quite permanent and durable. Officials who stored and managed collections of cuneiform tablets were among the first “information professionals.” In time, even literary and religious works were also recorded on cuneiform tablets, along with more mundane records.
This replica cuneiform tablet was purchased from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, which owns the original object. The tablet, containing medical prescriptions, was among many discovered during excavations carried out by the University at the site of Nippur (in modern Iraq) during the late nineteenth century.
See MCAD Library's catalog record for this material.
Cuneiform Tablet
Cuneiform is a script, originally developed for writing the Sumerian language during the 3rd millennium BCE, consisting of characters impressed in clay with a wedge-shaped reed stylus. The name comes from the Latin word cuneus, or “wedge.” Generically speaking, cuneiform is any writing system that uses wedge-shaped symbols.
Originally a kind of crude picture-writing, cuneiform evolved into a true alphabet as characters were simplified and abstracted. Over time, the use of cuneiform spread throughout the ancient Near East, and was adapted for use with other languages. Cuneiform inscriptions were sometimes carved onto stone monuments, such as the famous Babylonian Stele of Hammurabi.
Ancient Sumerian cities such as Uruk, Nippur, and Ur compiled some of the world’s earliest known libraries and archives, recording information such as land ownership and tax records in cuneiform on thousands of clay tablets. These small, palm-sized rectangular tablets were inexpensive and easy to produce in quantity. When the clay was moist, it was easy to impress cuneiform characters onto their surfaces – and even to correct mistakes. But once a record was complete, it could be baked in the sun until hard, and became quite permanent and durable. Officials who stored and managed collections of cuneiform tablets were among the first “information professionals.” In time, even literary and religious works were also recorded on cuneiform tablets, along with more mundane records.
This replica cuneiform tablet was purchased from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, which owns the original object. The tablet, containing medical prescriptions, was among many discovered during excavations carried out by the University at the site of Nippur (in modern Iraq) during the late nineteenth century.
See MCAD Library's catalog record for this material.