Clay Fired
circa 3500-3300 BCE
Iraq
Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Details
Culture/Civilisation
Ancient Mesopotamia
Theme
Writing
Subtheme
From Record Keeping to Writing
Display Location
Coomaraswamy Hall
Findspot
Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq
Measurements
7.5 x 5 x 1.9 cm
Accession Number
VAT 16773
Description
In Mesopotamia, wedge-shaped characters were scratched on soft clay with a pointed reed – the cuneiform script. The clay was then sun-dried or baked – a quick way of creating lasting records. Across West Asia, cuneiform was used for over 3,000 years to write many languages on clay, stone and papyrus. Writing often records stories that had been recited orally for centuries.
The tablet contains a word list with 58 terms for ‘pig’.
