Ancient Near East, Sumeria, Third Dynasty of Ur, ca. 2080 to 2030 BCE. A hand-built terracotta tablet of a rectangular form with twenty-one lines of Cuneiform text. The small tablet - or "biscuit" - has rounded lateral sides, a flat top and bottom, and slightly bulging faces. Cuneiform script is one of the oldest known writing systems in the world, made using a sharpened reed or stylus and either scratching or impressing wedge-shaped marks onto the still-wet clay just prior to kilning. Early cuneiform was a pictographic language, but in the 3rd millennium BCE it shifted to the more abstract form you see here. According to this item's previous Bonhams listing, the translation concerns the transportation and/or allocation of oxen. Lucite display stand for photography purposes only. Size: 1.375" W x 1.875" H (3.5 cm x 4.8 cm).

This item and three others hammered for GBP 1,500 ($1,976) at Bonhams, London, Knightsbridge Antiquities Auction (May 8, 2013, part of lot 145 [bottom left]): https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20667/lot/145/?category=grid&length=560&page=1

Provenance: private Houston, Texas, USA collection; ex-Bonhams, London, Knightsbridge Antiquities Auction (May 8, 2013, part of lot 145); ex-Joseph Klein collection, formed in New York, New York, USA between 1941 and 1980, thence by descent

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#132902

Surface wear and abrasions commensurate with age, small loss to one corner, minor nicks to faces and peripheries, and fading to inscribed cuneiform text. Light earthen deposits throughout.