**First Time At Auction**

Ancient Near East, Sumer (modern-day Iraq), ca. 4th to 3rd millennium BCE. A nice group of three ceramic cuneiform tablets, also known as biscuits, each inscribed on one side, with one also inscribed with two lines on the back. As Sumerian agriculture grew, farmers and traders realized they needed a recording system to track the movement of animals and goods. This led to the development of the first known writing system, cuneiform. The writing style - at first pictographic but later more abstract - was used on square clay tablets mainly to record agricultural transactions. Size of largest: 2.3" W x 3.15" H (5.8 cm x 8 cm)

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection

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#137755

The largest is repaired with some losses to the inscribed face as shown in the photographs. The second largest has been repaired from two pieces, but the repair is nearly seamless and difficult to see. The smallest is intact.