Skip Navigation

Cuneiform Tablet

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Several great civilizations, including the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian, arose in Mesopotamia, the land near and on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in modern Iraq. All three were heirs to a rich cultural tradition that reached back to the late Neolithic Period (circa 6500–5000 B.C.). The Sumerians, builders of some of the first great cities, were one of the first people to invent a system of writing. Most written documents that survive from ancient Iraq are in a script called cuneiform ("wedge-shaped"), a highly stylized version of picture-writing that began in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C.The Sumerians also furthered the use of the cylinder seal, a device for rolling a continuous impression in damp clay.

MEDIUM Terracotta
DATES ca. 2039 B.C.E.
DYNASTY Third Dynasty of Ur
PERIOD Ur III Period
DIMENSIONS 2 1/16 x 1 x 4 7/16 in. (5.2 x 2.6 x 11.3 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER 74.71.5
CREDIT LINE Gift of Mrs. Louis Glover in memory of Charles T. Thurman
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Cuneiform Tablet, ca. 2039 B.C.E. Terracotta, 2 1/16 x 1 x 4 7/16 in. (5.2 x 2.6 x 11.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Louis Glover in memory of Charles T. Thurman, 74.71.5. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.74.71.5_kevorkian_03_09.jpg)
IMAGE installation, Kevorkian Gallery Installation (2003-2009), CUR.74.71.5_kevorkian_03_09.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
 <em>Cuneiform Tablet</em>, ca. 2039 B.C.E. Terracotta, 2 1/16 x 1 x 4 7/16 in. (5.2 x 2.6 x 11.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Louis Glover in memory of Charles T. Thurman, 74.71.5. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.74.71.5_kevorkian_03_09.jpg)