Sumerian Cuneiform (3 results)
More imagesPublished by Umma [Tel Jokha, Iraq], 2040 BCE. 2040
- Manuscript
Seller: Antiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH, Vienna, A, AustriaAntiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used
US$ 11,146.60
US$ 34.17 shippingShips from Austria to U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Clay tablet (47 x 40 mm). Sumerian Cuneiform, Ur III period. A Sumerian clay tablet bearing cuneiform characters and figures from a seal, including one of a man fighting a large animal, probably a visual invocation of a mythological scene. It is dated to the seventh year of King Amar-Suen, the son of the great king Shulgi of the… Ur III dynasty. - In thin, clearly formed cuneiform characters, the tablet records arrears under the Bala system of taxation and bears the impression of two seals: one side depicts a man fighting with a large quadruped standing on its hind legs, while the other shows six smaller human figures who appear to be helping in the battle. The differential in size suggests that the man fighting with the beast is a king, a legendary hero, or both. Other seals from the time of Amar-Suen depict a man grappling with a bull in what appears to be a visual invocation of the fight of Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven (such as one preserved in the British Museum), which suggests that this motif is represented here as well. - Tales of the legendary king Gilgamesh (or Bilgames, as he was known in Sumerian) began to be written down in the Ur III period, and the Sumerian poems from this era ultimately provided the material for the consolidated Epic of Gilgamesh, compiled in Akkadian during the Old Babylonian period five centuries later. - In a Sumerian poem and in Tablet VI of the Epic, Gilgamesh fights the Bull of Heaven which had been sent by the Goddess Inanna (in Sumerian, or in Akkadian: Ishtar), which results in the death of his friend and companion, Enkidu. Written and visual references to tales of Gilgamesh, such as most likely the seal impression on this tablet, precede the fuller written accounts, demonstrating that they circulated orally at first. - The Ur III dynasty followed on from the demise of the Akkadian Empire which conquered Sumer under Sargon the Great. The period witnessed a renaissance of Sumerian culture, and the consolidation of the various Sumerian city-states of Mesopotamia under the kings of Ur. Major reforms took place under Shulgi (r. 2094-2046 BCE), particularly to the systems of taxation, administration and scribal practice. During his nearly half-century reign, Shulgi issued the world's first surviving body of laws, the so-called Code of Ur-Nammu, and took the divine title, declaring himself a god. Amar-Suen (r. 2046-2038) was his son, about whom little is known aside from the fact that he undertook a renovation of the temple of the god Enki. - Bala taxation, referenced here, was another innovation of Shulgi and consisted of demands for goods and labour from every person in a given province. A different province was selected every month, to allow for a constant supply of goods and labour for the royal coffers without placing unsustainable burdens on any one region. - This tablet was formerly the property of Edgar J. Banks, an American antiquarian, who collected hundreds of examples of cuneiform tablets during his tenure as U.S. consul in the Ottoman Empire during the early years of the twentieth century. Banks has been suggested as one of the historical figures that helped inspire the fictional character of Indiana Jones. It was later owned by John Harvey Kellogg, of Corn Flakes fame. - A beautiful example of Neo-Sumerian culture, both testifying to administrative sophistication and hinting at a flourishing oral tradition. - Surfaces worn, some loss to detail of the figures but contours still clearly recognisable. Some discoloration and very minor chips and cracks to surface, but the neatly written cuneiform characters are clear and visible. - 1) Edgar J. Banks (1866-1945). 2) John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) and his descendants. - Cf. CDLI Seals 007552 (British Museum 103321).
More imagesPublished by Larsa, Sumer, 1808 BCE. 1808
- Manuscript
Seller: Antiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH, Vienna, A, AustriaAntiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used
US$ 9,973.27
US$ 34.17 shippingShips from Austria to U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Clay tablet (46 x 67 mm) in Sumerian Cuneiform. 3 sides. Contract for a sale of land, previously an orchard, to be used as a silver mine. The transaction took place in the Sumerian kingdom of Larsa, the dominant of Mesopotamia at the time. It is dated to the reign of Rim-Sîn I, the area's final king before its conquest by Hammur…abi of Babylon. - The land is described as an orchard planted with palm, pomegranate and apple trees. The seller, Awiyatum, swears that neither he nor his descendants will make any claim on it in future to the purchaser, Abum-il(um), who intends it for a silver mine. Six witnesses attest to the sale, and the date is given as being in the first month of the 14th year of the reign of King Rim-Sîn I of Larsa (1822-1763 BCE), thus c. 1808 BCE. - The reference to Rim-Sîn not only allows us to date this transaction precisely but also to locate it in the Kingdom of Larsa, the most powerful of the Sumerian city-states immediately before the area's conquest by Babylon. At the point this document was issued, Rim-Sîn was approaching the height of his power, conquering several other cities in the subsequent years, culminating with sacking Uruk in 1801 and seizing Isin, Larsa's main rival for regional power, in 1792. He was in turn defeated by Hammurabi in 1764 BCE, and the area was incorporated into the First Babylonian Empire. - Cuneiform writing developed in the early third millennium BCE out of earlier pictograms which had come to take on syllabic value. It was used over the subsequent millennia for administrative and legal documents and for literary works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. Although first developed for Sumerian (the language used here), it was also used to write other languages of ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia, such as Akkadian, Elamite, Old Persian and Hittite. - A document of Sumerian society at a crucial turning-point as it was about to be subsumed into the Babylonian Empire. - Some wear, chipped at the bottom left, hairline crack to obverse (flat side). Some minor loss of text. Overall good and clean condition. - 1) In a London private collection since before 1988. 2) Latterly in a French private collection. - Cf. A. Podany, Weavers, Scribes and Kings (2022), 267-272.
More imagesPublished by Sumer, [c. 3000 BCE].
- Manuscript
Seller: Antiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH, Vienna, A, AustriaAntiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used
US$ 9,386.61
US$ 34.17 shippingShips from Austria to U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Clay tablet (47 x 78 mm). 2 sides. A well-preserved Sumerian clay tablet from the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100-2900 BCE), containing an example of the pictographic system that would eventually evolve into cuneiform, the earliest form of writing. At this early stage, the pictographs were still clearly representations of objects ra…ther than abstracted characters, giving the script a distinctive and elegant appearance compared to the cuneiform to which it would later give rise. - The dots on the left of the obverse represent numbers, in this case in a fourth-millennium numerical system specifically used for counting barley, with a total on the reverse next to pictogram apparently representing barley. The other pictograms on the obverse seem to relate to something other than the numbers. Prof. W. G. Lambert, Professor of Assyriology at the University of Birmingham and Fellow of the British Academy, who examined this tablet in the 1980s, described its contents as administrative and dated it to c. 3000 BCE. - The transition from pictograms to a syllabary was made possible by the characteristics of the Sumerian language, which contained a relatively high number of homonyms, so that, for example, the word for "reed" (gi) was identical to the word for "return". Thus the pictogram for a reed came also to mean "return", and from there to take on a syllabic value. As this process repeated itself and the signs became more abstracted, the proto-cuneiform pictograms evolved into cuneiform, the first syllabic writing system ever developed. This tablet represents Sumerian scribal practice on the threshold of this transformation, when the pictograms still bore a clear visual resemblance to the quantities they represented. - Jemdet Nasr artefacts first appeared on the market in the early 1900s and caused great excitement among scholars due to their preservation of the archaic proto-cuneiform script. The developments of Jemdet Nasr are shared by the preceding Uruk III and later Early Dynastic periods, but its material culture is still reckoned as distinctive enough to merit its own designation. - This tablet is listed in the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, and a transcription of the signs can be consulted on their website. It is documented as being in a London private collection since at least the 1980s, when it was examined by Prof. Lambert. Proto-cuneiform tablets are a relative rarity on the private market, particularly ones in such good condition, with only one auction listing on Rare Book Hub, from 2019. - A rare and beautiful example of a crucial moment in the history of script. - Pictograms neatly formed and cleary visible, minor discoloration to front bottom side, overall fine condition, an elegant artefact. - London private collection, examined in the 1980s by Prof. Wilfred George Lambert, Fellow of the British Academy and Professor of Assyriology at the University of Birmingham. A copy of his note is included. - CDLI: P519296. Leroy, Pandey and Tinney, Archaic Cuneiform Numerals (2023), 9-10 (System ); Cf. Englund and Grégoire, The Proto-Cuneiform Texts from Jemdet Nasr (1991-1993); Bauer, Englund and Krebernik, Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdynastische Zeit (1998); Podany, Weavers, Scribes and Kings (2022), 43-48.
