Research Guides: Ancient Texts at FSU Libraries: Cuneiform Tablets

Babylonian Cylinder Seal, Date: 1700 BCE, Excavated at Amlash, Mesopotamia.

Part of The History of the Written Word.

The Cuneiform Tablets Collection (MSS 2016-002) consists of twenty-five clay tablets with text in cuneiform script. The content of the tablets is primarily related to agriculture and commerce; they are essentially temple records and business documents dating from over 4000 years ago. The collection was sold to Florida State College for Women in 1922 by Edgar J. Banks.

Dates

The tablets range in date from 2350 to 1788 BCE. The collection contains nineteen tablets from the Third Dynasty of Ur, mostly from Umma; five from the Old Babylonian period, including two inscriptions of Sînkæšid; and one illegible neo-Babylonian tablet (Robson & Clark, 2009).

Language

Sumerian

Geographic source

Known geographical sources of the tablets include the Sumerian cities of Umma, Puzris-Dagan, Girsu, and Uruk.

Cuneiform Tablets Collection Finding Aid
Digital Copies of Cuneiform Tablets in the FSU Digital Library
Ancient Cuneiform Tablets Spend 100 Years at FSU
Illuminations Blog post about the acquisition of the cuneiform tablet collection

Cuneiform Translations
Cuneiform Translations from Clark, Kathleen & Robson, Eleanor, 2009. "The Cuneiform Tablet Collection of Florida State University," Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2009:2, 1-14.

Tablet & Seal

Special Collections & Archives has one of 12 editions of The History of the Written Word, a portfolio consisting of original leaves removed from rare books and manuscripts. A Babylonian clay tablet and cylinder seal with wax impression are the earliest examples of text included in the portfolio.

The History of the written word.
Call Number: Vault (Double Oversize) ; Z4 .H58
Publication Date: Washington, D.C, The Foliophiles, nd.
The set includes examples of early printed leaves, manuscript leaves, as well as a Babylonian clay tablet and cylinder seal, Egyptian papyri, etc. Each leaf is mounted on a black sheet of heavy paper.

The History of the Written Word
List of materials available within the specimen book "The History of the Written Word"
Digital Copies of Babylonian Cylinder Seal, Seal Impression, and Clay Tablet in the FSU Digital Library

Writing Cuneiform

Secondary Sources

Clark, Kathleen & Robson, Eleanor, 2009. "The Cuneiform Tablet Collection of Florida State University," Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2009:2, 1-14. http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2009/cdlj2009_002.html
Clark, Kathleen & Robson, Eleanor, 2008. “Ancient accounting in the modern mathematics classroom,” BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics 23, 129–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17498430802304008
- Online copy available to FSU Libraries Users via EBSCO

Front Tablet 7, Date: Ur III, Šu-Suen 1/I/22, Location: Puzriš-Dagan, Translation: An administrator receives small numbers of sheep and goats destined for various senior officials. http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_Tablet_07

External Resources

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI)
The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) represents the efforts of an international group of Assyriologists, museum curators and historians of science to make available through the internet the form and content of cuneiform inscriptions dating from the beginning of writing, ca. 3350 BC.