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Ancient Texts at FSU Libraries

Cuneiform Tablet 7, Front View

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.

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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.

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.

Writing Cuneiform

Secondary Sources

External Resources

Special Collections & Archives

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