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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1983.104
Title
Cuneiform Tablet: Old Assyrian Legal Text
Classification
Tablets
Work Type
tablet
Date
c. 1900-1750 BCE
Period
Bronze Age, Middle
Culture
Assyrian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/289228

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Clay
Technique
Impressed
Dimensions
3 x 2.8 x 1.2 cm (1 3/16 x 1 1/8 x 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Nanette Rodney Kelekian, New York, formerly in the possession of her father Charles Dikran Kelekian; gift to Fogg Art Museum, 1983.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
CDLI P393103

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Nanette B. Rodney
Accession Year
1983
Object Number
1983.104
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Originally square shaped pink clay tablet with cuneiform writing. The tablet is inscribed with ruled lines of text written in the Old Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language. About 3/4 of the tablet is preserved with the upper right corner missing. Tablet is inscribed on both sides and upper, lower and left edges. There are no seal impressions. The tablet probably comes from the trading colony (karum) by the mound of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kaiseri in Cappadocia (central Anatolia).

A key part of the beginning of the text is missing, but the text records at least two separate transactions. The first (lines 1-8) concerns the payment by the writer of the tablet ("I paid") for something [broken] entrusted by Ikupi-[...] to Ishar-beli, the gardener, followed by the name of a witness. The second records the writer of the tablet giving 4 minas of antimony to Ilabrat-[...]. The remaining lines are likely the witnesses to this transaction.

IMAGE: Top row, middle tablet.

Publication History

  • Deena Ragavan, “Cuneiform Texts and Fragments in the Harvard Art Museum / Arthur M. Sackler Museum”, Cuneiform Digital Library Journal (2010), no. 6.8

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu